Kant- Deontology

Kant- Deontology

1. Background

   • Strictly religious
   • Never travelled more than 100 miles
   • Sought a middle way between rationalism and empiricism
   • Deontology- based on duty, not love or compassion (not found in morality)

2. Duty

   • Acting morally= your duty=obey moral law
   • Cared little about outcomes
   • Not our duty to do things we are unable to do- Duty= realistic
   • 'Ought implies can'- morality= perscriptive
   • Duty leads to summum bomum. Need immorality & God BUT reject theological arguments
   • Fulfil our duty- act on opportunity, not be selective, when you can, do!

3. The Moral Law

   • Objective, know through reason
   • Moral rules exist- know without reference
   • Moral statements= a priori synthetic
   • Morals gained by reason not experience BUT may be right/ wrong
   • Rational beings determine to a prior synthetic laws because you can't move from is to ought

4. The Three principles

   • Categorical imperative
     • Universal
     • Experience gives hypothetical imperative- is/ought
     • Categorical imperative precedes experience
     • Certain actions are logically inconsistent and would make no sense as universal laws
     • Act as if maxim were to become universal law
   • Treat humans as ends not means
     • Rational beings are ends
     • Humans= precious and at centre of universe
     • Humans= autonomous with their own goals
     • Ends promote euqality
   • Kingdom of ends
     • Act as if everyone were treating eachother as ends
     • Moral principles= universal to all rational agents
     • Maxims e.g. I lie as others lie, make world intolerable
     • Act on rules where everyone treated the same= fair society

5. Evaluation

   • Strengths
     • Distinguishes between duty and preference
     • Humans given intrinsic worth
     • International law based on acts
     • Reliable system of rules- universal
   • Weakneses
     • Consequences may be sever it is better to break rule
     • Duties may conflict- Ross Prima Facie Duties
     • Maxims= tricky to apply, which maxim for which act
     • Different sense of morality

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