EthicsThe Basics

by John Mizzoni
CHAPTER SIX:
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Is it wrong to send e-mails to

people requesting them to use
their bank accounts so you can
access those accounts under
false pretenses?
Is it wrong to defraud others
in order to enrich oneself?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
In the Chinese philosophy of Confucius
(Kung fu-tzu), it is clear that acting
ethically out of motivation for
righteousness is better than being
motivated by benefit (good
consequences).
Therefore, Confucius was an early nonconsequentialist.
(551-479 BCE)

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Indian philosophy, in the
Bhagavad Gita,
is very clear on the importance
Of following ones duty. Krishna,
a Hindu god, tells the warrior
Arjuna that it is his duty to fight,
and that he should not concern
himself with consequences.
This is clearly deontological ethics.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Greek philosophy does not have much to
say about deontological ethics , even
though the word is derived from the Greek
word, deon, meaning duty. Plato suggests
a duty to be just (Republic)(VE?), and a
duty to obey laws (Crito) (SCE?).
The concept of acting out of duty, goes

back at least to the ancient Hebrews

relates to Divine Command

Theory.

and

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Divine Command Theory
is the idea that we have a duty to
obey God, and therefore a duty to do or
not do whatever
God has commanded us to do or not do.
Divine Command Theory is a moral theory,
and moral theology, but, strictly speaking,
it is not normative moral philosophy.

WHY NOT?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Divine Command Theory is not normative
moral philosophy, if philosophy is defined as
the systematic inquiry into the nature of
things (such as norms), based on logical
reasoning or rationality.
Following commands does not require
reason.
Divine Command Theory has been
variously categorized as moral
prescriptivism, as moral theology, and as
deontological ethics.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Deontological ethics is a tradition that, like
natural law ethics, is non-consequentialist.
Nonconsequential
ist ethics
Deont
ologica
l
ethics

Natur
al law
ethics

It was most importantly expressed by

Immanuel Kant.
WHO IS IMMANUEL KANT?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Immanuel Kant was an 18th century
German scholar, university professor,
scientist,
and philosopher.
Kant proposed a view of morality
that was based on duty.
(1724-1804)

Kant is regarded as the author of

deontological ethics.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Pietism was a form of Lutheran Christianity
that stressed religious devotion, humility,
and a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Although Kant was himself a Pietist, he tried
to develop his philosophy (and ethics)
without any reference to religion.
Kant may have been influenced by Pietism
in his view of man and his view of the
world, but he never refers to his religious
background in his philosophical writings.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
DUTY
A duty is something one is required to do. It is
an obligation, a responsibility.
We may have a variety of duties to others:

employers and employees

parents and children

citizens and government officials

God (?)

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR DUTIES?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
DUTY
Duties may be of different kinds:

positive and negative duties

duties to self and duties to others

direct duties and indirect duties

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR DUTIES?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DUTIES
Positive duties specify what SHOULD
be done:
You ought to X!
e.g., Honor your father and
mother!
Negative duties specify what
SHOULD NOT be done:
You ought NOT to X!

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
DUTIES TO SELF AND DUTIES TO
In duties to self,
the agent and
OTHERS
the patient are the same:
e.g., Do not take your own
life!
Develop your
talents!

In duties to others, the agent

and the patient(s) are different:

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
DIRECT DUTIES AND INDIRECT
DUTIES
A direct duty is a duty we have
toward a person:
e.g. Do not take your own life!
Do not take the lives of
other (humans)!
An indirect duty is a duty we have to
a pseudo-person:
e.g. Do not take the lives of

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
What are my duties, according to
reason?

A duty to preserve reason.

A duty to preserve truth.
This duty is necessary to preserve reason.

A duty to preserve life.

This duty is necessary to preserve my reason.

A duty to preserve freedom.

