Deontology

Deontology

1. what is deontology

   • deon= Greek for duty
   • 5 forms
     • contractualism
     • DCT
     • Monistic
       • coheres with one or more deontological principles
     • right
     • Duty
   • act in accordance with other duties and maxims
   • duties can be good/permitted/forbidden
   • action over consequence

2. right and wrong actions

   • cant predict whether an action is right or wrong prior to event- action over consequence
   • Thomas Nagel
     • there are limits on how we treat others, expect to treated and our oblilgations however we're unable to say why
   • some take fundamentalist approaches and others argue that its rooted in judeo christian tradition
     • Judeo is outdated and vague
   • Good action=good, wrong action=wrong
   • focuses too much on avoiding wrong, being obedient not moral
   • actions must come from an unquestionable source

3. Kant

   • 'man come of a age'
   • you have to have the correct motivation to fulfill a morally good action- some argue that it is our obligation to be moral
     • in rare cases someone who has broken a moral law can still be moral- as they had the correct motivation
   • duties are absolute- ignore emotions
   • a good action can cause bad consequence- still moral
   • catergorical imperative= actions performed to achive a desired end
     • 'you should'/'you outght'
   • hypothetical imperative=moral actions you should do
   • universability
     • 3 maxims
       • act as if you live in the kingdom of ends
       • treat humans as ends in themselves
       • the universal law

4. prima facie duties

   • W.D.Ross
   • disagrres with Kant:
     • it is inchoerant to say we act out of motivation- it is incoherant/ we cant choose why we act only how
   • benefience, self improvement and treating people justly also important
   • we don't know its a prima facie duty unitl its happening
   • middle path

5. evaluation

   • strenghts
     • humanitarian approach-everyone is equal and worthy
     • justice is absolute
     • proivdes objective guidelines
     • motivation over consequence
   • weaknesses
     • moral obligations appear arbitrary - decision making is influenced by many facctors and it is questionable whether duty is as good as a motive as suggested
     • when taken to an extreme the principle is absurd. not all things if universalised would be moral. e.g. all girls have to wear pink ontuesday'- not moral