Benefits of the Teleological theory of morality

Essay by hajirsailorsUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, May 2005

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The majority of the population, probably including yourself, claims they act "morally". Many of these people ask other people to act "morally", but when you ask these "moral" people what morality is they stand there for a minute, and almost every single person will give you the wrong answer. So what is morality? In brief, morality is a basic set of principles that people follow. A perfect example would be Osama Bin Laden, a man that believes completely in what he does, and does it to his best. He has his own set of "morals" which he follows perfectly. He is acting morally. On the other hand we have Saddam Hussein; he does not follow any set of standards consistently, and therefore is not considered "moral". Obviously someone who acts morally may be acting morally according to their set of standards, but in our opinion are very wrong. This is because we have different systems of morality.

There are three major systems of morality: Immanuel Kant's theory of Deontology, Aristotle's theory on Virtues, and finally the theory of Utility, or the Utilitarian principles of Teleology.

To start off we have Immanuel Kant, creator of the categorical imperative and the founder of deontological principles. These principles state that one shall do their duty by not lying, not killing, not going to war, etc. As a basic everyday rule, followers would ask themselves if the maxim of the action could be taken as a universal law. This is the simple Christian belief that if you do something, then everybody else should be able to do it, or, do unto others as you would wish others to do unto you. On the surface, deontology sure looks like the right way of thinking: you'll be fine in life if you don't lie, you...