Concept
Formula of Humanity
The Formula of Humanity is one of Immanuel Kant's formulations of the moral law: treat humanity, in your own person and in others, always as an end and never merely as a means. In Everything Is F*cked, Mark Manson uses it as the basis of maturity and of an ethics that does not depend on hope.
Kant accepts that we use one another as means all the time, as suppliers, colleagues or customers. The weight of the formula falls on the word merely. What it forbids is using someone in a way they could not agree to if they understood it: deceiving them, manipulating them, or discarding them once they stop being useful. Manson connects this to a picture of maturity. Children value what feels good, adolescents bargain, and adults keep principles for their own sake. Hope, in his view, is a bargain with the future; a principle works today without waiting for a return. Kant's ethics is far richer than one formula, and Manson uses it as a compass rather than a system. Its practical test at work is simple: would the other person consent to what we are doing if they saw our real reason for doing it?
A real-life example
A partner at a customs brokerage in Mersin asks herself this question before selling an extra service to a client. The client would not buy it if he knew his shipment did not need it. She drops the sale and explains why the service is unnecessary; the following year the same client brings two more of his companies to the firm.
How to use it
- 1Before a persuasive message, ask whether the other person would consent if they saw your real reason.
- 2Choose one principle to keep this week even if it brings nothing back.
- 3Treat yourself, too, as a person who deserves rest, not merely as a means to be pushed for results.