Deontology and Kantian Ethics

7/28/2019 Deontology and Kantian Ethics

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Deontologyand KantianEthics


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Kants ethics

As we have already seen, Kants two mainconcerns were the starry heavens above and

the moral law within and how to reconcile thetwo

He divided his work into two; those having to dowith two kinds of human reason: practicalreason and pure reason. When considering hiswork on metaphysics and epistemology, wewere dealing with pure reason. When examininghis ethics, we will deal the practical aspect ofhuman reason


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Kant wanted to create an ethics that was:

a completely isolated metaphysic of moralswhich is not mixed with any theology or physicsor metaphysics

In his ethics he seeks to establish the a prioriprinciples by which we make moral

judgements, he wishes to establish thefundamental principle of action whichunderpins all decision-making


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Unlike Aristotle, Plato and Aquinas; Kant was notconcerned with some good for humans but with thefundamental principles that guide our actions

While Kant agreed with the likes of Aristotle and Aquinasthat morality should be based on rationality, he couldntagree with Aquinas in basing his ethics on natural theology

As we have said before, Kant believed that Godsexistence cannot be proven or disproved scientifically BUT

he did believe that Gods existence, like human freedom,was a postulate of practical reason

This means that even though God cant be proved,people should act as though God exists


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Why Deontology?

Deon comes from the Greek word for duty, inthis way Kants ethics is deontological, meaning

that it stresses duty or obligation The greatest task that human beings can achieve

is attaining good will. A good will is not goodbecause of the effects it accomplishes, but it isgood through willing alone

A good will is fostered by a human actingrationally and eliminating those inclinations anddesires which tend to undermine rationaldecision-making.


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Freedom

The development of the good willdepends upon one assumption: that

human beings are free. If we were notfree then we could not be moral agentsable to choose between right and wrongand talk of morality would be pointless.


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Two kinds of moral imperative

There are two kinds of moral imperativeaccording to Kant, the hypothetical and the

categorical A moral imperative is a command under which

human beings act

The hypothetical: hypothetical imperatives areimperatives with an if that are directed towardsa particular goal and have a particular motivefor example If I want my wife to love me, I haveto remember her birthday. These commands arearrived at with the exercise of pure reason


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Two kinds of moral imperatives

The categorical: By contrast, categoricalimperatives are not based on an if. (in other

words they are not conditional), they are notdirected towards an end and are motiveless

Moral duties are categorical because they shouldbe followed for their own sake only, not for any

other reason. Categorical imperatives are arrivedat through practical reason and they areunderstood as a basis for action


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Why should I do my duty?

For Kant, there is no answer to this question otherthan because it is your duty. Good should be

done for its sake only, a motive demeans the goodwill

While human beings are not fully rational, we canstrive to become so. Acting along with thedemands of reason is acting along with the

dictates of dutyA categorical imperative is one that excludes self-

interest and would be one that any fully rationalagent,(whether human or not)s would follow


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Separating inclinations andmotives from duty

It is not the action or the consequences of theaction which determine its goodness, but rather

the goodness of the intention, motive or reasonlying behind the action

For example: If a businessman is honest, this is notenough to classify him as good. If he is being

honest because it suits him, or because he feelslike it then he is not acting morally. Irrelevant of allthe good consequences that can arise from suchhonest action.


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What are moral commandsbased upon?

Many people would agree with Kant thatthe command thou shalt not kill is a

categorical imperative (thereforeuniversally applicable) but Kant believedthat even this basic imperative is basedupon more general rules

The three more general commands thatKant identifies are the following:


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1. Act as if the maxim of your action was to become

through your will a universal law of nature (Formula

of the Law of Nature/Universality)2. Act in such a way that you always treat humanity,

whether in your own person, or in the person of any

other, never simply as means but always at the

same time as an end (Formula of the End in Itself)

3. So act as if you were through your maxims, a law-

making member of a kingdom of ends (Formula of

the Kingdom of Ends)


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GodGod is largely peripheral for Kant although God is

needed to underwrite Kants trust in the fairness ofthe universe-particularly the idea that after death,

the virtuous and vice-ridden will be treatedappropriately.

In this way Kant largely reduces religion to ethics.To be holy is to be moral. Religion is only valuableas a way of helping people to lead a moral life.

Kant regarded philosophy as superior to theologybecause it did not make unsupported claimsbased on faith. Kant believed that religion had tooperate within the bounds of reason alone


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GodAccording to Kants standards, Jesus was the

perfect exemplar of the morally good life.

However Kant considered human beings andhuman reason to have moral autonomy. That is,human beings did not need to depend upon thewill of God to tell them what is morally right andwrong


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RevisionCould it ever be morally right, according to Kant,

to torture one person in order to get informationwhich would save the lives of a large group?

Describe the difference between a hypotheticaland a categorical imperative. On what groundsmight someone reject an imperative that wasclaimed to be categorical?

On Kants view, should the moral principles ofintelligent green spiders differ from the moralprinciples of human beings?

What place does God have in Kants philosophy?

Deontology and Kantian Ethics

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