The Moral Value Of Ethics

Immanuel Kant's deonotological ethical theory assesses if actions are moral based on the person's will or intention of acting. Kant's theory can be categorized as a deonotological because "actions are not assessed to be morally

Deontology is an ethical theory concerned with duties and rights. The founder of deontological ethics was a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Kant’s deontological perspective implies people are sensitive to moral duties that require or prohibit certain behaviors, irrespective of the consequences (Tanner, Medin, & Iliev, 2008). The main focus of deontology is duty: deontology is derived from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. A duty is morally mandated action, for instance, the duty never to lie and always to keep your word. Based on Kant, even when individuals do not want to act on duty they are ethically obligated to do so (Rich, 2008).

"We should do only those actions that conform to rules that we could/will be adopted universally."

To distinguish between perfect an imperfect duties. Try to universalize the maxim that is about to be acted. Would you want this maxim to be acted upon your person? By universalizing, you can test whether, your needs are being privileged over the needs of others.

(P2) If we can prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, then we are morally obligated to do so.

Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness; and the beliefs which have thus come down are the rules of morality for the multitude, and for the philosopher until he has succeeded in finding better. That philosophers might easily do this, even now, on many subjects; that the received code of ethics is by no means of divine right;

Consequentialism is ordinarily distinct from deontology, as deontology offers rightness or wrongness of an act, rather than the outcome of the action. In this essay we are going to explore the differences of consequentialism and deontology and apply them to the quandary

Kant’s philosophy was based around the theory that we have a moral unconditional obligation and duty that he calls the “Categorical Imperative.” He believes that an action must be done with a motive of this moral obligation, and if not done with this intention then the action would hold no moral value. Under this umbrella of the “Categorical Imperative” he presents three formulations that he believes to be about equal in importance, relevance, and could be tested towards any case. The first formulation known as the Formula of Universal Law consists of a methodical way to find out morality of actions. The second formulation is known as

Dr. Camille should not continue the study according to the Natural Law Theory. The Natural Law Theory believes that "rightness of actions is determined by nature itself rather than by the laws and customs of societies or the preferences of individuals" (page 926). Furthermore, the Natural Law Theory consists of two main principles, the principle of double effect and the principle of totality (pages 928-929). Moreover, the principle of double effect focuses on the idea that each action has both a good and a bad effect (page 928). Also, the principle of double effect believes that actions must be morally good, the bad effect cannot be the mean in which the good effect is achieved, motivation must be the good effect only, and finally the good effect must be equivalent or greater than the bad effect (page 928).

After explaining and evaluating the first formulation, what comes after is to analyze specific examples by using the universal law. These examples can be divided into two types: perfect duty and imperfect duty to examine if the universal law could solve the problems. First, it is the suicide example. A person suffers from desperate frustration, and he wants to end his life to free himself. According to universal law, avoiding suicide belongs to perfect duties. People should never break the law by way of formal contradiction. The formal contradiction in this case is between the self-love and the objective maxim. Self-love means via suicide is to release his pressure and end his intolerable suffering. Objective maxim is that people should not

“the having and doing of one’s own and what belongs to one would be agreed to

In this sense, a person can do the “right” thing, but if it is not done by his own will or choice, it is not morally virtuous. The claims of Books II and III directly contradict each other. The former argues that force must play a part in the development of moral virtue, while the latter explicitly states that what is done by force is not at all morally virtuous.

Immanuel Kant concerns himself with deontology, and as a deontologist, he believes that the rightness of an action depends in part on things other than the goodness of its consequences, and so, actions should be judged based on an intrinsic moral law that says whether the action is right or wrong – period. Kant introduced the Categorical Imperative which is the central philosophy of his theory of morality, and an understandable approach to this moral law. It is divided into three formulations. The first formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative states that one should “always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be willed as a universal law of humanity”; an act is either right or wrong based on its ability to be

*Never treat people simply as means to an end but always at the same time as ends in themselves

“holds that an action is right, compared to other courses of action, if it results in the greatest good (or at least the minimum harm) for the greatest