DEONTOLOGY. – From Lat. *deō* (2nd pers. sing. of *dēbēre*, “to owe”) and *‑ontologia* (“science of”), “science of duties.” It is the title of the posthumous work by Bentham, *Deontology or the science of morality* (London 1834), in which his utilitarian system is expounded, establishing as the norm of morality the sum of the advantages and pleasures derivable from human action. The term is now used to designate, either universally or within a given ethical-social sphere, the theory of duties. The derived term *deontologism* signifies generically a system of morality founded on the notion of duty. In theodicy, the proof of the existence of God drawn from the feeling of moral obligation inherent in human conscience is sometimes called *deontological*.
DEOONTOLOGIA
BIBL.: A. Lalande, s. V. in *Vocabulaire de la philosophie*, 5th ed., Paris 1947, p. 207. For the deontological argument, F. A. Palumbo, *Theodicea*, Rome 1942, pp. 232–41 (with bibliography). Ugo Viglino