Deontological Vs Utilitarian Ethics Essay

Kant believed that morality is dependent upon reason, that to act ration solelyy was the like as acting morally. He placed a high note value upon duty in determining the moral worth of an action. Kants deontological morality is essentially an ethics of duty or obligation. As such, he claims that the moral worth of an action depends solely on whether or not it was through with(p) exclusively from a sense of duty. If an act is d unrivaled simply because one is so inclined, the act has no moral value. This principle holds true sluice if inclination happens to be in agreement with duty. To illustrate this point, he uses the deterrent example of a truly beneficent person.He says that while kindness to all military man is a duty, there are some who are by nature inclined to be kind. He asserts But I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however proper, however pleasing it may be, has nevertheless(prenominal) no true moral worth, but is on a level with other inclinat ions (Gregory and Giancola, 82). When these spread kindness while make by their own inclination to be kind, their kind acts have no moral value, because in his view in order for an act to be moral, it must be done for the sake of duty alone. Essentially, deontological ethics says the less inclined one is to perform an act that duty calls one to, the more than moral worth the act has.While deontological ethics is completely nonparasitic of inclination, utilitarian ethics is in many was based upon it. Utilitarianism is built on hedonism, which is the claim that pleasure is the independent good for man. The main idea of utilitarianism is that man is ingrainedly inclined to seek pleasure and vacate pain and this natural inclination is to be embraced as it will lead man to the supreme end, which is happiness. Utilitarian ethics says that moral acts are those that promote pleasure and avoid pain while immoral acts do the opposite. In is definition of utilitarianism, nates Mills say s that as far as possible, pleasure in its highest quantity and quality should be promoted and this for the superlative number of people possible. He says, that trite is not the agents own greatest happiness, but the greatest sum up of happiness altogether (Gregory and Giancola, 92). In my view this means that check to utilitarian ethics, the moral act is the one that brings pleasure to the greatest amount of people.