Clarify the key features of a deontological theory of ethics - To what extent if any, do the weaknesses outweigh the strengths of this theory?

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Clarify the Key Features of a Deontological Theory of Ethics.

To what Extent if any, do the Weaknesses Outweigh the Strengths of this Theory?

Claudia Bicen

        Kant’s (1724-1804) Moral Law is a deontological theory of ethics based around the concept of duty and reason. Kant highlights the importance man’s rational capacity and ability to think logically and separately from his own circumstances or preferences that distinguishes him from other creatures. This idea is expressed in Kant’s greatest works, the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and the Critique of Practical Reason (1788). Kant maintains that reason binds man to man since reason is an innate intellectual power which exists more or less equally in all men. Thus, such reason enables the individual to resolve his own problems in a way possibly acceptable to everyone. Kant argues that by using reason, one can find the answers to moral dilemmas that are right for everyone. Furthermore, Kant’s moral Law is independent of God, i.e. a secular ethic.

        Kant defines the following words; ‘analytic’ as a statement where the predicate is included in the subject, thus necessarily true; ‘a priori’ where the truth is known independent of experience; ‘synthetic’ as a statement where the predicate is not including in the statement and ‘a posteriori’ where the truth is based on experience. Kant asserted that almost every statement is either ‘priori analytic’ or a ‘posteriori synthetic’. However what is unusual about Kant’s moral law is that he maintained that statements of moral law are priori synthetic, i.e. independent of experience but not necessarily true.

        In Kant’s book, Groundwork of Metaphysic of Morals (1783), he says that if a moral law is to be unconditionally binding it must therefore contain something that is unconditionally good- i.e. something that is good in itself and of the highest good. Kant rejects concepts such as ‘talents of the mind’ and ‘gifts of fortune’ because they are not intrinsically good and can be used for bad. Instead Kant proposes that ‘it is impossible to conceive anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be taken as good without qualification, except a good will’.

        Firstly it is important to note that by good will Kant is not referring to something being good because of what it effects of accomplishes (i.e. the consequences of a situation like Utilitarian ideas). Kant argues that such definition of good will would mean if moral value were dependent on effects then it could no longer be considered of unconditional value because we would have the judge the act merely as a means to an end. However, nor is Kant referring to one’s intuition of right and wrong as he argues that inclination is not backed by logic or reasoning therefore not morally right in itself. Therefore in conclusion Kant proposes that an act is moral when the motive behind it is good- thus it is having right intention that makes the good will good.

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        Kant explains that doing one’s duty does not involve serving one’s own interests. Thus one should be honest because it is the right thing to do, not because by being honest one will be rewarded, because then honesty would then be perceived as a means to an ends, therefore not intrinsically good. Neither should one act on intuition or by what comes naturally to them because an ulterior motive still exists, i.e. to do what one enjoys rather than what their duty recommends. Therefore one should do what is morally right because it is right and for no other ...

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