This duty is necessary to preserve reason and the inquiry
after truth.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
IMPERATIVES
An imperative is a command to
act. It is prescriptive.
There are two kinds of imperatives:
1. HYPOTHETICAL imperatives
2. CATEGORICAL imperatives
SO, WHAT IS A HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVE?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVES
Are commands that are not absolute, but
conditional, and premised on ones desires.
The form of a hypothetical imperative is:
If you want Y, you ought to X.
(Y = goal/consequence/end; X = means)
An example of a hypothetical imperative is:
If you want to pass this test, you ought to
study.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES
Are absolute and unconditional moral commands.
The form of a categorical imperative is:

You ought to X.
(X = END-IN-ITSELF, without regards to MEANS or other ENDS)

An example of a categorical imperative is: You

ought to study [because you are a student].

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Kant thought that moral judgments
were categorical imperatives, or
applications of one ultimate
categorical imperative.

SO, WHAT IS THIS ONE CATEGORICAL

IMPERATIVE?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE (1)
(The Principle of Autonomy)
Act in regard to all persons in ways
that treat them as ends in themselves
and never simply as means to
accomplish the ends of others.
THIS IS THE BASIS FOR THE ETHICS OF RESPECT AND
A BASIS FOR THE ETHICS OF RIGHTS

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE (2)
(The Principle of Universality)
Act only from those personal rules that
you can at the same time will to be
universal moral laws.
THIS IS A BASIS FOR THE ETHICS OF RIGHTS
WHAT ABOUT RIGHTS AND DUTIES?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
If we act on the assumption that we
have rights because of the principle
of autonomy/respect, we must act on
the assumption that others have
rights as well, because of the
principle of universality.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
If we have a duty to protect
our rights, we have a duty to
protect the rights of others as
well.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
Rights correlate with duties.

If I have a right, others have the duties

to respect that right.

If I have a right by virtue of my

autonomy, then others have rights as well,
and I have a duty to respect those rights.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
While all rights correlate with duties,
Duties

Rights

not all duties correlate with rights.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
A legitimate right is a claim that
can limit the freedom of others.
Some duties are determined by special
roles that we have, and so do not
directly correlate with others rights.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Is Deontological Ethics Relativist or
Universalist?
It is obvious that Kantian deontological
ethics rejects ethical relativism, since one
of Kants formulations of the categorical
imperative is the Principle of
Universality. We all have duties, just
because of our common humanity.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
What Is the Origin of Ethics, According
to Deontological Ethics (DE)?
Deontological ethicists might view ethical standards
as originating in Gods commands.
However, Kant tried to base the origin of all his
philosophical thinking, including his ethics, on the
individual freedom of rational human beings,
without referring to God.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
What is human nature, according to
DE?
Kants answer to the problem of human nature is
not that human beings are made in Gods image
and likeness, but that human beings have
rationality, and that through this rationality they
have freedom. Freedom to choose is the basis of
morality.
Kant therefore disagrees with Humes Theory
of Moral Sentiments, and with utilitarianism.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
What is human nature,
according to DE?
According to Kant, people have duties
because they have been commanded
by reasonnot the reason of others,
but their own human reason.
HOW DO WE KNOW THESE DUTIES?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Kant did not regard animals
with the same ethical regard as
the Utilitarians did.
Experiments with dogs

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of
Deontological Ethics:
Kantian ethics holds that animals
exist for the sake of man because
they are not autonomous, or
rational. He holds that we do not
have any direct ethical obligations
toward animals, but may use them
as a means to our end (e.g., for food).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of
Deontological Ethics:
However, Kant did write that we
may have indirect duties toward
animals. In his thinking, we ought
to be kind to animals out of
respect for humanity. For Kant,
non-human animals had no rights.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some modern deontological
ethicists such as Tom Regan
argue that we must consider
the rights of nonhuman animals.
He argues that we should define
autonomy in terms of the ability

(1938-

present )

to initiate action to satisfy preferences. This

definition includes some animals as well as
humans.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of Deontological
Ethics:

In the matter of suicide, according to

Kant, we all have a negative duty
not to commit suicide, because such
an act contradicts the concept of
human rationality and freedom
(autonomy). It is choosing not to
choose, not to live.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of Deontological
Ethics:

