Deontology is an ethical approach that focuses on the rightness and wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to peoples’ characters, as they are in virtue ethics, or as opposed to their consequences, as they are in consequentialism. The term deontology comes from the Greek words “deon,” which translates to duty, and “logos,” which translates to science thereby making deontology the study of duty and moral obligations. Its originations come from a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant who is renowned for stating that the wrongness of an action, such as a lie, is not acceptable in any given condition. Kant is most remembered for arguing that it is always better to tell the truth, even if it leads to the death of an innocent person. Kant believed
