DEONTOLOGICAL

ETHICAL THEORY
CHAPTER 5
HISTORICAL ORIGIN
 Early beginning of human
civilization
• The word of the king
is the law
 Deontological
Greek word “dein” or “deon”
meaning
“To be obligated” or simply
“duty”
 KANTS’ MAJOR
CONTRIBUTION T O D E O N T O L O G I C A L
THEORY
 IMMANUEL
KANT
(1724-1804)

• Avid defender of
deontological theory
• Contributed as many
important and brilliant ideas
to the philosophical study of
ethics
 THE GOOD WILL
THE CORE OF KANT’S ETHICS
• Morality of an action lies on
the inner motive rather than
the external effects
• Kants’ ethics primarily based
on good will
• Duty must be done out of pure
reverence to the moral law
 DUTY OVER
INCLINATION
“A person is only acting morally
only when he suppresses
his feelings and inclinations
and does that
which he is obliged to do”
INCLINATION
means doing the things
that one’s feels like
doing, and thus no
obligation exists.
 EXAMPLE:
Helping your neighbor to
fix her flat tire
Three possible reasons of
helping:

Immoral Immoral Moral

EXPECTATION OF THE
PITY DUTY
REWARD
DUTY IS SUPERIOR TO
HAPPINESS
“Our duties cannot consist simply in
following rules that promote
pleasure and avoidance of pain
as the utilitarian’s claim,
since that would make right actions
depend
upon consequences,
on how well they satisfied our
desires”
 EXAMPLE:
LYING BREAKING PROMISES
THE CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE
THE UNIVERSALIZABILITY
PRINCIPLE
“Act only according to that maxim
by which you can
at the same time will that
it should become a universal law”
• Maxim is a personal
and subjective guiding
principle
• We must universalize
our moral judgement
THE PRINCIPLE OF
HUMANITY
(RESPECT FOR PERSONS)
• Also known as ’Principle of
Ends’
• Concerns respect for the
dignity of persons
• Rational beings are ends in
themselves
• Do not treat others as
means
AUTONOMY OF THE
WILL
(KINGDOM OF ENDS)
 “For without personal
autonomy,
Morality
becomes an impossibility”
 AUTONOMOUS WILL

The will becomes

autonomous when the
genuinely moral actions are
chosen:
 Freely
 Rationally
 By The Self
(Autonomously)
KINGDOM OF ENDS

It is a moral universe of
the moral beings in which:
 Respect For Intrinsic Worth
 Respect For Value Of All
Persons

is exercised by everyone.