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A beginner question here, and perhaps its just a question of nomenclature, but:

  • if teleological ethics (consequentialism and utilitarianism etc) are the opposite of deontological ethics, why are they called "de"ontological as opposite to just "ontological" ethics

I guess the prefix "de" is not a negation in this context as it is often used in English? So for example, "de"ontology is not the opposite of "ontology" (which I understand is epistomology or phenomenology, depending on what reference you read).

Sorry for the basic question!

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    It's from "deon" for "what is right". Don't totally give up on the question, though; you can evolve it into, "Is the deontological/teleological distinction, in ethics, mutually exclusive and exhaustive?" for example.
    – Kristian Berry
    Commented Aug 18 at 9:21
  • @KristianBerry Ok, thanks a lot. Thats great! So are they (mutually exclusive)? Or is that another question ... ? My (basic) understanding was that they were ...
    – TriJB
    Commented Aug 18 at 9:28
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    "De" is not a prefix, it is part of the root in δεῖ, to bind, δέον is its present participle (what binds, duty). Teleology and deontology are not mutually exclusive, duty may well be interpreted as that which accords with values or virtues, rule utilitarianism is a variant. Some even go as far as to say that they express the same substance in two different forms (classical physical laws can be reformulated as optimizing a functional, for example), but that might be a bridge too far for ethics.
    – Conifold
    Commented Aug 18 at 10:00

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They are not "opposites". They approach ethics from different lenses.

Also, ontology is:

the philosophical study of being ... ontology examines what all entities have in common and how they are divided into fundamental classes

Teleological ethics is not about that, so that's why it's not called ontological ethics.

If you turn the question around and ask why deontology is called deontology when it's not the opposite of ontology, then the simple answer is that it's deon-tology (the study of duty) not de-ontology.

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Well, no one knows philosophical nomenclature better than philosophers, so you're asking a good question.

You ask:

Why is deontological ethics the opposite of teleological ethics and not "ontological" ethics

This is technically an etymological question, so let's see what Etymonline.com has to say!

Ontology, is the study of the existence of things, and the word 'ontology' traces it's root back to the Greek 'ontos'. From etymonline.com's corresponding article:

"the metaphysical science or study of being and the essence of things," 1660s (Gideon Harvey), from Modern Latin ontologia (c. 1600); see onto- + -logy. Related: Ontologist.

Deontology, is the study of the ethical obligations, and the word 'deontology' traces it's root back to the Greek 'deon'. From etymonline.com's corresponding article:

"science of moral duty, ethics," 1817, from Greek deont-, combining form of deon "that which is binding, duty" (neuter present participle of dei "is binding") + -ology. Said to have been coined by Bentham, but it is used in a wider sense than he intended it. Related: Deontological.

So, here then we learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes apparent orthographical similiarties are actually coincidences, and do not entail morphological relationships. That is, the concepts aren't opposites, because the Greek words that we borrowed into English aren't opposites. They only seem like it.

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