Virtue and Deontology
I am at crossroads once again. I'm currently making my way through a series of lectures on Macintyre's After Virtue and I find myself unprepared to defend Kant's deontology. Previously, I would have never thought to associate the concept of teleology with the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, virtue ethics, and natural law. I find both virtue ethics and deontology to be especially convincing, and I understand that there is no easy answer to reconcile the two. I think Utilitarianism is the only ethical theory that I can rule out safely for adopting myself. I was wondering what your thoughts were. I really want to integrate both theories. 1. Derivation of duty -- I was investigating how each ethical theory bridges the is-ought gap that Hume discusses. Kant derives his duties from pure practical reason, which I don't think I enjoy. I think that there are duties that are "good-in-and-of-themselves" but I don't think they come from reason. I think duties are...