Deontology

Deontology is one of three classic moral theories, among virtue ethics and teleology. Because of the plurality of deontological theories, there isnt any unique definition of deontology which was accepted by all of the philosophers. Most commentators characterize deontology as the class of non-teleological theories. Deontological theories deny what teleological theories affirm. It is widely agreed that a theory is teleological if it justifies the right, moral duty, or obligation, on the grounds that it promotes what is good. But deontologists reject it. Against the common thought, it seems that the rate of deontology isnt only to maximize the good. There are some definitions of deontology which is not comprehensive in my opinion: a committed to principle of justice, non-teleological, non-optimizing, rule center and absolutist theory or a theory which respect to the persons and values. In this paper, I dealt with definitions of Deontology with descriptive-analytic method and after the analysis and critique of them, attempted to reach a comprehensive definition of Deontology. Finally I concluded that Rawls’s definition of deontology is a good one. In his definition, “teleological” are only those theories which are committed to both following cl (1) The good is defined independently from the right; (2) The right is defined as that which maximizes the good. Deontological theories, therefore, either do not specify the good independently from the right, or do not conceive of the right as that which maximizes the good. But Rawls’s definition is negative. It should be added to it, that deontological theories claim that the rightness or wrongness of actions depends on considerations other than maximizes the good, such as essence of action, generalization principle, divine command, social contract, human rights and personal will.