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.
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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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