Chapter IV

DEONTOLOGY

 Deontology comes from the Greek word deon which means “being necessary”
 Study of duty and obligation
Topics:
 Duty and Agency
 Autonomy
 Universalizability
 Rational will- is the capacity to act according to principles that we determine for
ourselves
 Rationality- consists of mental faculty to construct ideas and thoughts that are beyond
our surroundings
 First construction- imagine things
 Second construction- implement
Agency- ability of a person to act based on intentions and mental states
Autonomy
Autos nomos Self-Law
Heteros nomos other law
Rational will is autonomy
 Free choice- can be determined by pure reason
 Arbitrium Brutum- determinable only by inclination (Animal choice).
 Human choice- a choice that may indeed be affected, but not determined by sensible
impulses.
[2 possible causes of actions]
 Sensible impulses
 Faculty of reason
Universalizability
 Substantive moral theory- promulgates specific actions that comprise the theory
 Formal moral theory- does not supply the rules or commands straightway
 Grundlegung zur Metaphysik- he (Kant) wrote in 1785
4 Key Elements (action, maxim, will and universal law)
 action, we must formulate action as a maxim
 maxim, consist of a rule (day-to-day)