Deontology — When Some Things Are Always Wrong
Some actions are wrong regardless of the good they might produce. You cannot torture an innocent person even if it would save a hundred lives. You cannot frame someone for a crime they did not commit even if it would prevent a riot. Deontological ethics holds that morality is fundamentally about rules and duties, not outcomes. The strict version refuses any exception. The contemporary version allows context but preserves the core: certain constraints are near-absolute, even when breaking them would produce a better aggregate result.
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You are a juror. Every piece of evidence says guilty — but your gut tells you the defendant is innocent. The jury must be unanimous.
Research background
Immanuel Kant developed the most influential deontological framework in the 18th century, with his categorical imperative as its central test. Modern deontology divides between strict rule-followers and contextualists who weight duties without abandoning them.
- Deontological Ethics — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Moral Dilemmas — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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