DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY

Historical Origin
● Early beginning of Human
Civilization
○ The word of the king is the
law

● Deontological
○ Greek word “dein” or
“deon”
meaning
“to be obligated” or simply
“duty”
Kant’s Major Immanuel Kant

(1724-1804)
Contribution to
● Avid defender of Deontological
Deontological Theory Theory

● Contributed as many important

And brilliant ideas to the philosophical study of

ethics
THE GOOD WILL - ● Morality of action lies on
THE CORE OF the inner motive rather than
KANTS ETHICS the external effects
● Kant’s ethics primarily
based on Good Will
● Duty must be done out of
pure reverence to the moral
law
Duty Over Inclination
“ A person is only acting only
when suppresses his feelings
and inclinations and does that
what he is obliged to do”
INCLINATION Means doing the things that
one’s feel like doing and thus no
obligation exists.
Example: Helping a neighbor
fix her flat tire.
- Expectation of the reward
- Pity
- Duty
Duty if Superior to “Our duties cannot consist simply in
Happiness following the rules that promote
pleasure and avoidance of pain as the
utilitarians claim, since that would
make right action depend upon
consequences, on how well they
satisfy our desires”

Example of this is Lying and Breaking

Promises
The Categorical “Act only according to that maxim by
Imperative which you can at the same time will
that it should become a Universal
The Universalizability Law”
Principle
● Maxim is a personal and
subjective guiding principle
● We must universalize our moral
judgment.
The principle of ● Also known as ‘Principle of
Humanity Ends’
(Respect for Persons) ● Concerns respect for the
dignity of persons
● Rational beings are ends in
themselves
● Do not treat others as means
Autonomy of the Will “ For without personal
(kingdom of Ends) autonomy, Morality becomes an
impossibility”
Autonomous Will - The will becomes autonomous when the genuinely
moral actions are chosen

- Freely
- Rationally
- By the Self
Kingdom Ends It is the moral universe of moral
beings in which
- Respect for Intrinsic Worth
- Respect for Value of all
Persons
Is Exercised by Everyone.
THANK YOU!