Deontological Vs Consequentialist Ethical Decision Making Approach

Deontological ethics is the position which judges the morality of actions on the basis of the action’s adherence to rules or a rule. In certain times, it is described as “rule” “obligation” or “duty” based ethics since rules will bind you to duty.

Consequentialism is a normative ethical theory class that holds that, the consequences of a person’s conduct are the basis for any decision about the wrongness or rightness of that conduct.

Although Deontology and Consequentialism differ a lot, both focus on conduct. The former identifies the conducts that are prescribed by duty and the latter identifies the conduct that maximize happiness.

Deontology and consequentialism differ in that; in deontology, adherence to the given rules determine the morality of an action while in consequentialism, the specific results of an action determine its morality. This simply means that, a consequentialist condemns a thief basing his facts that, his actions, have caused real harm. A deontologist condemns a thief basing his facts that, he/she broke the moral imperative which commands a person not to steal.

Under consequentialism, laws aim at maximizing the society’s happiness. Since punishment and crime are not consistent with happiness, they should therefore be minimized. Under deontology, if you have good actions, then the outcome is not an issue (Wallaer, Bruce N., 2005). This means that Consequentialismis a theory according to which good outcomes are maximized by right actions. Deontology decides the rightness of an action using features of acts rather than their outcomes. Deontological approach does not have a sense of accountability since people are not responsible for their behaviors’ results. Consequentialism is therefore better in real life

Scroll to Top