Ethics is the standards of behavior, developed as a result of one’s concept of right and wrong.…
Duty-based ethics have to do with humility, religion, rights, and freedoms. While outcome-based ethics are focused on the consequence of an action and not the nature of the action itself.…
The different theories of ethics; virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics seem very similar, but are in fact very different from one another. Each of these theories is based on a different reasoning behind the decision making process, when making an ethic choice.…
Ethics are the principles and standards that guide our behavior towards other people. Ethics are more subjective, more a matter of personal or cultural interpretation than laws. Laws either clearly require or prohibit an action, while ethical determinations can be harder to make because the distinctions between what is right and wrong are not always clearly defined in such black and white terms.…
The similarities and differences between ethical theories are based on the explanation of ethical principles from the views of an individual. There are three major ethical theories: virtue ethics, deontology, and utilitarianism ethics. Ethics is the beliefs of right and wrong in human action (Boylan, 2009). There are many theories that exist on how people come to believe what is the right and wrong decision.…
The similarities between the ethics theories concern the idea of right and wrong, and good and bad. The differences constitute on how they interpret right from wrong, and good from bad. With the virtue theory deals with the individual, whereas the utilitarianism focus on the group where actions are right when they provide the greatest good to the largest…
Ethics refers to reasonable standards of right and wrong that advise what humans should to do regarding benefits to society, obligations, fairness, or specific virtues (Velasquez, Andre, & Shanks, 2010). Utilitarianism, virtue, and deontological are three ethical theories that deal with individual beliefs and actions. Each person possesses ethics and morals but may not know what they are or how they are used in certain situations. Comparing the three theories will help understand where ethics stand in an individual’s life.…
The first ethical theory is Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that describes how the moral value or worth of an action is determined by how much benefit is gained from that action. It is measured by not only the amount of benefit gained but also the amount of people with benefits in the process. This theory hopes to provide guidance when choosing a course of action. Utilitarianism is divided into two groups based off of how they apply the theory. A Rule Utilitarian believes that the action is right if it results in happiness of great benefit (Munson, 2009). For example, the commandment, “thou shall not kill” is very straight forward and doesn’t leave room for interpretation. Someone who follows Rule Utilitarianism would strictly follow this rule by never committing murder or killing any living creature. An Act Utilitarian would decipher the commandment according to its greatest benefit. Act utilitarianism is the belief that an action is right if it is better than all of the other options as long as it yields the best results. In other words, there may be situations in which breaking the rules may be the best option. Breaking the commandment, “ thou shall not kill” may seem wrong when looking at it from the surface, but if it is done to save the life’s of others it may yield the best result. The absolute that applies to Utilitarianism is the Bible. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart; not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves…
There are three main approaches to ethical theory. The three areas are utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. Utilitarianism is often thought of as the consequences. In a utilitarian’s mind, the best choice is the one that is made to meet most people’s satisfaction and is ethically correct. The problem with utilitarianism is that as time passes and they begin to have wrong predictions, then the benefit is less for everyone and that person begins to look unethical. Also, there is the possibility for laws to conflict with a utilitarian’s way of thinking, at times they will infringe upon one person’s rights in order to benefit the greater population. Deontological theory states that people should follow their own obligations first and foremost ahead of other individuals or society. In this person’s thinking, they believe that following through with their own obligations is ethically correct. A deontologist has the thinking that they must follow the rules set, no matter the consequences. The biggest fault with a deontologist is that there is no logical basis for setting these rules. Since deontology is not based on specifics of different situations, there is no true guidance when there are conflicting obligations in any situation. Lastly, virtue ethical theory focuses mostly on the character of the person instead of the action that the person is committing. This theory takes into account a person’s morals, reputation and motivation for the act. The biggest fault with this sort of ethical theory is that a person’s change in morals is not considered.…
These varies kinds of ethics are all to encompass implications of moral principles and the effects it has on our lives. The issue arises when speaking of ethics moral principles cannot be all that creates an ethical person. Theorist tie into virtues and the questions as stated above are questioned. Virtues are developed through learning and through practice. In his essay, “The Importance of Values and Culture in Ethical Decision Making”, Christine Chmielewski describes a societal view as sanctions imposed on those who fail to follow ethical standards There are laws created to dictate consequences for those found guilty of unethical behaviors (2004). Chmielewski states, when faced with ethical decision making, “one of the first questions to consider is ‘what a reasonable man would do in this situation?’(…
As an individual one is faced with ethics and morals daily. The way the individual handles them will vary based upon their beliefs, background, and viewpoints of the definition. Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles or values. Dictionary.com expands on ethics as the “rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc., and morals is concerned with the principles or rules of right and wrong conduct or the distinction between right and wrong.” Ethic and moral are instill into an individual from an adult when growing up to distinguish right from wrong as the individual develops into their own unique character just like the three branches of ethics: virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontology. Let’s discover the differences and similarities by comparing these three theories and add a personal experience to relate to one of the theories between virtue, value, and moral.…
I believe that virtue ethics is the most plausible ethical theory. It is the only theory that requires us to work better ourselves by cultivating virtues instead of giving a law to follow or because we value the outcomes. In addition, with today’s society being self-centered it is the theory that has the best chances of being accepted. A virtue is defined as the mean between the extremely good and extremely bad and arriving to that just middle take time, dedication, and patience. One does not own a virtue but a virtue defines who one is. Dedicating a lifetime to become better versions of ourselves is what we are already doing and virtue ethics is the theory with the path towards it.…
The utilitarian ethical theory is founded on the ability to predict the consequences of an action. To a utilitarian, the choice that yields the greatest benefit to the most people is the choice that is ethically correct. One benefit of this ethical theory is that the utilitarian can compare similar predicted solutions and use a point system to determine which choice is more beneficial for more people. This point system provides a logical and rationale argument for each decision and allows a person to use it on a case-by-case context (1,2).…
In today’s world, ethics is a very big issue that involves many different views and beliefs. Ethics has become more prevalent with the general public in today’s business world. When it comes to ethics, there are three main theories. The first is the virtue theory which is all based around virtue ethics. This is sometimes simplified into being character based ethics. It states that “to be an effective person in the world one must adopt various characteristics and habits and characteristics that others would deem as praiseworthy” (Boylan, 2009). The next theory is the utilitarianism theory which is best described as the team first theory. Utilitarianism is a theory that suggests that “an action is morally right when that action produces more total utility for the group than any other alternative” (Boylan, 2009). The third theory is the deontological theory. Deontology is a “moral theory that emphasizes ones duty to do a particular action just because the action, itself, is inherently right and not through any other sort of calculations-such as the consequences of the actions” (Boylan, 2009). This is a basic overview of the three basic ethics theories that exist today.…
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy is the study of right conduct and good character. There are two different approaches to ethics, one is a person’s actions and the other is the character of the person. Although both ethics and the law deal with ‘right conduct’ they are not the same thing. To take an example of this, it is legal for a woman to terminate a pregnancy and have an abortion but there are a lot of people who think this is ethically wrong.…