Immanuel Kant
Deontology:
the Ethics of Duty
Kant’s Moral Theory
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Historical Background
 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
The concept of the “good will”
The concept of duty
Three principles
The Categorical Imperative
The Hypothetical Imperative
Autonomy and Heteronomy of will
Kant on the concept of respect
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Contemporary Deontologists
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Good Will
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An action has moral worth only when
performed by an agent who possesses a
good will
An agent has a good will only if moral
obligation based on a universally valid norm
is the action’s sole motive
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First Section, first 3 paragraphs
Duty
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All persons must act not only in accordance
with, but for the sake of, obligation
A person’s motive for acting must rest in a
recognition that what he or she intends is
demanded by an obligation
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p. 2, second paragraph
p. 3, last paragraph
Three Principles
1.
2.
3.
“An act must be done from obligation in
order to have moral worth.”
“An action’s moral value is due to the maxim
from which it is performed, rather than to its
success in realizing some desired end or
purpose.” – motive of benevolence is
rejected as morally unworthy
“Obligation is the necessity of an action
performed from respect for law.”
1.
2.
3.
An action has moral worth only if a morally
valid rule of obligation determines that action
Even a motive of benevolence is rejected as
morally unworthy, unless there is an
accompanying motive of obligation
Necessity comes from laws, not from mere
subjective maxims. There must be an
objective principle underlying willing, one
that all rational agents would accept
Categorical Imperative
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The supreme principle or moral law.
Every moral agent recognizes whenever
accepting an action as morally obligatory
Why is the categorical imperative
“imperative”?
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Human beings are imperfect creatures and hence
need rules imposed upon
These rules enjoin us to do or not to do
something thus we conceive them as
necessitating our action
Categorical Imperative
Act only in such a way in which the
maxim of action can be rationally willed
as a universal law
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It requires unconditional conformity by all rational
beings, regardless of circumstances
Is unconditional and applicable at all times
4 examples, p. 9
Hypothetical Imperative
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“If I want to obtain e, then I must obtain
means m.”
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E.g. “If I want to buy a house, then I must work
hard to make enough money for a down
payment.”
Maxims
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Maxims, according to Kant, are subjective
rules that guide action.
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Subjective principles of volition or willing.
The general rule in accordance with which
the agent intends to act
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All actions have maxims, such as,
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4/13/2015
Never lie to your friends.
Never act in a way that would make your parents
ashamed of you.
©Lawrence M. Hinman
10
Law
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Refers to the rules of conduct that rational
beings lay down for themselves in the light of
reason.
Categorical Imperatives:
Universality
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“Always act in such a way that the maxim of
your action can be willed as a universal law
of humanity.”
--Immanuel Kant
Categorical Imperative:
Publicity
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Always act in such a way that you would not
be embarrassed to have your actions
described on the front page of The New York
Times.
Lying
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Is it possible to universalize a maxim that
permits lying?
What is the maxim?
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It’s ok to cheat when you want/need to?
Can this consistently be willed as a universal
law?
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No, it undermines itself, destroying the rational
expectation of trust upon which it depends.
Kant on Respect
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“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.”
Kant on Respecting Persons
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Kant brought the notion of respect to the
center of moral philosophy for the first time.
To respect people is to treat them as ends in
themselves. He sees people as
autonomous, i.e., as giving the moral law to
themselves.
The opposite of respecting people is treating
them as mere means to an end.
Using People as Mere Means
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The Tuskegee Syphilis
Experiments
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More than four hundred
African American men
infected with syphilis went
untreated for four
decades in a project
sponsored by the
government
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Continued until 1972
Autonomy and Heteronomy
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Autonomy of will is present when one
knowingly governs oneself in accordance
with universally valid moral principles
Heteronomy of will: the will’s determination by
persons or conditions other than oneself.
(“heteronomy”: any source of determining
influence or control over the will, internal or
external, except a determination of the will by
moral principles)
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The autonomy of the moral agent is to
recognize that external authority, even if
divine, can provide no criterion for morality;
only our own reason that we are taking to be
ultimate authority
Reading: Fundamental Principles
of the Metaphysic of Morals
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The Good Will as “good without qualification”
Acting from duty vs. acting from inclination
Duty as the necessity of an action done out of respect
for the law
The Categorical Imperative – first formulation
Hypothetical vs. categorical imperatives
Prudence vs. morality
Applying the categorical imperative: four examples
Persons as ends in themselves
The Categorical Imperative – second formulation
The four examples again
Deontologists
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An act is right if, and only if, it conforms to the
relevant moral obligation; and it is wrong if,
and only if, it violates the relevant moral
obligation
They argue that the consequences of an
action are irrelevant to moral evaluation
They emphasize that the value of an action
lies in motive, especially motives of obligation
Consequences of Kantian
Ethics
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The dignity of the human being is to be found in his
moral responsibility (freedom)
The dignity of the human being does not require another
foundation, i.e. theological or nature
The dignity of the person is the unconditional (i.e.
metaphysical) ground
Morality reveals the ultimate metaphysical depth of the
human being. To be human is to act morally.
One discovers the source of our humanity in the ability to
act morally, i.e., to accept the moral imperative as finite,
yet grounded in an absolute source, human freedom