ABSTRACT
Nonconsequentialism (deontology) says that some kinds of action (such as killing the innocent or breaking promises) are wrong in themselves, and not just wrong because they have bad consequences. Such things may be exceptionlessly wrong, or may just have some independent moral weight against them. Some nonconsequentialists (like the eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant) support exceptionless rules. Others (like the twentieth-century British philosopher W.D. Ross) support only weaker prima facie rules.
