Discussion 5 Deontological Ethics.docx - Deontological...

Deontological Ethics
Deontology is an ethical theory used for moral judgment of actions. In the history of
philosophy and ethics, Immanuel Kant is considered a prominent representative of deontological
ethics, which should help make decision-making morally right. However, despite the well-
developed principle of the categorical imperative, Kant and his deontology were subjected to
criticism. Consequently, other ethical theories were offered as alternatives to Kant’s approach.
One theory is utilitarianism, which refutes deontological ethics and Kant’s assumptions. Drawing
on the arguments from the book “The Moral Life,” the problem of moral decision-making is
increasingly complex and involves at least three different stakeholders; thus, although Kant’s
arguments have defects and do not consider external factors that affect moral judgment,
deontological resolution of the problem is more reasonable compared to utilitarianism and
solutions offered by Kant’s critics.
The problem of moral decision-making is highly complex because there is no universal
indicator that would allow conducting the process of judgment concerning the moral rightness or
wrongness of a decision. At the first glance, one may assume that there are no significant
challenges in assessing a particular decision. Yet, from the ethical standpoint, there is no
unanimous opinion regarding the way a particular decision should be evaluated in terms of
morality. While some theories convey that a decision is morally good if it adheres to a specific
set of rules, others argue that the outcome of a decision should be used as the main indicator for
the evaluation of this decision. The listed approaches to the decision-making problem are
mutually exclusive and compete with each other. However, these theories share the number and
type of stakeholders that could be affected by the decision-making process. The stakeholders
include a person who makes a decision, a person and or a group that is directly affected by a

decision, and the general population that views this decision as either morally wrong or morally
right. Hence, resolving this problem requires accepting one of the theories and their criticism
discussed further in the paper.
Kant and his categorical imperative offer well-developed solutions to problems of
decision-making. In particular, the principle of categorical imperative implies that a decision is
morally good when it could be a universal law [CITATION Poj22 \p 249 \l 1033 ]. In other
words, categorical imperative includes the set of rules, guidelines, and duties that are necessary
for people who make decisions. It is the rule of deontology that does not take into account the
consequences of a decision when evaluating this decision. Thus, the problem of decision-making
could be resolved in accordance with the following statement: one should make the decision that
one will want other people to make the same decision as a universal law.