Kantian Deontology Deontological concerned with the morality of

Kantian Deontology

• • • Deontological (concerned with the morality of duty Absolute Based solely on duty Doing a moral duty comes from God (Theist) Moral statements Good will does the right thing regardless of the outcomes Universalisation Maxims We should never be used as merely a means to an end Disagreed with making moral choices out of compassion Categorical imperatives – you do something because it is right to do so

• Duties based on reason • Disregards consequences • Do things as it is our duty • Use universaliasation to decide course of action • If it would be ok if everyone follows that course, then it is fine, if not it is wrong

• ACTING MORALLY = DOING ONES DUTY • Ones duty is obeying innate laws • If we do this we will reach ‘Summum bonum’ (Ultimate Good) in the afterlife. Therefore God must exist and is necessary for morality. (But Morality is not necessary for God)

Moral Statements • 2 types of statements • • A Priori analytic: statements that are knowable through reason A Posteriori synthetic: Statements that are only known through empirical evidence, and can be verified or falsified • Moral statements according to Kant are A Priori Synthetic, as they are known through reason, but they must be verifiable.

Good Will and Duty • Highest form of good is good will. Good will is performing ones duty. Doing ones duty is performing morally required actions and avoiding morally forbidden actions. • We should perform our duty because it is our duty

Hume • Hume disagrees and says that morality is based not on duty, but the fulfilling of desires – founded on sympathy and dependent on human nature

Imperatives • Hypothetical Imperatives have ‘ifs’ “if you want to pass philosophy you have to work” – have value conditional to the ends • Categorical Imperatives – have no ‘ifs’ – have intrinsic, unconditional value – are ends in themselves. Authority does not come from achieving an end

3 Categorical Imperatives • 1) Universal Law all moral statements should be general laws, which apply to everyone under all circumstances. (Kant uses the example of the man who borrows money, yet knows he cannot pay it back. If everyone did so, no one would have any money = BAD) • 2) Treat Humans as ends in themselves don't exploit other people, as you deny that person their right to be a rational and independent judge of their actions. All people should be treated equally as Ends in themselves. • 3) Act as if you live in a Kingdom of Ends Kant assumed that all rational agents were able to deduce whether an argument was moral or not through reason alone, and so, all rational humans should be able to conclude the same moral laws.

3 Postulates • Happiness isn't the reason for morality, but it is the reward • For this, Kant postulated 3 things must exist for his theory to work: • • • We must be free to be able to make decisions There must be an afterlife for us to achieve the summum bonum. God must exist in order to be a fair judge to bring us to the afterlifer or not

Strengths • Associates with everyday moral experience – despite complexity, theory has many points of contact with everyday moral experience. For example, its opposition between acting morally and on one’s desires si something close to many people’s understanding of morality, even those who have never read Philosophy. • Absolute moral rules – they must never be broken. This is something with which one is in many cases likely to agree with, such as “one should never inflict needless suffering on the innocent”. • Dignity of human beings – respects the dignity and humanity of human beings. Shows that we are worthy of respect and also factors in somewhat of an egalitarian view. • Rights – The idea that a human being is worthy of respect and possesses an inherent dignity supports the idea that he has rights, for example the right to freedom or life. This is part of the modern moral consciousness.

Weaknesses • • Disadvantages - MMMCAC Acting for the sake of the law – Peter Winch in criticising Kant refers to Simone Weil – here a father plays with his child not out of duty but from pure joy and pleasure. Winch points out that there is a kind of purity in the father’s behaviour, but not according to Kant. A father who got no pleasure from playing with his child but simply did so “because he had to” out of a sense of duty is more moral according to Kant. Surely it’s the other way around? ! Motivation – Kant says the only important thing from a moral point of view is motivation. However, take Henry James’ novel The Portrait of a Lady. Ralph Touchett intends to help his cousin Isabel Archer who wishes to study and travel by persuading his father to bequeath her £ 70, 000. However, because she is rich she falls prey to Gilbert Osmond, who woos and marries her for her money. One of the central points of this novel is that Ralph is morally responsible even though his intentions were entirely honourable. In such a case, Kant’s emphasis on motivation to the exclusion of consequences seems mistaken. Moral luck – The example above shows us Ralph had bad luck. Ye he was still morally responsible. Take another example – a lorry driver may run over a child even though he could do nothing to prevent the accident, but nonetheless would feel responsible and feel guilty. Kant’s moral theory ignores luck in matters of morality, so it can be argued that it fails to be sensitive to a fact about life which no theorising will make disappear. Common humanity – Raimond Gaita argues that Kant’s emphasis upon rationality as the most important feature of human beings is misleading. He says that it is important that humans have a sense of fellowship, but suggests that this sense cannot rest upon the fact we are rational. Rather; as Kant overlooks – it is the fact that we are mortal. In short, when Kant focuses on our rationality as central to our humanity he misses out a great deal of what really does give us a sense of our humanity. Conflict of duties – Many philosophers argue that Kant is mistaken in his rejection that duties can conflict. An example is found in Sophocles’ Antigone in which Antigone is caught between obeying the laws of the state and the laws of the gods. On the one hand she feels she must obey Creon’s edict forbidding the burial of her brother, Polyneices, yet, she believes she must bury him. Either way she does something wrong. It is possible that a contemporary Kantian could respond to this by granting moral dilemmas can arise. Morality as a priori – There are reasons to think that such a theory is possible because a priori moral theory is not justified by any feature of human nature. Many philosophers argue that any theory should involve from the first an understanding of the kind of things that make us happy (i. e. as Utilitarianism does). They argue that if it does not give us a motive to act morally, there is no reason why we should be morally good.