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Kant’s Deontological Ethics

Kant’s Deontological Ethics. The Plan. What is Deontology? Good Wills and Right Actions The Categorical Imperative Examples and Applications. What is “Deontology”?. Deontology: The duty-based approach to morality. The morally right thing to do is whatever it is your duty to do.

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Kant’s Deontological Ethics

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  1. Kant’s Deontological Ethics

  2. The Plan • What is Deontology? • Good Wills and Right Actions • The Categorical Imperative • Examples and Applications

  3. What is “Deontology”? • Deontology:The duty-based approach to morality. • The morally right thing to do is whatever it is your duty to do. • Consequences are irrelevant. • Compare these attitudes: • “Let justice be done though the heavens may fall.” • “The ends justify the means.” • “All’s well that ends well.”

  4. Good Wills and Right Actions • Kant thinks actions can be wrong in two ways. • They can be the wrong thing to do. • They can be done for the wrong reason. • Three Cases • Skeletor tortures Man-E-Faces. • He-Man rescues Man-E-Faces so people will like him. • He-Man rescues Man-E-Faces because it is right.

  5. When is it Moral? • According to Kant, what I do is moral if and only if • It is the right thing to do, and • I do it because it is right.

  6. But What is the Right Thing to Do? • The Categorical Imperative • Formula of the Universal Law • Act only that maxim that you can at the same time will to be a universal law. • Formula of the End in Itself • Act always so that youtreat humanity, both in yourself and in others, always as an end and never as a means only.

  7. Formula of the Universal Law • Whatever it is right for me to do is my duty. • But morality is the same for everyone. • So, whatever it is right for me to do is the same as what it would be right for anyone to do. • So, I should always act in a way that I could will everyone to act. • I shouldn’t make a moral exception for myself. • The Golden Rule?

  8. Examples: The Formula of the Universal Law • Making a Promise You Intend to Break • Cultivating Your Talents • Cheating Your Customers • Killing Your Enemies

  9. The Formula of the End in Itself • Only rational beings have value in themselves; everything else is valuable only for their sake. • This value demands respect; we should always acknowledge the value of rational beings as sources of value. • Treating someone “merely as a means” fails to acknowledge their value as a source of value. • So, we should always treat people as ends, never as means only.

  10. Examples • Making a Promise You Intend to Break • Cheating on Your Income Tax • Cultivating Your Talents • Cashing a Check at the Bank

  11. Review • Kant is a deontologist. He thinks duty is the central concept of morality. • Kant believes a person acts morally when she does the right thing because it is right. • According to Kant, the Categorical Imperative tells us the difference between right and wrong. • Formula of the Universal Law • Formula of the End in Itself

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