Deontology is an ethical theory of philosophy based in the non-consequentialist tree of ethics. Deontology’s major founder was Immanuel Kant, whose work was done near the end of the eighteenth century. Kant’s contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics were enormous, and is thus considered to be one of the most prominent minds in the history of western thought. Kant was a product of the modern philosophy, and his own theories were in many ways a reaction to the two opposing schools of philosophy at the time, Empiricism and Rationalism, which differed in the nature of their epistemological foundations. Kant’s answers to these two movements, such as his notions of a priori knowledge and how the mind constitutes fundamental parts of …show more content…
His first formulation is this: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction. Thus there are two types of duties that one can formulate. There is a perfect duty, which is the duty to not develop maxims, or moral laws that would logically contradict themselves if universally implemented. A maxim that would not qualify as a perfect duty would be one such as, “Thou shalt steal other’s property”. The counterproof to this is that if it were okay to steal other’s property, the concept of property wouldn’t really exist, and thus the maxim is contradictory, and cannot be a perfect duty. There are also imperfect duties, or duties that are based on subjective likings of different people, and are also subjective to situations. One cannot be derided for not fulfilling an imperfect duty. An imperfect maxim developed in the novel The Lord of the Rings would be as follows: If one is a hobbit and one happens across the One Ring, one should take it to Mount Doom to destroy it. The main character certainly could not be blamed or scorned for not fulfilling the task, but it is praiseworthy that he completed the
...to lie on occasion as result of better results or to not harm the other person. For example, if a teenager does not tell his parents he snuck out and drove their car then he avoids punishment if he simply says he never went out. Also, if a girl does not like the dress her friend is wearing but still says she does, then she lies for the benefit of her friend rather than causing harm. Although people still lie, they are still able to act morally in accordance with universal law. Overall, I believe it depends on the circumstances and individual on whether or not humans are obligated to act morally because morality is for the sake of the individual while obligation would be for the sake of others or the community. As a result, rather than a moral “obligation” to act, it should be replaced by desire so that people would want to act a certain way instead of feeling forced.
This abstract example shows that the aforementioned objection is a reasonable point. To address this point, it should be understood that the humanity formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative does not have to held as the ultimate standard to live by without exception. Just as the laws of government have exceptions, so too can the humanity formulation have exceptions as well. The humanity formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative may be considered a moral framework for human beings to live
What he is also saying in this passage is that one’s actions in such a situation should be selfless. One should not do good deeds for his or her own personal benefit. He or she should be doing so because it is his or her own personal duty.
The first formulation of the Categorical Imperative “act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” seems at face value viable. Nevertheless the lack of guidelines to determine which maxim should be used to describe an action causes problems with the consistency of the Universal Law formulation. Moreover, the abundance of false positives and false negatives suggests a deep problem with the first formulation of the Categorical Imperative that may not be fixable.