CHAPTER IV

DEONTOLOGY
 DUTY AND AGENCY

• Deontology comes from the Greek word deon, means

“being necessary.” it also refers to the study of duty
and obligation.
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) wrote one of the most
important works on moral philosophy, Groundwork
towards a Metaphysics of Morals (1785).
• To consider the rational will is to point out the difference
between animals and persons.
• The first construction consists in how we imagine things can
be, then we implement that in the second construction.
Through the capacity for imagination and reflection, we
conceive of how we could affect, possibly even change, the
world we live in.
• The rational will refers to the faculty to intervene in the
world, to act in a manner that is consistent with our
reason. Animals only act according to impulses, based
on their natural instincts. The act with immediacy (from
Latin: I + medius, “no middle”)
CHAPTER IV
AUTONOMY
• Property of the rational will is autonomy (Ak 4:40), which is the
opposite of heteronomy. These three Greek words are instructive:
autos, heteros, and nomos, means “self”, “other”, “law”, respectively.
• The will is thus not only subject to the law, but it is also subject to the
law in such a way that it gives the law to itself (self-legislating), and
primarily just in this way that the will can be considered the author of
the law under which is subject. (Ak 4:31)
• This description of autonomy is unusual.
• “Subject” from Latin words sub (under) and jacere (to
throw). Two words refer to that which is thrown or brought
under something.
• Kant claims that there is a difference between rational will
and animal impulse.
• The choice that can be determined by pure reason is called free
choice. That which is determinable only by inclination (sensible
impulse, stimulus) would be animal choice (arbitrium brutum).
Human choice, in contrast is a choice that may indeed be affected
but not determined by impulses, and is therefore in itself (without
an acquired kill of reason) not pure, but can nevertheless be
determined to do actions from pure will (Ak 6:213)
• “The human person is not only an animal, but is also
rational.”
• Autonomy is the property of the will in those instances
when pure reason is the cause of the action.
 CHAPTER IV
UNIVERSABILITY
 KINDS OF MORAL THEORIES
• Substantive Moral Theory immediately promulgates the
specific action that comprise that theory. It identifies the
particular duties in a straightforward manner that the adherents
of the theory must follow.
• Formal Moral Theory does not supply the rules or commands
straightaway. It provides us the “form” or “framework” of the
moral theory.
• Kant endorses this kind of moral theory
“Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der
Sitten”.
 KEY ELEMENTS OF
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
• ACTION
• MAXIM
• WILL
• UNIVERSAL LAW