Information about Deontology

Ethics

Theoretical

Meta-ethics Normative Descriptive Consequentialism Deontology Virtue ethics Ethics of care Good and evil Morality

Applied

Bioethics Medical Engineering Environmental Human rights Animal rights Legal Media Business Marketing Religion War

Justice Value Right Duty Virtue Equality Freedom Trust Free will Consent

Key thinkers

Aristotle Confucius Aquinas Hume Kant Bentham Mill Kierkegaard Nietzsche Hare Rawls MacIntyre Singer Gilligan

Lists

List of ethics topics List of ethicists

This box:  •  • [ edit]

Deontological ethics or deontology (Greek: δέον (deon) meaning obligation or duty) is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions.^[1] It is sometimes described as "duty"- or "obligation"-based ethics, because deontologists believe that ethical rules "bind you to your duty".^[2] In contrast, consequentialist ethical theories hold that the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences.^[3] The term 'deontological' was first used in this way in 1930, in C.D. Broad's book, Five Types of Ethical Theory.^[4]

Deontological ethics

When C.D. Broad first used the term 'deontological' in the way that is relevant here, he contrasted the term with 'teleological', where 'teleological' theories are those that are concerned with outcomes or consequences. Broad's principle concern at the time was distinguishing the positions that different ethical theories took on the relationship between values and right action. He wrote:

'[Theories] which hold that there is some special connexion between [Moral Obligation and Moral Value]....might take the following forms. The concepts of obligation are fundamental and the concepts of value are definable in terms of them. Thus it might be held that the notion of fittingness is fundamental, and that "X is intrinsically good" means that it is fitting for every rational being to desire X. Such theories might be called Deontological. The concepts of value are fundamental, and the concepts of obligation are definable in terms of them. Such theories may be called Teleological. E.g., it might be held that "X is a right action" means that X is likely to produce at least as good consequences as any action open to the agent at the time. (Bold print not in original)^[5]

The term 'deontological', thus picked out the set of ethical theories that are based on the idea that an action's being right or wrong is basic, and whether a situation is good or bad depends on whether the action that brought it about was right or wrong. To illustrate, imagine that someone can bring it about that nobody in the world suffers from starvation. However, to do so they would have to act in a way that was morally wrong. Perhaps, they would have to kill everyone currently living on land that could not support agriculture. A deontologist would state that the way that the end to starvation was brought about would mean that the 'world without starvation' was a bad state of affairs.

A teleologist, on Broad's use of the term, explains the rightness of actions in terms of the goodness of the state of affairs that occurs because of that action. If some action genuinely brings about greater good in the world, then it is a right action, and this rightness is independent of the nature of the action or the intentions of the person carrying out the action. Broad points out that on this understanding of the distinction between 'deontological ethics' and 'teleological ethics', not all utilitarians are telelogists:

'Utilitarianism, in some of its forms, would be an example of [teleological ethics]. But Sidgwick, though a Utilitarian, definitely rejects the view that "right" means "conducive to good".'^[6]

The most famous deontological theory of ethics is that of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. However, the Divine Command Theory, also known as 'theological volunterism', is a form of deontological ethics, and a number of modern philosophers have also developed deontological ethical theories.^[7]

The Divine Command Theory

Main article: Divine Command Theory

The 'Divine Command Theory' is actually a cluster of related theories that state that an action is right if God has decreed that it is right.^[8]

Immanuel Kant

Main article: Kantian ethics

In his theory, Kant claimed that an action is morally wrong if it is inconsistent with the status of a person as a free and rational being, and that, conversely, acts that further the status of people as free and rational beings are morally right. Therefore, Kant claimed, we all have a duty to avoid the first type of act and perform the second type of act.

Kant believed that this duty was absolute. He drew a distinction between contingent duties, which need to be carried out only under certain empirical circumstances, and categorical duties, which always need to be carried out, because they are based on a priori reasoning about the general nature of things, and thus apply no matter what the circumstances are. Kant thought of the duty to promote human freedom and rationality as the only truly categorical duty. He called this duty the categorical imperative, and described it at great length in his writings. Of the five formulations of the categorical imperative Kant developed, the three most well-known and significant are:

• Act only according to that maxim by which you can also will that it would become a universal law.
• 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 a means, but always at the same time as an end.
• Act as though you were through your maxims a law-making member of a kingdom of ends.

W.D. Ross

Main article: W.D. Ross

W.D. Ross has been said to hold a position that is "representative of pluralistic deontology" ^[9] Ross argued that utilitarianism was an inadequate moral theory because it failed to appropriately account for primary moral concerns:

[Utilitarianism]seems to simplify unduly our relations to our fellows. It says, in effect, that the only morally significant relation in which my neighbours stand to me is that of being possible beneficiaries of my action. They do stand in this relation to me, and this relation is morally significant. But they may also stand to me in the relation of promisee to promisor, of creditor to debtor, of wife to husband, of fellow countryman to fellow countryman, and the like; and each of these relations is the foundation of a...duty....^[10]

Ross's pluralism is also apparent in this quote. He argues that there are seven right making features of moral action:^[11]

• Duty of beneficence: A duty to help other people (increase pleasure, improve character)
• Duty of non-maleficence: A duty to avoid harming other people.
• Duty of justice: A duty to ensure people get what they deserve.
• Duty of self-improvement: A duty to improve ourselves.
• Duty of reparation: A duty to recompense someone if you have acted wrongly towards them.
• Duty of gratitude: A duty to benefit people who have benefited us.
• Duty of promise-keeping: A duty to act according to explicit and implicit promises, including the implicit promise to tell the truth.

