DEONTOLOGY

Etymology
• Deon – Greek for “duty”

• Logos – Greek for “science”

 Deontological Ethics

• Is a theory that place special emphasis on

the relationship between duty and morality
of human actions.

• An action is considered morally good

because of some characteristic of the
action itself, not because the product of
the action is good.
• Deontological Ethics holds that at least
some acts are morally obligatory
regardless of their consequences for
human welfare.
“Duty for duty’s sake.”
“Virtue is its own reward.”
“Let justice be done though the
heavens fall.
• Deontological ethics is also a normative
ethical theory that defines the morality of
an action as based on whether that action
itself is right or wrong under a series of
rules, rather than based on the
consequences of the action
• Deontological theories have been termed
formalistic, because their central principle
lies in the conformity of an action to some
rule or law.
 IMMANUEL KANT
• B. 22 April 1724, Konigsberg, Prussia
• D. 12 February, 1804, Konigsberg
• German philosopher
• One of the greatest philosophers of all
time
• A philosophical genius
• Kant was the first great philosopher to
define deontological principles.

• Kant held that nothing is good without

qualification except a good will, and a
good will is one that wills to act in accord
with the moral law and out of respect for
that law rather than out of natural
inclinations.
• Kant saw the moral law as a categorical
imperative, i.d., an unconditional
command – and believed that its content
should be established by human reason
alone.
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

“Act only on that maxim through which you

can at the same time will
That it should become a universal law.”
“So act that you treat humanity in your own
person and in the person of everyone else
always at the same time as an end
And never merely as means.”
 MAIN CONCEPTS
• 1. To act in the morally right way, people
must act from duty.

• 2. It was not the consequences of actions

that make them right or wrong but the
motives of the person who carries out the
action.
 HOW TO ACT IN A MORAL
WAY

• One must act purely from duty because

the highest GOOD must be good in itself
and good without qualification.
• Something is “good in itself” when it is
intrinsically good, and “good without
qualification”.

• Goods such as intelligence, perseverance

and pleasure are not intrinsically good or
good without qualification.
 What is the only good?

“Nothing in the world – indeed nothing even

beyond the world – can possibly be
conceived which could be called good
without qualification except a good will.”
 Good will and Act of willing

• The consequences of an act of willing

cannot be used to determine that the
person has a good will – good things may
come out from bad intentions and bad
things may come out from good intentions.
 How to have a Good Will?

• A person will have a “good will” when he

“acts out of respect for the moral law.”

• People “act out of respect for the moral

law” when they act in some way because
they have a duty to do so.
 THEREFORE
The only thing that is truly good in itself is a
GOOD WILL, and a good will is only good
when the willer chooses to do something
because it is that person’s duty, i.e. “out of
respect” for the law.

RESPECT is “the concept of a worth which

thwarts my self-love.”
 TRIAD OF CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVES
1. Act only on that maxim by which you can
also will that it would become a universal
law.

2. Act in such a way that you always treat

humanity, whether in hour own person or
in the person of any other, never simply
as a means, but always at the same time
as an end.
• 3. Every rational being must so act as if he
were through his maxim always a
legislating member in a universal kingdom
of ends.
end
 QUIZ
1. Explain Kant’s Deontological Ethics? (10
points)

2. What is the only good according to Kant?

How can it be determined? Explain. (10
points)

3. How does Kant define duty? Explain. (10

points)