ETIC111 - Midterm Lecture 3

DEONTOLOGY
DEONTOLOGY
●comes from the Greek word
“deon”,
●The moral theory that evaluates
actions that are done because of
duty is called deontology.
●Hence, deontology refers to the
study of obligation.
on other occasions he felt sympathy for the Jews he was sending to the gas chambers, but because
he believed one should do one’s duty unaffected by sympathy, he steadfastly stuck to his duty,
instead of being tempted to bend the rules and help the Jews.
Which is the correct concept of duty?

●The main
proponent of
deontology is
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804).
● He intends to develop what he calls the
● “supreme principle of morality.”
● It is supposedly supreme because by
basing it on the faculty of reason, it
becomes binding for all creatures that
have that faculty.
● human beings, have the faculty called rational
will, which is the capacity to act according to
principles that we determine for ourselves.
It consists of the mental faculty
to construct ideas and
thoughts that are beyond our
immediate surroundings.
This is the capacity for mental
abstraction, which arises from
the operations of the faculty of
reason.
Thus, we have the ability to stop
and think about what we are
doing.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
ANIMALS AND HUMANS?
animals are sentient organisms.
● Sentience, meaning an organism has the ability to perceive and
navigate its external environment.
●we are also sentient.
● Thus, both animals and persons interact in and with the world, reacting to
external stimuli and internal impulses to survive and thrive.
● On the other hand, people are also rational.
DO ANIMALS ACT?
DO ANIMALS PERFORM ACTIONS?
●As far as we know, animals only act
according to impulses, based on their
natural instincts.
●Thus, animals “act” with immediacy
with nothing that intervenes between
the impulse and the action.
●They do not and cannot deliberate
on their actions. In fact, we may say
that animals do not “act”. They
only “react” to their external
surroundings and internal impulses.
A car driver killing a cyclist. Is this an action or a
reaction?
According to Kant, Man has sensible impulses, and it is twofold
●sensible impulses are usually bodily and

emotional.
●Bodily instincts and desires, such as the urge to eat,

drink, sleep, or have sexual intercourse, comprise
the set of the human compulsions for survival and
the propagation of the species.
●Emotions and sentiments also make up what Kant
considers sensible impulses.
●Practical examples are the jealousy from seeing your
girlfriend or boyfriend make eyes at someone, and the rage
from being pushed foully by your opponent in a basketball
game.
A person taking
the lives of two
innocent
individuals that
went viral
In contrast,
we humans have reason, which

intervenes between impulse and act.
We have the ability to stop and think
about what we are doing to evaluate
our actions according to principles.
●It implies that we are indeed basically
animals, but we cannot be reduced to
mere animality.
●When we claim, " The human person
is not only an animal, but is also
rational," we admit to two possible
causes of our actions: sensible
impulses and the faculty of reason.
Human freedom resides in that
distinction.
● Kant claims that the property of the rational will
is autonomy which is the opposite of
heteronomy.
● These three Greek word are instructive: autos,
heteros, and nomos, which mean “self,” “other,”
and “law,” respectively.
● Hence, when we combine autos and nomos,
we get autonomy; heteros and nomos to
heteronomy.
● Crudely stated, autonomy means self-law and
heteronomy means other law.
Two types of IMPERATIVES for Kant
0. HYPOTHETICAL
1. CATEGORICAL
2. PRACTICAL
Categorical Imperative
●“Act only according to
such a maxim, by which
you can at once will that
it becomes a universal
law.”
●Kant states that we must formulate an action as a maxim,
which he defines as a “subjective principle of action”.
●In this context, a maxim consist of a “rule” that we live by
in our day-to-day lives, but it does not have the status
of a law or a moral command that binds us to act in a
certain way. Rather, maxims depict the patterns of our
behavior.
●Thus, maxims are akin to the “standard operating
procedures” (SOPs) in our lives. We act according to a
variety of maxims, even if we are not aware of them.
Actually, we become aware of our maxims when we talk
about ourselves, when we reveal our habits and the reasons
behind them.
Example of a maxim:
“I will cheat on my ethics

exam so that I may able to
graduate this year”
●It means that the maxim must be
“universalizable”, which is what
it means to” will that it become a
universal law.”
●This means nothing other than
imagining a world in which maxim,
or personal rule, that I live be
were adopted be everyone as
their own maxim.
What does it mean to universalize the
maxim about:
“Cheating on my ethics exam so that I
may able to graduate this year”
If we will universalize the maxim on cheating,
It will lead only to
SELF-CONTRADICTION and LOGICAL
IMPOSSIBILITY
If licensed engineers, cheated only on their board exam, it would lead to
destruction in the society
What does it mean to universalize
the maxim about borrowing
money without intending to return
it?
It will lead to collapse of the banks, then on the
economic destruction in the society
●Now, imagine applying this procedure to
other scenarios in which a person
encounters moral problems, such as
lying, cheating in an exam, murder, and
adultery, among others.
●You may also test positive actions, such
as paying for something that you are
buying, returning something you
borrowed, or submitting a school
project on time.
Practical Imperative
MAN IS NOT A
MEANS TO AN END
Child Labor is against the practical imperative of Kant
But rather, MAN IS AN END TO
HIMSELF
Deontology
●is based on the “light” of one’s own reason when maturity
and rational capacity take hold of a person’s decision-
making.
●Reason is depicted as having its own light in contrast to
our long experience of “paternalism” in human history, in
which we find dictatorship and authority figure that claim
to be benevolent, but have proven to be oppressive and
exploitative of those who do not have political power.
●With deontology, particularly the method of
universalizability, we can validate and adopt those rules
and laws that are right and reject those that are irrational,
thus impermissible because they are self-contradictory.
●This is then the practical value of deontology
in our moral reflection: we are encouraged
to have courage to think on our own, to use
our rational will against external authorities
as well as internal base impulses that tend to
undetermined our autonomy and self-
determination.

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DEONTOLOGY

Which is the correct concept of duty?

●sensible impulses are usually bodily and

●Bodily instincts and desires, such as the urge to eat,

we humans have reason, which

“I will cheat on my ethics

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