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 RationalistInfluenced by:His Parents’ PietismJean-Jacques Rousseau’s work on human freedomThe debate between rationalism and empiricismNatural 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 ofthe 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 PromiseCommitting SuicideNeglecting One's TalentRefraining from Helping Others

Counterexamples to the Principle of the Law of Nature

Counterexample 1: Mandating Trivial ActionsCounterexample 2: Endorsing CheatingCounterexample 3: Prohibiting Permissible ActionsCounterexample 4: Mandating Genocide

The Problem ofExceptionless Rules

Kant's categorical imperative yields unqualified absolutes. The rules it generates are universal and exceptionlessRoss and Prima Facie DutiesKant and the Prima Facie Solution

The Problem ofPosterity

Kant with his strong emphasis on particular rational people would have a particularly difficult time generating principles that would require duties to future agentsKant seems to require identifiable people as the objects of our duties