---
title: "Deontology · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/deontology
description: "Deontology is a family of ethical theories that say some acts are right or wrong in themselves, because of duties and rights, whatever their results."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Ethics & metaphysics

# Deontology

Definition

Deontology is a family of ethical theories that say some acts are right or wrong in themselves, because of duties and rights, whatever their results. Kant is the classic example.

On this site

The Deont. column. It marks down deceiving the inhabitants and using pain as a tool.

Role in the model

The Deont. column holds two objections no matter what it costs: deceiving the inhabitants about what their world is, and using pain to control them. Both are cheap in FLOPS. On this view neither is allowed, whatever the numbers say.

Related

[Moral status](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/moral-status)[Free will](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/free-will)

In the trees

[Give yourself the law · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=g-kant)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)