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[A]ny choice of a conceptual scheme presupposes values. Hilary Putnam, Reason, Truth, and History
IN ETHICS AS ELSEWHERE, the basic categories used by writers to mark the conceptual terrain of their field profoundly affect readers' understanding of what is important within the field. And in ethics (as elsewhere), most writers who habitually employ the currently accepted categories of their discipline have no knowledge of the particular history of these categories-of who first coined them, of the purposes for which they were originally intended, of how their meanings have shifted over the years, of how ascending categories have displaced descending ones, of who is primarily responsible for their current meanings, etc. As an illustration of this claim, I propose to examine the history of 'deontology' in ethics, with an aim to making the recent topographical shifts within the field less "unknown to ourselves." 1
Who was the first author to employ "the general, ugly, and familiar heading of deontology"2 within ethics, and how was the term first used? How have the term's primary meanings within ethics changed over the years, and who is responsible for these changes? How did 'deontology' come to be viewed as one of the "two main concepts of ethics,"s and what categories did it replace during its ascendancy? Although one writer has recently reminded us that "the canon that sorts all moral theories as deontological or teleological" has, like all other canons, "a history,"4 I believe that the details of this particular history have still not been accurately traced.
1. ETYMOLOGY
The English word 'deontology' is a neologism coined from the Greek deon, deont-: that which is binding, needful, right, proper (neuter of the present participle of dei: it is binding on one, it behooves one to do, one must, one ought) + logia: discourse. Although many ancient Greek authors frequently used the word dei in contexts which arguably express (some) sense of a moral 'ought',5 it should be kept in mind throughout our discussion that 'deontology' is not a word that any ancient Greek author ever used:6 it is a term of relatively recent coinage.
2. BENTHAMITE BEGINNINGS
Who introduced the term 'deontology' into the English language? The first occurrence of 'deontology' listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is from an...