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deontology
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In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology () is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules and principles, rather than based on the consequences of the action. It is sometimes described as duty-, obligation-, or rule-based ethics. Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted to utilitarianism and other consequentialist theories, virtue ethics, and pragmatic ethics. In the deontological approach, the inherent rightfulness of actions is considered more important than their conseq
Deontology is an ethical theory that judges whether actions are right or wrong based on fixed rules and principles rather than their outcomes or consequences. It matters because it offers a different moral framework from other approaches—emphasizing that some actions are inherently right or wrong regardless of results, rather than evaluating them by their effects.
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~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
13 sectionsContents
- Deontological philosophies
- Kantianism
- Divine command theory
- Ross's deontological pluralism
- Contemporary deontology
- Deontology and consequentialism
- Principle of permissible harm
- Reconciling deontology with consequentialism
- Secular deontology
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology () is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules and principles, rather than based on the consequences of the action. It is sometimes described as duty-, obligation-, or rule-based ethics. Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted to utilitarianism and other consequentialist theories, virtue ethics, and pragmatic ethics. In the deontological approach, the inherent rightfulness of actions is considered more important than their consequences.
The term deontological was first used to describe the current, specialised definition by C. D. Broad in his 1930 book, Five Types of Ethical Theory. Older usage of the term goes back to Jeremy Bentham, who coined it prior to 1816 as a synonym of dicastic or censorial ethics (i.e., ethics based on judgement). The more general sense of the word is retained in French, especially in the term code de déontologie (ethical code), in the context of professional ethics.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “deontology” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.