Deontological ethics

What is the point of departure?

Each human beings should be treated as an end.Certain acts (lying, breaking promises, killing...) are wrong in themselves.

Intervention

An intervention may be justifiedIf there are grave violations of human rightsIf there are grave violations of international conventions/treatises 

What is right?

Should I lie to save a person from a difficult situation?Should I kill a person to relieve her from severe suffering?Should I break a promise if this can help someone in real trouble? One possible answer to these questions: no, because they imply violating moral duties or rights

Deontological ethics

There are other considerations (like duties, justice, rights) than goodness or badness of its consequences that make an action right or wrong

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

Kant’s ethics

Starts from a view of human nature: Human being is autonomousHuman being is rationalHuman beings can act from a good will

A moral act is to act according to The moral law = the moral dutyNot according to means – ends; ”If I do X..then I will achieve Y”

Categorical imperative I

Act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will be a universal law

Duties: Do not lieKeep promisesEtcCritique: How to solve conflicts of duties?

Categorical imperative II

Act so that you treat humanity…always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means

Alan Donogan

Rationality is important because only rational beings can choose the means and ends = what is valuable..To lie, to break promises and to kill = to use human beings as means

Contactariansim

Respect for persons/citizensTo decide together to form a societyEx John Rawls: A contract under a ”veil of ignorance”

John Rawls: A Theory of Justice (1971)

“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought” (p3)

The primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society (= economic and political institutions)

The aim of justice: to compensate for the outcome of the “natural lottery”

Rawls’ method

1. Choice of principles under the veil of ignoranceRationality:Maximin rule: rank alternatives by the worst possible outcome (you can belong to the lowest/poorest group in the real society)Cohere with a sense of justice, moral intuitions that we have about justice2. Apply the principles to the real, existing society (basic structure) as moral guidance

Rawls’ two principles of justice:

First principleEach person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all

Second principleSocial and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both :(a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and(b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity (Rawls, 1971 p. 303)= justice as fairness

What are Human Rights?

Moral claims of particular importance,universal, i.e. they belong to every individual human being irrespective of nationality, race or sex,equal; no human being has more human rights than any other.

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights(1948) – gap between ideal and practice!

Human Rights and Human Dignity

Why are human rights prescriptive? Why do they oblige us? “So, if rights make sense at all, then the invasion of relatively important rights must be a very serious matter. It means treating a man as less than a man, or as less worthy of concern than other men”. (Dworkin, 1977)

The idea of human dignity – that each human being is worthy of respect or concern - is justified in different ways in different moral traditions, most of the justifications come down to human traits of rationality, agency, freedom and morality, or “sacredness”. human dignity, and as a consequence human rights, are justified through an “overlapping consensus” of different moral doctrines.

What should count as human rights? What is of such significance for human life?

Answer from theories of Human needsHuman capabilitiesHuman flourishingCommon human nature – but the way these needs etc will be fulfilled will differ depending on cultural context: the need for nutrition will be met by rice and curry in India and by tapas in Spain!

Human Rights Minimalism vs Maximalism

Human Rights as universal moral standards: Minimalism: a limited number of “urgent” human rights (life, prohibition of slavery and torture) Maximalism: an extended number; e.g. “democratic participation”, “…a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being..” (§25) etcArgument for maximalism: both kinds of rights (political and economic) contribute to human flourishing!

Rights implies Duties

Interactional conception: relation between right-holders and duty-bearers (individuals or social agent)Institutional conception: focus on social institutions and basic structure: do they protect and fulfil human rights?

Critique

Is the human rights rhetoric based on WesternIndividualism? Ex Muhammed Mahathir (Malaysia) ”Asian values” stresses community rather than individual rights