Describe Kant’s theory of Duty as the basis of morality (33 marks).

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Deontological Ethics and Emanuel Kant

Describe Kant's theory of Duty as the basis of morality (33 marks).

Emanuel Kant was a German Philosopher who lived in the late 18th century and was arguably one of the greatest thinkers of all time. He came up with a guide to morals in direct opposition to teontological or consequential theories. Many people use his ethics as a guide to living a moral life, but what exactly is Kant's ethics? How did he believe we should face moral problems and how can we apply it in our every day lives?

Instead of situation based theories his theory was deontological ethics. This is a very absolute and objective form of ethics, which has been worked out using a rational thinking process. Kant believed that an ethical theory should be universalisable to be morally correct. This means it must be able to be applied to everyone all over the world regardless of situations or circumstances. Kant believed for this to be possible it must contain something that was 'unconditionally and universally good'. This must me something that is 'intrinsically good' which is good in itself, the highest good 'without qualification'. This thing that determines the moral worth of our actions cannot be instrumentally good, something that only becomes good pending the results of the action or like some things such as happiness, which are possible of making a situation morally worse. Kant believed that there was only one thing that is the right thing for us to do in any situation to make us morally correct. He said that 'a morally good man is a man of good will'.

Kant said that it was 'impossible to conceive anything in the world as good without qualification, except good will'. For something to be of good will, it is not dependent on the goodness of what it effects or accomplishes. If it were, then it could not be considered to be of unconditional value and intrinsic goodness for it would become a 'means to an end not an end in itself'. This leads us to therefore conclude that the consequences of any moral action are irrelevant. Kant describes the most important thing as being 'not what the act accomplishes but the motive behind the act' (Moral Problems - M Palmer). However we may ask what exactly is the right motive to have? Kant simply states that ' a good wills only motive is to act for the sake of duty'. For an act to be universally, intrinsically good in itself, it must not be done because of its consequences, nor from self-interest, fear or as a means to an end, rather only because it is our soul duty to do it. We should always act for duties sake simply because it is the right thing to do.
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We need to be very clear as to what this specifically entails. Kant is saying that we can not do a moral act because of self-interest. This is understandable because if we are doing it merely because we get something good out of it i.e. a reward or a good name then we are not doing it because we simply know it is the right thing to do. However we also need to be aware that this also includes the idea that we can not do a moral act because it comes naturally to us. We cannot do ...

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