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WillowOne's Positions

Deontology

Overview

Deontology (from the Greek deon, duty) is the family of ethical theories on which the rightness of an action depends on whether it conforms to a rule or duty, not on its consequences. Some things are simply not to be done, whatever good might come of them. The most influential version is Immanuel Kant's: act only on maxims you could will to be universal laws, and treat persons always as ends and never merely as means. Religious command ethics (right is what God commands) is also deontological.

Notes

  • I reject deontology as a foundation and accept it as a heuristic. There are no categorical imperatives, binding regardless of what anyone wants (Moral claims are incomplete assertions); every "ought" has a hidden "if you want". But rules such as "do not kill the innocent" are cheaper to follow than calculating case by case, more resistant to self-serving reasoning, and more reliable across a population than any individual's judgement, and so a consequentialist has excellent reason to adopt them and to feel them as binding (Morality).
  • The Trolley Problem is the standard arena for the contest between deontological and utilitarian intuitions, and the fact that most people hold both, and switch between them depending on framing, is evidence that neither is a perception of moral fact.
  • The Kantian principle that persons are not to be used merely as means is, I think, the single most useful rule in applied ethics, and it needs no metaphysics to support it: a society that permits people to be used is one in which you can be used.

Also see