Deontology Flashcards
A) Essay outline
Introduction Origins Good Will Types of Imperative 3 Maxims Freedom Conclusion
A) Introduction
Enlightenment era
‘Deon’ duty- concerned with action and intention
Absolutist, realist, objectivist
Synthesise epistemology and empiricist views
A) Paragraph 1
Kant’s response to Hume’s belief that “reason is a slave to the passions”
Morality is only a matter of “pure practical reason” to give true freedom
Morality is within us- we all have a sense of moral duty
A) Paragraph 2
Only good will is intrinsically good, anything else can be turned to bad
Kant hence values good will
“Nothing [can] be called good without qualification except a good will”
A) Paragraph 3
Hypothetical Imperatives
-Factual relation between goal and how to achieve it
-Utilitarianism, maximum happiness, you shouldn’t murder
Categorical Imperatives
-Unconditional command
-Morality has nothing to do with opinion, or individual circumstances
-We should do our duty without considering personal gain because we possess rational skills
A) Paragraph 4
Universability irrespective of circumstances- always able to “will that it should become a universal law”
Don’t use people for your own end “treat humanity as an end and never merely as a means to an end”
Act as “a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends”
A) Paragraph 5
Using free will to choose to do duty
Inspired America’s Democracy- Path of Independent Thought
Summum bonum- virtue and happiness intersect in the after life
B) Essay Outline
Reliable and constant vs external moral authorities
Absolute and is/ought
Clear and rational vs Inflexible
Human rights vs difficulty forming maxims & consequences
Conclusion
B) Paragraph 1
Reliable
System works, everyone knows their obligations
Value of unchanging moral absolutes
Hinman: Strong as individual is fully committed to doing duty
Rejects external moral authorities- what about God?
B) Paragraph 2
Ross: individual duties cannot be absolute
Hume: is vs ought “this change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last consequence”
B) Paragraph 3
Provides objective guidelines w/o calculating all outcomes
Pettit: a strict objective principle for actions which disregards any action which conflicts with another’s right to autonomous moral freedom
Inflexible- unique situations?
“Perhaps the Kantian self is nothing but the sublimation of a patriarchal, authoritarian fantasy” Blackburn, Ruling Passions
B) Paragraph 4
Humanitarian- human rights
HInman: impartially treats individuals as morally valuable beings
Ought to be seen “not as a morality of austere command but an ethic of mutual respect and self esteem” Rawls, A Theory of Justice
Difficulty forming maxims as humans are not united by reason
“No action can be virtuous or morally good, unless there be in human nature some motive to produce it, distinct from the sense of morality” Hume
Hegel: inhumane, too abstract, duty is a debatable concept
B) Conclusion
“If I were ever to find a man who assured me that he really believed Kant’s metaphysical morals… then my incredulity and distrust of him as a human being could not be greater” Taylor
