Kants deontological ethics Flashcards
whats deontology
comes from the greek word ‘deon’ meaning duty, and claims that actions are right or wrong within themselves, not depending on their consequences.
whats good will
the only measure of if an action is good is if it’s performed out of good will, which is the source of all good, good without qualification and ensures when we’re acting, we’re only doing it for the sake of good and not any other motive. therefore its the only thing that’s intrinsically good
whats an example of good will
if you donate a kidney to save someones life because you expect praise and some kind of financial reward, this action has no moral worth as you’re acting out of selfishness and not for the sake of duty, but if you recognise your duty to save a life and act because of this duty, then that action does have moral worth regardless of the desired outcome
whats duty
deontology is the study of duty - we all have a duty to follow moral law which is summarised by the categorical imperative
whats a maxim
personal rule or general principle that underlies an action e.g i will read all books assigned to a class because i want to achieve in that class
whats the categorical imperative
kant’s term for the universalisable moral command that’s consistent with rationality and isnt based on desires
whats the first formulation of the categorical imperative
act only according to that maxim that you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law
whats the contradiction in conception
way to test if a maxim can be followed universally - a law leads to a contradiction in conception if it’s self-contradictory for everyone to follow it
whats an example of a maxim that cant be universalised
‘Its OK to steal’ if applied universally - you could take whatever you wanted whenever,but then the concept of ownership wouldnt exist because everyone would have the same rights to things as the owner did
-but if this concept doesnt exist, then stealing wouldnt be possible as you cant steal something if it doesnt belong to anyone in the first place
-so if its always okay to steal, then it wouldnt be possible to steal
-so the maxim ‘its ok to steal’ leads to a contradiction in conception when applied universally. therefore you have perfect duty not to follow it
whats the contradiction in will
when a maxim fails as a universal law because we cannot rationally will such a maxim in the world
whats an example of a contradiction in will
theres no contradiction in conception on the maxim ‘never help others in need’ as although a world like this may be unpleasant, its not self-contradictory. however there’s times when we’re in need for others help so we cant will ‘never help others in need’ as it contradicts our own desire to get help from others when we need it therefore we have an imperfect duty not to follow it
whats a perfect duty
duties we must always fulfill and have no choice over when or how e.g do not kill
whats an imperfect duty
duties which we have some choice of when we fulfill them and no specific person can demand we fulfill one towards them e.g develop ones talents
what is the difference between acting out of duty and acting in accordance with duty
acting out of duty- following a rule motivated by the intention to hold that rule
acting in accordance with duty - commit to the exterior of duty but not necessarily because the intention is in keeping with this.
whats the formulation of humanity
act in such a way that you always treat humanity, never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end