What are the strengths of deontology as a framework for ethical decision making? What are the weaknesses?

Question

What are the strengths of deontology as a framework for ethical decision making? What are the weaknesses?

Answer 1

strength: very simple way to look at things. Leads to easy moral decisions.

weakness: The absolute rules of deontological moral theory can never be agreed upon and are therefore arbitrary. They also lead to ridiculous conclusions. For example, if you asked should you kill one person to prevent the deaths of a billion others, should you do it? The deontological moral answer would be no, you should never kill no matter what. Most people would (hopefully) think this is the wrong answer.

Answer 2

I would agree with King David (???) that overall deontology provides us with a clear and somewhat easy to follow set of rules how to act.  This must not be over-simplified, though.  I am not sure that the answer of the deontologist to KD's example would have to be not to kill that one person.  In Kantian terms, killing the one person as a means to an end in my favor would be problematic, but if it were to save thousands of other lives, that would be a different story...

(I must say though, that I am not a great fan of utilitarianism either.)

One of the biggest disadvantages I see with deontology is of course that moral decisions have to be made contextually.  Can there really be a moral code that provides clear rules for all possible contexts?  No, it is fairly easy to create scenarios where either choice would lead to a big no-no in deontological terms.  

Personally, I'd prefer a virtue ethics, even though it comes with its own little problems...