What the arguments of immanuel kant about martyrdom?

Answer 1

Kant argues that, "He who contemplates suicide should ask himself whether his action can be consistent with the idea of humanity as an end in itself." Suicide then uses oneself (a human) as a means to an end (death, end of pain), so is inherently immoral. Martyrdom is in one sense killing oneself so seems too violate Kant's strong condemnation of suicide. However, Kant also recognizes 'imperfect duties" which among others requires us to help and support others in our community. Martyrdom presumably is one expression, perhaps an extreme expression, of this duty to help others. Yet, the first first principle of not using humanity as an end in itself is a perfect duty. Kant holds that a perfect duty can never be replaced or usurped by an imperfect duty; hence, martyrdom is based on a moral miscalculation as one is doing just this move, seeing the duty to help others (through martyring oneself) as more important or pressing than using oneself as a means to an end (one's death). I haven't seen a passage where Kant directly speaks of martyrs, but he was a Christian and presumably accepted the occurrence of Christian martyrs as part of the important history of the church. Hence, this reconstruction of a view he seems to be committed to seems to be at odds with his religious faith. As far as I know he didn't address or perhaps even consider this conflict (if it is a conflict).