Immanuel Kant's Deontological Theory

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher renowned for his revolutionary metaphysical and epistemological theories, and for his very strict deontological moral theory. The latter stressed the absolute or “exceptionless” nature of moral rules, together with the irrelevance of consequences or feelings in the assessment of moral judgments. As a strong deontologist Kant opposed to all forms of consequentialism. He also opposed to any type of non-cognitivist in ethical theory, particularly the form advocated by the 18th century Scottish philosopher, David Hume, who view moral judgments as expressions of a special kind of “moral sense” or “sentiment”. According to Kant, morality is not concerned with the expressing our feelings. Nor it is a matter of maximizing consequences like pleasure and happiness. On the contrary, the basis for morality is reason. It is our capacity to deliberate about, and act upon, valid reasons for an action that makes us moral beings. In discerning the requirements of right reason we are guided by what Kant called as the Categorical Imperative, the fundamental principle of Kant’s moral theory, and the fundamental basis for all our moral judgments (Waluchow, 2003). …show more content…
There is an important moral distinction between a harmful effect occurring as a side effect of pursuing a good end and causing the harm as means to the good end. Sometimes it is expressed as the view that it is permissible to cause a harmful effect we do not intend, but is an inevitable result of doing something good (if the good thing sufficiently outweighs the bad), but it is wrong to intend the harmful effect, even if we intend it only in order to achieve the good result. So it is all right for a doctor to inject a large dose of morphine into a patient to relieve their paint, knowing that it will make them die sooner, but it is wrong to give that injection with the intention of killing