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Writing assignment: Deontology
In 500 words or more (no less), create a maxim and evaluate it via the three formulations of the Categorical Imperative. Your maxim should only involve moral questions [i.e. “Stealing is always wrong”, but not “Doing jumping jacks is always wrong”]. The moral question should be general enough to apply to first principles and should involve no circumstantial qualifiers [i.e. “Stealing is always wrong”, not “If I am not hungry or chasing a bad guy or when no one is looking, stealing is always wrong”]. You may use examples, but you will still need to include a full scholarly definition of each, with commentary. You may use Wikipedia as a starting point, but be aware that Wikipedia is not a scholarly source and therefore can never be quoted in your paper. You will need to include in-text citations in your essay (last name, date, pg#) along with an APA formatted References page. You can find tools and examples of APA citation formats at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.
Writing assignment: Deontology Answer
The Three Formulations of Categorical Imperative
The maxim I will be using: I should cheat in exam to obtain a high grade.
The first principle is the Universalizability Principle. Consider a world in which every action could be generalized. Everyone has the ability to duplicate any action. Like the maxim I coined, which states that I should cheat in order to get a good grade. If you follow this line of reasoning all the way to the end, you’ll end up with a world full of constant cheating and serious trust issues.