Kantian Deontological ethics

Rationalists:

Innate knowledge of moral principles implanted into us by God or other means and discoverable by reason

Empiricists:

Morality is a human creation and is fundamentally based on desire. It is about allowing us to live harmoniously and is discoverable through experience.

Deontologists

Deontology claims that actions are right or wrong in themselves, not depending on their consequences. We have moral duties (deon) to do things which it is right to do and moral duties not to do things which it is wrong to do.

good will

In Kant, the good will is the will that is motivated by duty, which Kant argues means that it chooses in accordance with reason. It is the only thing that is morally good without qualification.

Duties

Duties are obligations we have towards someone or something.

These could be general duties (towards anyone, e.g. do not murder) or specific duties (because of our particular relationships, e.g. to provide for one's children). 

Acting out of duty 

doing the right action with a good will (for the sole reason that it is your duty) 

Acting in accordance with duty 

 doing the right action (for some other reason)

Hypothetical imperative

An imperative is a command or order. A hypothetical imperative is a statement about what you ought to do, on the condition of some desire or goal.

Hypothetical imperatives are often presented in the form 'you must x if y' e.g. you ought to study hard if you want to pass your exam'

First formulation

“I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law" 

universalism

“Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” 

Contradiction in conception

= a maxim is wrong if willing everyone to act on it would be somehow self-contradictory

Contradiction in will

This is where willing a certain maxim would be contradictory, not because it leads to a logical contradiction, but because it leads to something it would be irrational to want. 

Second formulation

“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.”

Categorical imperitive

Absolute commands we are obliged to follow in all circumstances are categorical and only these imperatives are moral. As rational agents we can work out the categorical imperative by asking whether the maxim that lies behind our action is universalizable and treats people as ends in themselves.