Deontology

Question 1

Immanuel Kant

Answer 1

1724-1804
• post enlightenment
• sought ethical theory without dependence on God, a formula for ethical decision making
• Kantian ethics is prescriptive
• wrote ‘groundwork for the metaphysics of morals’, tried to establish real ethical duties and values over and against typical human desires (unlike Bentham’s hedonism)
• Kant was a rationalist, thinking he could find a rational and universal basis for ethics. He sought to demonstrate that being moral is rational

Question 2

Duty and Prescriptive Ethics

Answer 2

• Deontological is derived from Greek ‘deon’ or ‘duty’, deontological systems refer to moral duties
• contrast to consequentialist, deontology is concerned with the intrinsic properties of action whether they are good or bad in their own right
• Kant is most famous deontologist
• Kant thought our morals should not be influenced by feelings (inclination) but instead we should be concerned with fixed statements of duty
• absolutist

Question 3

Kant’s beliefs on humans

Answer 3

humans are…
• rational
• autonomous/self-directing
• moral
-he believed that humans seek and ultimate end or goal called the supreme good, the summum bonum- a state in which happiness and human virtues are united

“nature works in accordance with laws. Only a rational being has the faculty to act in accordance with the representation of laws…reason is required, the will is nothing other than practical reason”

Question 4

Kant and Summum Bonum

Answer 4

-Kant maintained that humans seek an ultimate end goal (summum bonum)
-not interested in arguments for God’s existence and his theory assumes there is a God Kant thought that reaching the summum Bonum must be guaranteed. he thought it reasonable to assume God to support the idea that we can reach the highest good
-Kant thought that he had found goodness in the idea of moral law

Question 5

Moral law

Answer 5

Moral Law is objective, real and binding.
-Moral statements are synthetic a priori (synthetic not true by definition)
• “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe… the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
• “a good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes… it is good through its willing alone- that is good in itself”
-we should not act morally out of love or compassion but because it is our duty to obey the moral law

Question 6

Categorical Imperatives

Answer 6

the basis of duty. The whole point of Ethics is that it is not based on our desires or circumstances. A moral law is a categorical imperative because there is no ‘if’ part in the command. In other words, duties are binding for their own sake.
Rejecting a true moral principle makes a logical mistake
• whenever we act we act on a maxim
• it may be difficult to work out what the maxim is given a moral action but it is always there
• moral actions are categorical imperatives but there is an underlying rule called THE moral imperative, the fundamental test of maxims, there are three ways to figure out the categorical imperative in 3 ways

“It has to do not with the matter of the action and what is to result from it, but with the form and the principle fro which it results; and what is essentially good about it consists in the disposition, whatever the result may be”

“the law contains no condition to which it is limited”

Question 7

Hypothetical Imperatives

Answer 7

instructions which have conditions attached to them
• e.g. if you want to be healthy, then exercise
• prescribes actions on the basis of hypothetical desired outcomes, would not be a moral decision

Question 8

Kant’s three ways of formulating the categorical imperative

Answer 8

1. The formula of the Law of Nature: For any maxim to be true, you must be able to allow that it could become a law for everyone.
2. The formula of the end in itself: Never treat people just as a means, but as a valuable end in themselves.
3. The formula of the Kingdom ends: Act as though you assume everone is following the moral law.

Question 9

The formula of the rule of nature (First formulation of the categorical imperative)

Answer 9

“Always act in such a way that you can will that the maxim behind your action can be willed as a universal law.”

Question 10

The formula of the end in itself

Answer 10

“Always act in such a way, whether in your own person or in the person of another, never simply as a means, but always as an end.”

“every other rational being also represents his existence in his way as consequent on the same rational ground as is valid for; thus it is at the same time an objective principle”

Does not rule out using people to a certain degree as a means to an end, just not merely as a means.

Question 11

The formula of the Kingdom ends

Answer 11

“So act as if you were through your maxims a law-making member of a kingdom of ends.”

Question 12

Freedom and accountability

Answer 12

• how can there be meaningful moral duties unless a person is first shown to be free
• Kant thought that it was crucial that human behaviour is not determined for we cannot be held accountable unless we can make choices

Question 13

Kant and Religion

Answer 13

• rejected all traditional arguments for the existence of God but his theory assumes immortality and God’s existence. The afterlife and God must exist to provide way of reaching the supreme good so for Kant morality led to God
• He thought that God could be discovered by observing how obligation dominates all our lives
• these were universal and were not invented and so must come from a Supreme Moral Authority who speaks through the human conscience
• Christians believe God is supreme moral authority (moral argument), although different cultures have different ideas of right and wrong

Question 14

Jesus and the Moral life

Answer 14

• Kant regarded Jesus as being ‘the Holy One’ and the perfect exemplar of a morally good life.
• Kant and Jesus would agree on promoting the dignity and worth of all but Jesus also focused on how we treat others and relate to the internal world, how we react with others, so….
• ….”what matters is how we are in relation to others and our inner world of intention, motive and attitude for it is in the inner world where we discover Truth” (Jenkins)

Question 15

Strenghts of Kant’s Deontology

Answer 15

• simple, clear and based on reason
• duty is part of human experience
• a clear distinction between duty and inclination, not just following feelings but rationality instead
• Categorical imperative gives rules that apply to everyone, commands respect for human life
• we cannot assume what is good for us is good for everyone
• aims to treat everyone fairly, whereas utilitarianism may let minorities suffer
• humans seen as rational high point of creation, and thus valuable. Means they cannot be enslaved or exploited (Basis of the Declaration of Human Rights). Recognise human ability to reason unlike NML
• equal treatment of individuals removes bias
• value of an action is in its intrinsic rightness so issues of teleological ethics are avoided
• people generally have similar ideas about morality, can be used by the non-religious

