Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was arguably one of the greatest philosophers of all time.
Kant thought that it was possible to develop a consistent moral system by using reason.
Kant believed that there were some moral laws that all rational beings had to obey simply because they were rational beings, and this would apply to any rational beings in any universe that might ever exist
Kant taught that every rational human being could work this out for themselves and so did not need to depend on God or their community or anything else to discover what was right and what was wrong.
More on Kant’s Duty-based Ethics or Deontological ethics
The word ‘deontological’ comes from the Greek word deon, which means ‘duty’.
Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions.
Under this form of ethics, you can’t justify an action by showing that it produced good consequences, which is why it’s sometimes called ‘non-Consequentialist’.
Duty-based ethics teaches that some acts are right or wrong because of the sorts of things they are, and people have a duty to act accordingly, regardless of the good or bad consequences that may be produced.
Categorical imperative:
Kant’s version of duty-based ethics was based on something that he called ‘the categorical imperative’ which he intended to be the basis of all other rules. There are two aspects to this.
The first one emphasizes the need for moral rules to be
Kant thought that all human beings should be treated as free and equal members of a shared moral community, and the second version of the categorical imperative reflects this by emphasizing the importance of treating people properly.
Kant is saying that people should always be treated as valuable – as an end in themselves – and should not just be used in order to achieve something else.
Pros of Kant’s theory:
Duty-based ethical systems tend to focus on giving equal respect to all human beings.
It provides clarity on what is considered as right or wrong.
The duty ethics are universal and hence can be applied to all the people in all the situations.
Cons of Kant’s theory:
Strict rule-based application might not be feasible in every situation.
Duty-based ethics is not interested in the results it can lead to courses of action that produce a reduction in the overall happiness of the world.
Duty-based ethics doesn’t deal well with the cases where duties are in conflict.
