Deontological

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A moral philosophy that prioritizes obligations and principles over the outcomes of actions
2. An ethical perspective that evaluates the morality of an act based on its adherence to predefined rules rather than the consequences it produces
3. A school of thought in ethics that emphasizes the importance of duties and rules instead of the results of actions

Etymology: "Deontological" is built from "deontology," which Jeremy Bentham coined, with the adjective-forming suffix "-ical" added to it. The Greek roots are "deon," meaning "that which is binding" or "duty," and "-logia," meaning "study of" or "discourse," so the literal sense is roughly "the study of duty." The noun entered the language in 1832, the year Bentham's posthumous work "Deontology" was published, and the adjective followed in the same year. For most of its life the word was a fairly loose term for the theory of moral obligation. Its sharper technical meaning came later: the philosopher C. D. Broad used the adjective in 1930 to label ethical theories that judge actions by whether they fulfil duties or follow rules, rather than by their consequences. Broad's usage set the contrast with consequentialism that philosophy students still learn today.