Deontological &

Teleological
PPT 2 Two Types of Theory

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
What do the words mean?
• Deon – duty (as in Kantian ethics)
• Telos –Utilitarian purpose/goal = maximising happiness/pleasure
• Natural Law - deontological aspects from a teleological worldview.

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
Natural Law
• Aquinas - Aristotle & Bible
• Aristotle – ultimate good – Eudaimonia.
• Aquinas - blessedness (beatitudo) - version of eudaimonia. felicitas – for
non-believers.
• Natural Law a posteriori.

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
Natural Law contd
• Secondary precepts - a process of reason.
• “appropriation of the eternal law by our reason”.
• Eternal law - God reveals himself by natural law (designed purpose within
this law)

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
The Rules are not hard rules
• Natural Law rules - ‘approximate conclusions of our reason’ Aquinas
• Kant - categoricals (absolutes) = hard rules.
• When two moral goods conflict?
• Crazy axe murderer – do we tell the truth, or lie and save our friend’s life?

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
Kant
• Kant - ‘duty for duty’s sake’.
• Always follow the moral categorical imperative.
• Ignore feelings.
• Hume disagrees – ‘reason is the slave of the passions’

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
Teleological theories
• Kant – the summum bonum. Goodness doesn’t depend on this.
• Utilitarians – happiness defines the ‘good’. Does depend on the end.
• Kant ‘the only intrinsic good is the good will’ – a motive
• Situation Ethicists – the only intrinsic good is an end - agape.

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
Right Judgement
• Kant - judgment is an imaginative step.
• Mill - sympathy for others and calculation of maximum happiness
• Bernard Williams – morality is about bringing our rational judgement to
bear on events and actions.

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
A Question?
• Which moral theory has the most realistic view of the process of making a
judgement?

Copyright © 2015 Active Education

peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations
 Copyright © 2015 Active Education
peped.org/philosophicalinvestigations