He called these prima facie duties, because when a person tries to decide how to act, each of these duties need to be taken into consideration when deciding which duty should be acted upon. When more than one of these 'duties' applies to a person in some situation, only one should be acted upon. Assume, for example, that I promise to watch a movie with a friend. I now have a prima facie duty to go with her to watch the movie. However, on my way to pick my friend up, I see a car accident. The person who was clearly in the wrong insists that it is the innocent person's fault. I now have a prima facie duty of justice to wait for the police to arrive at the accident and report what I saw. What is my duty? Ross would probably say that the duty of justice trumped the duty of promise-keeping in this instance. I can, after all, explain the situation to my friend, and make it up to her somehow. In another situation, however, the duty of promise-keeping may be more significant than the duty of justice.

Contemporary deontologists

Contemporary deontologists include Thomas Nagel and Frances Kamm.

Frances Kamm's 'Principle of Permissible Harm' is an effort to derive a deontological constraint which coheres with our considered case judgments while also relying heavily on Kant's Categorical Imperative.^[12] The Principle states that one may harm in order to save more if and only if the harm is an effect or an aspect of the greater good itself. This principle is meant to address what Kamm feels are most people's considered case judgments, many of which involve deontological intuitions. For instance, Kamm argues that we believe it would be impermissible to kill one person to harvest his organs in order to save the lives of five others. Yet, we think it is morally permissible to divert a runaway trolley that would otherwise kill five innocent and immobile people onto a side track where one innocent and immobile person will be killed. Kamm believes the Principle of Permissible Harm explains the moral difference between these and other cases, and more importantly expresses a constraint telling us exactly when we may not act to bring about good ends—such as in the organ harvesting case.

In 2007, Kamm published a book that presents new theory that incorporates aspects of her 'Principle of Permissible Harm', the 'Doctrine of Productive Purity'.^[13] Like the 'Principle of Permissible Harm', the 'Doctrine of Productive Purity' is an attempt to provide a deontological prescription for determining the circumstances in which people are permitted to act in a way that harms others.

Criticism

The most pressing difficulty for deontologist philosophers is justifying constraints. Robert Nozick famously points out what has become known as the paradox of deontology. If we are truly concerned about rights (such as the right not to be harmed in certain ways expressed by Kamm's Principle of Permissible Harm) then it seems logical we should seek to minimize violations of these rights. However, deontological constraints themselves prohibit such action. For example, consider a case where someone has maliciously sent a trolley hurtling towards five innocent and immobile people at the end of a track. The only way to stop the trolley and save the five is to throw one innocent bystander in front of the trolley. If the five are killed, this would constitute five violations of the PPH. If the one is thrown in the way, this constitutes one violation of the PPH. However, the Principle of Permissible Harm clearly rules out throwing one in front of the trolley. Hence the paradox. In order to respect the rights of the five, deontologists tell us we must respect the rights of the one.

Many Act or Case utilitarians offer critiques of deontology as well as Rule Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham, an early utilitarian philosopher, criticized deontology on the grounds that it was essentially a dressed-up version of popular morality, and that the unchanging principles that deontologists attribute to natural law or universal reason are really a matter of subjective opinion. John Stuart Mill, who lived in 19th century Britain, argued that deontologists usually fail to specify which principles should take priority when rights and duties conflict, so that deontology cannot offer complete moral guidance.

Further, Mill argued in the opening pages of his book Utilitarianism that the Categorical Imperative that Kant had formulated to support the duties he had argued as categorical in fact used consequential logic; if the ends of a formulated maxim logically supported the maxim, that is, the maxim if universalized created a theoretical world that could exist and would be beneficial to society, then the maxim could be offered as a rule under which society should live. Mill criticized Kant for avoiding saying what the Imperative reduced to - the ends justify the means, a primary tenet of consequentialism - and thus using it to come to the opposite conclusion.

Shelly Kagan, notes in support of Mill and Bentham that under deontology, individuals are bound by constraints (such as the requirement not to murder), but are also given options (such as the right not to give money to charity, if they do not wish to). His line of attack on deontology is first to show that constraints are invariably immoral, and then to show that options are immoral without constraints.

Another, unrelated critique of deontological ethics comes from aretaic theories, which often maintain that neither consequences nor duties but "character" should be the focal point of ethical theory. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, sought to describe what characteristics a virtuous person would have, and then argued that people should act in accordance with these characteristics.

Notes

References

• Kant, Immanuel (1964). Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Harper and Row Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-131159-6. 

External links

• Notes on Deontology A convenient summary of deontology with a focus on Kant

•  • [ e] Philosophy
Topics	|  Eastern philosophy Western philosophy  |  History of philosophy (ancient • medieval • modern • contemporary)
Lists	Basic topics Topic list Philosophers Philosophies Glossary Movements More lists
Branches	Aesthetics Ethics Epistemology Logic Metaphysics Political philosophy
Philosophy of	Education Economics Geography Information History Human nature Language Law Literature Mathematics Mind Philosophy Physics Psychology Religion Science Social science Technology War
Schools	Analytic philosophy Aristotelianism Continental Philosophy Critical theory Deconstructionism Deontology Dialectical materialism Dualism Empiricism Epicureanism Existentialism Hegelianism Hermeneutics Humanism Idealism Kantianism Logical Positivism Marxism Materialism Monism Neoplatonism New Philosophers Nihilism Ordinary language Phenomenology Platonism Positivism Postmodernism Poststructuralism Pragmatism Presocratic Rationalism Realism Relativism Scholasticism Skepticism Stoicism Structuralism Utilitarianism Virtue ethics