Ethics plays an important role in the function of society. Moreover, a commitment to performing specific ethical and moral standards involves a positive development of an individual’s moral character. Besides, specific life experiences help certain individuals to enhance the development of his or her values and morals. This paper will analyze the similarities and differences of virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics and provide an explanation of how each theory influences ethics and morality. In addition, an example of a personal experience will be used to explain the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts related to the virtue theory.
The virtue theory is based on the character, intentions, and morals of an individual (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). This ethical theory does not focus on consequences or duty, but rather the morals of the individual. In addition, the characteristics of an individual are based on good and bad, or both. However, personality and character is not something an individual is born with, but are obtained through different life experiences or moral values.
The utilitarianism theory focuses on selecting the best act that offers the best consequences of an individual. Utilitarian’s does not examine the differences in a chosen act that is based on moral issues. They instead focus on the specific individual who is the performing the act. Utilitarianism will focus on morality only if the action is considered an ideal act but if the action is not a preferred act, then morality does not play a role (Martin, 2010). Likewise, in utilitarianism ethics is not viewed when making a decision because all decisions are based on the best result for an individual.
Deontological ethics specifically focuses on the duties of injustice rather than the consequences or moral principles (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). In ethics, deontological describes a theory that