Deontological Ethics

DONTOLOGICAL ETHICS THEORY

Focuses on rights,
duties, obligations
and rules.

IMMANUEL KANT(1724-1804)

was a German philosopher who is widely considered to be a

central figure of modern philosophy.
Utilitarians hold that happiness is the only thing that is
always inherently good.
Kant sayas NOTHING..[can] be called good without
qualification except a good will.
Good will- in Kants Terminology it is the will of a person to
act solely according to a code of morality based purely in
reason.

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
Is

a rule that must always be followed by all

rational being.

Categorical

means absolute, unconditional,

and an end in its self.

Imperative

means command.

Laws

Universal law of nature- act only accordance to

maxims (principal) that could be adopted as universal
laws.

Principle of the end in itself- treat humans, both

yourself and others, always as ends in themselves
and never merely as a mean to an end.

ONLY IF THE PRINCIPLE

CAN BE MADE
UNIVERSAL IS THE ACT
MORALLY CORREECT.

The universal law of nature can be used to

construct a mathematical-like proof that a
maxim is not morally acceptable.

Example:
It is always morally acceptable to steal
anything that you want

1.

If its ok to steal, then we should not expect to have

any personal property.

2.

If there is no such thing as personal property, then

there is no such thing as stealing.

3.

Hence, the maxim is logically invalid; either there is

no such thing as stealing (so the maxim is invalid),
or stealing is wrong (so the maxim is invalid).

Scenario 1 of the Officer Schmidt case: if the

officer let Dolores off, what is the maxim by which
he makes the decision?

An officers primary job is to enforce the law.

If a police officer can overrule the law, then there is no law beyond
the opinions of police officers.

If there is no law, there is nothing to enforce and hence no

police(they would have nothing to do).

Hence the rule is invalid. Either police officer cannot overrule the
law, in which case the maxim is invalid, or there is no law to enforce
( and hence no officers to enforce it) and so the maxim is invalid.

SUMMARY

The only good is the goodwill.

Each act is to be evaluated as to whether it is consistent which good will.

Consistency with the good will is established by the categorical

imperative.

The categorical imperative has more than one formulation:

Universal law of nature- act only accordance to maxims (principal) that could
be adopted as universal laws.

Principle of the end in itself- treat humans, both yourself and others, always
as ends in themselves and never merely as a mean to an end.