AS Religious Ethics Revision Deontology & Kant

DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS based on the idea that an act’s claim to being right or wrong is independent of the consequences of that action.

As opposed to

TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS bases its judgements on the outcome of the action or its consequences.

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Based on rationalism and empiricism

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY BUT

thought that the rationalists claimed too much for reason, and the empiricists emphasised sense experience too much

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY So, he went for a compromise!

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY all our knowledge of the world comes from sensation

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY BUT

Reason determines how we perceive the world around us!

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY We perceive the world initially in time and space

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY These two ‘ forms of intuition’ precede any experience that we might have

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY People are aware of a moral law at work within them

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY NOT as a vague feeling of something being right or wrong

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY But as a direct experience of something powerful

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY We have a moral obligation to act in a certain way

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY DUTY

His exploration of what is good began with the good will

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY The attributes of the mind that are considered desirable can also be subverted into something bad

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY These desirable mental attributes (intelligence, wit, and so on) and the desires of most people for fame and fortune are held in check by the good will.

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Thus, the good will is essential for happiness

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Kant rooted the moral choice in the will of the agent – we are each responsible for our own actions!

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY The exercise of a person’s free will in an action becomes the basis on which that action is judged.

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY He believed that the senses (happiness or pleasure) could not be the source of moral choice (and thus rejected teleological theories)

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY He considered the reasons a person might have for carrying out an act

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Which is why you have to learn his example of the ‘honest’ shopkeeper!

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY Kant argued that we follow a moral command because we feel that it is our DUTY

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY But how do we know what our duty is?

KANT’S PHILOSOPHY TheCategoricalImperative!