The formal study of ethics has been around for thousands of years, …show more content…
If a person is motivated by proper universal principles that treat everyone with respect, they will overcome any selfish instinct and act morally. Utilitarianism claims that the most important result of an action is to to maximize the amount of happiness and minimizing the amount of suffering in the world. If you have satisfied these goals, you have acted morally, even if your actions conflicted with rules. In Contract theory, doing the right thing means following any agreements that the members of a rational society might form. In this way, moral behavior is more about social obligation and less about personal character and principles. Conversely, Virtue ethics states that a person’s character matters above all else. To living an ethical life requires developing and demonstrating the virtues of courage, compassion, temperance and wisdom as well as the avoidance of vices like jealousy, greed and …show more content…
For instance, using the word automobile, one can find an official dictionary definition of the word, an entire encyclopedia article on Wikipedia which is constantly being updated by the community, research papers written about automobiles, repair manuals and user reviews of specific models, photos from auto shows in other countries and even entire marketplaces for purchasing automobiles. Unfortunately, these new channels can just as easily be used for the spread of hate-speech, the sale of illegal goods such as drugs or weapons, the unification of terrorist groups or other harmful individuals, the sharing of illegal media such as child pornography, and the theft of personal or sensitive data communicated between two parties such as emails, photos, memos or