Kant- Deontology

Background
1. Strictly religious
2. Never travelled more than 100 miles
3. Sought a middle way between rationalism and empiricism
4. Deontology- based on duty, not love or compassion (not found in morality)
Duty
1. Acting morally= your duty=obey moral law
2. Cared little about outcomes
3. Not our duty to do things we are unable to do- Duty= realistic
4. 'Ought implies can'- morality= perscriptive
5. Duty leads to summum bomum. Need immorality & God BUT reject theological arguments
6. Fulfil our duty- act on opportunity, not be selective, when you can, do!
The Moral Law
1. Objective, know through reason
2. Moral rules exist- know without reference
3. Moral statements= a priori synthetic
4. Morals gained by reason not experience BUT may be right/ wrong
5. Rational beings determine to a prior synthetic laws because you can't move from is to ought
The Three principles
1. Categorical imperative
  1. Universal
  2. Experience gives hypothetical imperative- is/ought
  3. Categorical imperative precedes experience
  4. Certain actions are logically inconsistent and would make no sense as universal laws
  5. Act as if maxim were to become universal law
2. Treat humans as ends not means
  1. Rational beings are ends
  2. Humans= precious and at centre of universe
  3. Humans= autonomous with their own goals
  4. Ends promote euqality
3. Kingdom of ends
  1. Act as if everyone were treating eachother as ends
  2. Moral principles= universal to all rational agents
  3. Maxims e.g. I lie as others lie, make world intolerable
  4. Act on rules where everyone treated the same= fair society
Evaluation
1. Strengths
  1. Distinguishes between duty and preference
  2. Humans given intrinsic worth
  3. International law based on acts
  4. Reliable system of rules- universal
2. Weakneses
  1. Consequences may be sever it is better to break rule
  2. Duties may conflict- Ross Prima Facie Duties
  3. Maxims= tricky to apply, which maxim for which act
  4. Different sense of morality

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Kant- Deontology

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	Created by Sheree about 8 years ago