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Chapter Eight:
Kant and Deontological
Theories
For Deontological theories it is not the consequences
that determines the rightness or wrongness of an act
but certain features in the act itself or in the rule of
which the act is a token
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Absolutist and a Rationalist
Influenced by:
His
Parents’ Pietism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s work on human
freedom
The debate between rationalism and
empiricism
Natural law intuitionist theories
Rationalism and Empiricism
Rationalism: pure reason could tell us how
the world is, independent of experience.
Empiricism: denied that we have any innate
ideas and argued that all knowledge comes
from experience. Our minds are a tabula rasa,
an empty slate, upon which experience writes
her lessons
Act- and Rule-Intuitionism
Act-intuitionism: each act as a unique ethical
occasion and holds that we must decide what is
right or wrong in each situation by consulting
our conscience or our intuitions or by making a
choice apart from any rules
Act- and Rule-Intuitionism
Rule-intuitionism: must decide what is right
or wrong in each situation by consulting moral
rules that we receive through intuition.
The Categorical Imperative
A command to perform actions that are
necessary of themselves without reference to
other ends.
It contrasts with Hypothetical Imperatives
which command actions not for their own sake,
but for some other good.
Moral duties command categorically.
Actions are only morally valuable if done by
a good will.
The Principle of
the Law of Nature
Act as though the maxim of your action were
by your will to become a universal law of
nature.
The Principle of Ends
So act as to treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of any other, in every
case as an end and never as merely a means
The Principle of Autonomy
So act that your will can regard itself at the
same time as making universal law through its
maxims
The Principle of the Law of
Nature: Four Examples
Making a Lying Promise
Committing Suicide
Neglecting One's Talent
Refraining from Helping Others
Counterexamples to the Principle
of the Law of Nature
Counterexample 1: Mandating Trivial
Actions
Counterexample 2: Endorsing Cheating
Counterexample 3: Prohibiting Permissible
Actions
Counterexample 4: Mandating Genocide
The Problem of
Exceptionless Rules
Kant's categorical imperative yields
unqualified absolutes. The rules it generates
are universal and exceptionless
Ross and Prima Facie Duties
Kant and the Prima Facie Solution
The Problem of
Posterity
Kant with his strong emphasis on particular
rational people would have a particularly
difficult time generating principles that would
require duties to future agents
Kant seems to require identifiable people as
the objects of our duties