In the matter of punishment, Kant

despised the Utilitarians who said that
punishment should be rehabilitative.
He believed that rehabilitation was
using people as a means to an end,
because we are trying to mold people
into what we think they should be.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of Deontological
Ethics:

Kant was a retributivist. He believed

that the punishment should fit the
crime. He thought that people who
committed crimes had ceded their
rationality, and were therefore less
than human, and could so be
treated.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Some Applications of
Deontological Ethics:
Kant supported capital punishment for
capital crimes.
Rational beings who freely choose their
conduct are responsible for their actions.
We are treating them in accordance with
their own application of the Categorical
Imperative. His own evil deed draws the
punishment on himself.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Reflections on the Lex Talionis:

An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth (Ex 21:23-27, NAB) (Code
of Hammurabi).

Prescription or Restriction?
At least this much, or no more than this much?

Retribution or Reciprocity?
Should I punish you, or simply do to you what
you did to another, so you can learn the
consequences?

Judaism, Christianity, Islam

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

More reflections on the Lex Talionis:

An eye for an eye [the law of
retaliation] only succeeds in making
the whole world blind (attributed to
Gandhi).
The old law of an eye for an eye
leaves everyone blind. It is immoral
because it seeks to humiliate the opponent
rather than win his understanding...
(Coretta Scott King, The Words of Martin
Luther King, Jr., p.73).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Advantages of Deontological
Ethics:
While divine command theory and
natural law ethics are top-down,
Kantian ethics is bottom-up. Like
social contract ethics, it has its
origin in human beings, in their
autonomy, their freedom and
reason.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Disadvantages of Deontological
Ethics:
One important argument against
Kants absolute moral rules has to
do with the possibility of resolving
cases of moral conflict.
E.g., the Case of the Inquiring Murderer
presents a conflict between the duty to
preserve life and the duty to preserve truth .

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Disadvantages of Deontological
Ethics :
Another important argument
against Kants absolute moral
rules has to do with the difficulty
of doing ones duty.
Doing ones duty could result in the loss of
ones happiness, property, and the lives of
ones loved ones, as well as ones own life .

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Other Disadvantages of DE:

Kantian ethics is over-intellectuallized.

Kantian ethics ignores feelings in favor
of reason.
Kantian ethics is overly masculine in its
orientation.
What about schizophrenics, and persons
in comas, or with low cognitive ability?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
The Advantages and
Disadvantages of
Deontological Ethics :
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY MORE
EXAMPLES?

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Deontological Ethics in Biblical
Times
On the way of duty I walk, along the
paths of justice (Proverbs 8:20, NAB)
When you have done all you have been
commanded, say, We are unprofitable
servants; we have done what we were
obliged to do.
(Luke 17:10, NAB).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Deontological Ethics in American

History
While we are zealously performing the duties
of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly
ought not to be inattentive to the higher
duties of religion (George Washington).
...every man is under the natural duty of
contributing to the necessities of the
society (Thomas Jefferson).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Deontological Ethics in American

History
Let us have faith that right makes might; and
in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our
duty as we understand it (Abraham
Lincoln).
Duty is the sublimest word in our language.
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do
more. You should never wish to do less
(General Robert E. Lee).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Deontological Ethics in
American History
Duty is ours; consequences are Gods
(attributed to General Thomas
Stonewall Jackson, earlier used (1856)
by abolitionist John Jay).
We have the duty to protect the life of the
unborn child (Ronald Reagan).

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Deontological Ethics in Popular

Culture:
Captain Lucky Jack Aubrey, in the
movie Master and Commander: The Far
Side of the World, tells the ships Irish
surgeon,
I will grind whatever
grist [grain] the mill requires in order to
fulfill my dutywhatever the cost.

EthicsThe Basics
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

Deontological Ethics in Popular

Culture:

In Star Trek: Insurrection, Captain Picard

argues with Admiral Dougherty that some
actions are wrong, regardless of the
numbers involved: How many people does it take,
Admiral, before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A
million? How many people does it take, Admiral?

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, there are

several episodes that deal with duty. For
example, The first duty is to the truth.