Dr Gerald Lang | Leeds

Date | 4 November 2026

Title | Deontology and the Modalities of Status

Location | Room 2.01, 7-9 South Leinster Street (Phoenix House)

Abstract:

The ‘paradox of deontology’ challenges deontology by asking why it does not sanction the minimization of rights violations overall. An influential deontological reply, associated with Frances Kamm, insists that each individual’s inviolability is boosted if it is impermissible to sacrifice any one of them for the sake of the many. But this line of argument needs to do more to defend inviolability against rival measures of moral standing, such as saveability. Can the deadlock between inviolability and saveability be broken? I will argue that there is more to inviolability than meets the eye, and less to saveability than first appearances suggest.