-Immanuel Kant's Deontology -Prima Facie Duties by Ser William David Ross

1. THE SCIENCE OF
HAPPINESS
Immanuel Kant’s Deontology
Prima Facie Duties
By Juna Phinky L. Delostrico, RPm

2. DEONTOLOGY
Greek word :
“deon” – duty or obligation
“logos” – study
*refers to an approach to Ethics that focuses on
morality base on the actions themselves.

3. IMMANUEL KANT
BORN: April 22, 1724 -
Königsberg, Prussia
DIED: February 12, 1804
WORKS: Groundwork of a
Methaphysics of Morals, Critique of
Pure Reason

4. • Happiness
• ACTION = DESIRES/HAPPINESS
• DESIRES/HAPPINESS ≠
FREEDOM
• FREEDOM = RATIONALITY
• RATIONALITY = MORALITY
• MORALITY = DUTY
• DUTY = Objective MAXIM
*maxim – principle upon which
we act
HYPOTHETICAL
IMPERATIVE – Compels
action in a given
circumstance; Subjective
Maxim
CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE – Denotes an
absolute, unconditional
requirement that exerts its
authority in all
circumstances, both required
and justified as an end itself;
Objective Maxim

5. CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE:
1. FORMULA OF UNIVERSAL LAW:
“ACT SO THAT THE MAXIM OF YOUR ACTION CAN BE WILLED A UNIVERSAL
LAW”
2. FORMULA OF THE END IN ITSELF:
“ACT IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU TREAT HUMANITY, WHETHER IN YOUR OWN
PERSON OR IN THE PERSON OF ANOTHER, ALWAYS AT THE SAME TIME AS
AN END AND NEVER SIMPLY AS MEANS.
3. FORMULA OF KINGDOM OF ENDS
“ACT AS IF YOU WERE THROUGH YOUR MAXIMS A LAW-MAKING MEMBER
OF MEMBER OF A KINGDOM OF ENDS.”

6. HAPPINESS
*Sensible happiness – inclinations; desires
*Moral Happiness – the capacity that opposes inclination with a
constant ‘will to power’
“WHEN THE THINKING MAN HAS TRIUMPHED OVER TEMPATIONS TO
VICE AND IS CONSCIOUS OF HAVING DONE HIS DIFFICULT DUTY, HE
FINDS HIMSELF IN A STATE OF SATISFACTION AND PEACE OF MIND
WHICH WE CAN CALL ‘HAPPINESS’.”
HAPPINESS = SENSE OF DUTY = DUTY =
MORALITY = RATIONALITY =ACTION

7. PRIMA FACIE DUTIES
SER WILLIAM DAVID ROSS
BORN: APRIL 15, 1877 – Thurso, Scotland
DIED: MAY 5, 1971
WORKS: The Right and the Good.
A duty that is binding (obligatory) other
things equal, that
It is overridden or trumped by another
duty or duties.

8. PRIMA FACIE
DUTIES
1. Fidelity
2. Reparation
3. Gratitude
4. Non-injury
5. Beneficence
6. Self-Improvement
7. Justice
MORAL INTUITIONISM
1. It tells us when one prima facie
rule, which at first seems to
apply, does not apply because
another rule overrides it.
2. Tells us what prima facie duties
are.
3. Tells us what the priority rules
are.

9. CONTRACTARIANISM
Right acts are those that do not
violate the free, rational
agreements we’ve made.
THOMAS HOBBES
BORN: APRIL 5, 1588
DIED: DECEMBER 4, 1679
Leviathan

10. STATE OF NATURE:
- Freedom – self-preservation
- Freedom x Security
STATE OF WAR:
- War against All
- The life of man is ‘SOLITARY,
POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH,
SHORT
- Every man against every man
‘Bellum omnium contra omnes’
1. ‘as long as this natural right of every
man to everything endureth, there can
be no security to any man, how strong
or wise soever he may be, of living out
the time which nature ordinarily
alloweth men to live. And consequently
it is precept, or general rule of reason:
that every man ought to endeavor
peace, as far as hope of obtaining it.
2. ‘That man be willing, when others are
so too, as far forth as for peace and
defense himself he shall think it
necessary, to lay down this right to all
things;
3. ‘That men perform their covenants
made.’

11. CONTRACT
MORALITY
- Agreement ; Contract
- Changeable
‘the mutual transferring of
right’
DEFECTION
breaking of the contract
The Commonwealth
‘therefore before the names of
just and unjust can have place,
there must be some coercive power
to complement equally to the
performance of their covenants, by
the terror of some punishment
greater than the benefit they expect
by the breach of their covenant, and
to make good that propriety which
by mutual contract men acquire in
recompense of the universal right.

12. IMMANUEL KANT SER W. D. ROSS THOMAS HOBBES
Rationality Moral Intuitionism
Rationality –
Contract
Moral Absolutism Pluralistic Contractarian
Categorical
Imperative
Prima facie Duties
Contract /
Agreement
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

13. HAPPINESS