CHAPTER 6 - Deontological Ethics Flashcards
The historical origin of this particular moral theory can be traced back to the
early beginning of human civilization,
early beginning of human civilization,
“at a time when the_____ of the chief, or the king, [or God or any other recognized authority for that matter was given unconditionally and without invitation to appeal on the basis of_________”
word
consequences
the commands or edict of the ones in authority and power are something that are taken and obeyed without any further____ or ____
question or objection
Once the commands and orders are given and handed out from above, everyone below is expected to follow unconditionally and “without any______.”
qualification
is something absolute or categorical.
Obedience
one is not expected to pose any question but is asked to take the command as it is given.
No ___ and no ___.
No IF and No BUT
“It just tells [one] what [one] must do or not do”
Deontological Ethics
Thus, the____ of the king, the president, the ruler, the lord, the boss, the CEO, the State, the Party, the master, or the chieftain, is the law
word
This kind of theory is sometimes called Deontological (from the____ root word _____ or ____meaning “to be obligated.” or simply “duty’
Greek
“dein” or “deon”
In this kind of theory or philosophy, an act or conduct is considered good or right, thus justified morally, not by showing that it has good and beneficial consequences or effects but by virtue of its being an action that emanates from a sense of duty or moral obligation.
Deontological Theory
Due to its central emphasis on the significance and value of duty or obligation as the main motivation or intention in human actions, this theory in ethics has also come to be known in philosophy as ______ or ______.
Deontological theory or Deontological ethics
Deontological or simply______, recognizes only those actions that are done out of pure duty as the ones having moral worth.
Everything else does not give an act any moral value or ethical significance.
Duty ethics
avid defender of Deontological theory in modern times
the great______ philosopher
Immanuel Kant
German
philosopher whose remarkable contributions to the history of philosophical thought put him on the same level with the greatest of the greats among the world’s foremost thinkers.
Immanuel Kant
is recognized as the most important
philosopher who has ever lived.
The entirety of his philosophic
corpus, in the words of an author, is “brilliant, profound, rich, complex, and fascinating”
Kant
no other thinker has contributed as many important and brilliant ideas to the philosophical study of ethics as_____.
Kant
____ claims that what makes an act right/good and wrong/bad does not depend on its results or consequences since all these are simply beyond one’s control–hence a matter of luck or accident.
Kant
for him, morality, as the sole and exclusive domain of rational beings, should be something of which one should have total control.
Kant
If one is indeed fully accountable of his action and conduct, then____ or ____ should be taken out of the equation.
chance or luck
guides human actions at all times and in all situations.
maxim
the center of Kant’s ethical philosophy is his primary emphasis on the importance of____ and the unqualified rational nature of moral principles.
Such a philosophy is indeed “a strict, hardheaded, and uncompromising view of morality”
reason
At the very outset of his (Kant’s) brilliant philosophical work, ______________ (published in 1785),
Grounding for the Meraphysics of Morals
Grounding for the Meraphysics of Morals
Kant writes: “Nothing…can be called good without qualification except a_____.”
good will
Having a_______, or rather acting in _______ means doing an act with the right intentions or motives, in accordance with the right maxims or principles, doing one’s duty or obligation for its own sake (“Duty for duty’s sake”) rather than for personal gain or self-interest.
good will
In Kant, morality is primarily, if not solely, a matter of ____ or ____and not a matter of what one can gain or achieve in acting.
motive or intention
If one’s____ in doing an act is good and noble, regardless of its consequences or results (even if they are not beneficial to you), then it’s good and thus your conduct is morally praise-worthy. You ought to be congratulated for doing “the right thing.
As far as the ethics of Kant is concerned, that’s all that matters.
motive
A_______ is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of the volition, that is, it is good in itself, and considered by itself is to be esteemed much higher than all that can be brought about by it in favor of any inclination, nay, even of the sum total of all inclinations.
good will
the worth of an action lies on the _______ rather than the external effects that one can derive from the act.
inner motive
heart of Kant’s ethics
-doing the good because it’s good,
nothing more and nothing less.
Kant’s ethics is an ethics that is primarily based on_____.
The_____ is good if it does its duty out of pure reverence to the moral law.
good will
(who awakened Kant from his dogmatic slumbers) who held that we act primarily on inclination
David Hume
Duty over Inclination
