In the article “Business Meta-Ethics: An Analysis of two theories” written by “F. Neil Brandy and Craig P. Dunn” he has examined the two popular theories of ethics viz. traditional ethical theory (utilitarianism and deontological) and a recent model (consisting of utility, rights, justice). The writer differentiates and supports the traditional ethical theory by giving facts and practical examples.
The writer starts the article by saying that presenting an ethical theory is impulsive. But, no doubt the theory of deontology and utilitarianism by Kant can’t be ignored. Many writers have added several other perspectives like egoism, virtue theory, theories of justice, rights, universalism, ethical relativism, ethics of caring etc. so, the writer says that the foundations of ethics are not secure. Humans are complex creatures and are hard to understand. No one theory will be able to prove it. Conversely, it would be quite interesting to understand human behavior from different perspectives. After that the writer explains the human behavior by giving a very interesting example of automobile engine. He says that the engines have benefited by over and over refinement, but the fundamental design that came early (piston, turbine, electric etc.) were not altered. Similarly, we need to make some fundamental decisions related to the basic understanding of a human behavior instead of hindering it.
The main purpose of the writer is to focus and assess two dominant ethical theories for the managers. The first one is the “traditional ethical theory” viz. Kant’s theories of deontology and utilitarianism (DU) that have been considered competing but the recent research shows that they are complementing, not competing to each other. Kantian deontology and utilitarianism provides the ideals for decision making.
The second one is the recent model of “utility-rights-justice model” (URJ). It opposes that there are three instead of two main requirements that completes