In the 18th century Immanuel Kant – arguably the most important philosopher of the historical European Enlightenment – gave us what is known as a ‘deontological (duty-oriented)’ moral philosophy, as opposed to, for example, a ‘consequentialist’ variety, or one that assesses the moral rightness of human actions by asking whether the results (consequences) of actions justify the actions themselves. By contrast, Kant argued that duty – not inclination – should be regarded as the sole basis for judging the moral goodness of actions.
