Deontology: Core Ideas/Values, View of the Good, and Major Thinkers

Deontology
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Deontology
Deontological ethics ( deontology) is an approach that focuses on the goodness or badness of actions themselves according to a given set of rules. Deontology is opposed to utilitarianism which focuses on the consequences of the goodness and badness of actions. Deontology is derived from two greek words deon, which means duty, and logos which means science. According to deontology, an action's goodness or badness depends on the situation that brought it, whether it was right or wrong. Thus, following a moral norm makes an action or choice right.
Further, in deontological ethics, actions are considered morally right because of some characteristics of the actions themselves and not because the outcome of the actions is good. In addition, deontology ethics support that at least some activities are morally demanding regardless of their outcome for human well-being (Alexander & Moore, 2020). For instance, according to deontological theory, it was wrong for American soldiers to invade Vietnam and kill innocent individuals during world war II. However, to justify its action, the united states government used the domino theory to explain its military intervention in Vietnam. The domino theory, in this case, meant that if one country fell under communism, the US army would knock everyone surrounding it to prevent the spread of communism. 
Immanuel Kant
Historically, philosophers argued that morality and reasoning were motivated and achieved by religious deities, not individuals. They believed that religious beliefs guided and motivated the morality and decision-making of individuals. However, in the 18th century, a German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, disagreed with this notion noting that human understanding is the foundation of the general law of nature that shapes experience. In addition, he argued that humans hold a high value on morality regardless of their beliefs or lack of one. Further, he stated that human reasoning and understanding give themselves to the moral law, which forms the foundation for beliefs in God, freedom, and immortality. Consequently, he argued that religion is not a determinant of what the law is, and thus right or wrong can be using fundamental human intellect. 
Thus, Kant's deontology is associated with the definition of duties, wrong or right, which are the main deontic categories, and optional, obligatory, and supererogatory (Cressman et al., 2019). Further, he argued that right or wrong is different from good or bad in that they dictate actions in value categories. Also, Kant strongly believes morality is logical and that ethics comprises directions about what we ought to do. Therefore, Kant concludes that human duties are obtained from categorical imperative, in which imperative means order or command. Unlike other authoritative orders, these commands come from within human reasoning but perform a similar task to command particular actions. Thus, Kant formulated two imperatives to explain his theory of ethics and morality: the hypothetical and categorical imperative. 
Hypothetical imperative identifies actions individuals ought to take to achieve a particular goal. It is, th...