Deontology

Deontology

what is deontology
1. deon= Greek for duty
2. 5 forms
  1. contractualism
  2. DCT
  3. Monistic
    1. coheres with one or more deontological principles
  4. right
  5. Duty
3. act in accordance with other duties and maxims
4. duties can be good/permitted/forbidden
5. action over consequence
right and wrong actions
1. cant predict whether an action is right or wrong prior to event- action over consequence
2. Thomas Nagel
  1. there are limits on how we treat others, expect to treated and our oblilgations however we're unable to say why
3. some take fundamentalist approaches and others argue that its rooted in judeo christian tradition
  1. Judeo is outdated and vague
4. Good action=good, wrong action=wrong
5. focuses too much on avoiding wrong, being obedient not moral
6. actions must come from an unquestionable source
Kant
1. 'man come of a age'
2. you have to have the correct motivation to fulfill a morally good action- some argue that it is our obligation to be moral
  1. in rare cases someone who has broken a moral law can still be moral- as they had the correct motivation
3. duties are absolute- ignore emotions
4. a good action can cause bad consequence- still moral
5. catergorical imperative= actions performed to achive a desired end
  1. 'you should'/'you outght'
6. hypothetical imperative=moral actions you should do
7. universability
  1. 3 maxims
    1. act as if you live in the kingdom of ends
    2. treat humans as ends in themselves
    3. the universal law
prima facie duties
1. W.D.Ross
2. disagrres with Kant:
  1. it is inchoerant to say we act out of motivation- it is incoherant/ we cant choose why we act only how
3. benefience, self improvement and treating people justly also important
4. we don't know its a prima facie duty unitl its happening
5. middle path
evaluation
1. strenghts
  1. humanitarian approach-everyone is equal and worthy
  2. justice is absolute
  3. proivdes objective guidelines
  4. motivation over consequence
2. weaknesses
  1. 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
  2. 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

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	Created by 07nstacey over 10 years ago