Question 16

Weaknesses of Kant’s Deontology

Answer 16

• abstract and not always easily applicable, says which actions are good but not in specific situations, can universal maxims apply to an infinite number of dilemmas
• Alasdair MacIntyre: universalisability principle can be used to justify anything
• Deontological or Teleological: idea of kingdom of ends seems teleological
• contradiction between freedom and duty
• duty usually comes with expectation of something in return
• cold and inhuman to place duty over feelings, excludes love and personal relations
• depends on God to explain the rationally ordered world, meaning atheists cannot accept the theory
• Philippa Foot: doesn’t help the situation of double effect
• no exceptions in using people as means to ends which severely restricts us: what if allowing one death would prevent 10,000 deaths?
• what is a person? (abortion, euthanasia etc)
• not everyone is capable of making rational decisions
• no consideration of consequences is surely dangerous

Question 17

W.D. Ross on Deontological Ethics

Answer 17

• acting out of motivation is incoherent because we cannot chose why we act, only how we act
• prima facie duties: those which may override other duties, including beneficence, self-improvement and treating people justly
  -These are: fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self-improvement and non-maleficence
• these are revealed only in the situation and require some judgement, not ranked in order of importance but are an amorphous list of things which make a difference in some way
• a conflict of prima facie duties requires deciding which is most important in the situation
• we can only come to moral knowledge through experience

we might say that the welfare of others is more important than telling the truth in the Benjamin Constant situation

Question 18

Evaluation of W.D. Ross on Deontological Ethics

Answer 18

• middle way between consequentialism and absolutist deontology
• lacks attention to the issue of rights
• we cannot tell in advance which duties are most important and all duties are open to subjective evaluation
• adds flexibility to deontology, allowing circumstantial factors to influence moral decisions
• graded form of deontology detracts from the force of the categorical imperative

Question 19

Thomas Nagel on Deontological Ethics

Answer 19

• contemporary philosopher, supports deontological ethics
• he has been influenced by Kant and has sought to show that deontology is still of relevance today
• his main work: The Possibility of Altruism
• in daily life
• “common moral intuition recognises several types of deontological reasons- limits on what one may do to people or how one may treat them”

Distinguishes between ‘agent-relative’ and ‘agent-neutral’ reasons for performing an action. Agent relative add value to the thing under ethical consideration whilst Agent neutral could apply to anyone, carrying value beyond our personal attachments. Can justify one saving one’s wife over a random stranger because of the personal attachment involved

Question 20

Peter Singer on Deontological Ethics

Answer 20

• Kant’s deontological ethics have recently been criticised by the famous moral philosopher Peter Singer
• Singer criticises Kant for removing the element of sympathy and emotion: “According to Kant, it is only when a person somehow loses ‘all sympathy with the fate of others’,so that the person is no longer moved by any inclinations, but acts for the sake of duty alone”
• Singer is a utilitarianism
• also argues the idea of duty for its own sake leads to a “closed system”in which people do not inquire into the reasons for our actions. He calls this dangerous.
• Without sympathy, the idea of duty can lead to ‘moral fanaticism’ - the elevation of a perceived duty above all consideration of humanity

Question 21

Phenomena and Noumena

Answer 21

Phenomena: the world we know through experience. Bound by causal determinism: we observe the world is contained within an order governed by certain laws.

Noumena: the world-in-itself which we can think about but not develop any knowledge of through experience. Contains the source of real free will that gives moral actions significance.

Question 22

Perfect and Imperfect Duties

Answer 22

Perfect Duties: pass the test of conceivability (first formulation) and the test of whether we would advocate them as maxims all rational beings should act on consistently.

Imperfect Duties: duties which one is only sparingly obligated towards observing and are based upon knowledge of the world itself

Perfect duties tend to be negative in nature whilst imperfect duties tend to be positive, perhaps suggesting that Kant’s theory is limited, not being able to develop positive instructions on how to behave

Question 23

Benjamin Constant

Answer 23

If a murderer came to one’s door and asked for the address of their next victim, one would be required to tell them where to go under Kant’s moral law. This seems unintuitive.

Kant’s responded that it is still right to tell the truth because one cannot predict the consequences of one’s actions.

Question 24

Hegel

Answer 24

Principle of non-contradiction does not give any positive moral guidance when dealing with dilemmas.

Kant’s theory is ultimately empty.

Question 25

Michael Stocker

Answer 25

Following Kant’s theory, we might end up visiting a friend in hospital, not out of friendship, but out of duty. Kant’s theory removes compassion from morality

Question 26

Deontology’s implications for Religion

Answer 26

During enlightenment, people were becoming more accepting of reason as its own source of moral authority.

For Kant, moral law is discoverable through reason alone, removing the need for the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount.

For many Christians, it cannot be the case that objective morality can exist without God.

Question 27

Deontology implications on morality

Answer 27

Margaret Eaton: second formulation (don’t use merely as a means) would prohibit scientific tests where participants aren’t aware of what’s going on

Consistent with Christian Golden Rule (“do onto others as you would have them do unto you”)