Ethics Or The Virtue Theory

Virtue ethics is a theory of ethics in moral philosophy in which it emphasizes that the notion of virtue is key to a

The Virtue Theory, also know as Virtue Ethics, refers to the character of each person. This theory states that every person should try for excellence. The characteristics of each individual are made up from their environment that they are a part of. The theory would further suggest

Virtue ethics is a normative theory whose foundations were laid by Aristotle. This theory approaches normative ethics in substantially different ways than consequentialist and deontological theories. In this essay, I will contrast and compare virtue ethics to utilitarianism, ethical egoism, and Kantianism to demonstrate these differences. There is one fundamental aspect of virtue ethics that sets it apart from the other theories I will discuss. For the sake of brevity and to avoid redundancy, I will address it separately. This is the fundamental difference between acting ethically within utilitarianism, egoism, and Kantianism. And being ethical within virtue ethics. The other theories seek to define the ethics of actions while virtue ethics does not judge actions in any way. The other theories deal with how we should act, while virtue ethics determines how we should be.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 is a far-reaching act of legislation that was created in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The bill was sponsored by Richard Armey of Texas and received final congressional approval on November 19th, 2002, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 25th, 2002. The Homeland Security Act was one of the largest government responses to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, creating an entirely new department, the Department of Homeland Security under the Executive Branch. The Act also created hundreds of new positions within already existing government departments. The act has been amended a multitude of times since its original passage and over two different Presidential Administrations. Many citizens are still split on the decision whether or not the Homeland Security Act has helped make Americans safer, or if it was the beginning of many government intrusions of citizen’s privacy. Either way, it is an act of legislation that is here to stay, and as citizens it is important to understand it and how it affects the lives of American citizens.

The United States of America experienced one of the worst terrorist attacks in history whereby more than 3000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001. In an effort to combat terrorism, President George W. Bush pushed for the enactment of the Homeland Security Act in 2002, which became effective on March 1, 2003. It involved reorganization of several United States’ government civil agencies, forming the United States Department of Homeland Security. The goal was not however to take care of terrorism but also included protection against other hazards, whether human-made or natural disasters ("9/11 Attacks - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com," n.d.). However, the reorganization has had an impact in the way criminal investigations are conducted, trammeling the liberties of Americans.

On November 19, 2002 President George W. Bush passed the Homeland Security Act (HSA). ……. This act was created to “prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the United states to terrorism, and minimize damage and assist in recovery for terrorist attacks that occur in the United States”(……). This HSA drastically restructured our government agencies in an effort to heighten national security and laid the foundation establishing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This was the most drastic change of government agencies since the National Security Act of 1947. There were some shifting around of agencies and their roles after the reorganization. For example, the Coast guard use to fall under the Department of Transportation and after the HSA was passed,

“The rapid changes caused new problems- economic faulty, thoughtless and unethical decisions have led to unpleasant consequences such as failed businesses, deteriorated relationships, and conflicts in society as well as in organizations”. To put in other words, the main problem is the lack of ethics and virtues in business that have resulted in wicked outcomes which affected on only businesses but the society in general as well. In his essay entitled “Vocational Virtue Ethics: Prospects for a Virtue Ethic Approach to Business”, David McPherson concludes by proposing a number of solutions as to how business organizations must overcome this problem that challenges to vocational virtue ethics. In this essay, I focus on analyzing three of the solutions, to wit, having a clear mission statement and hiring employees according to their willingness to commit to it, possessing a moral leadership, and reducing the tendency to avarice.

Ethics and virtue have been a very contentious issue facing society for centuries. Many argue over the merits of various theories, each with its own philosophies and assumptions. It is this argument that has given rise to many popular and followed theories of ethics and virtues. The theories discussed primarily in this document include the virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological theory. Each is very distinct to the others in regards to its principles and assumptions regarding human behavior. Each however, has merit in regards to question of ethics and virtue, and how it should subsequently be valued.

According to virtue ethicists, virtues are developed by routine. The majority of virtue ethics philosophies take their motivation from Aristotle who stated that a virtuous being is somebody who has supreme character qualities. These qualities stem from innate inner predispositions, but need to be cultivated; yet, once seeded, they will grow to be firm. For instance, a virtuous individual is somebody who is thoughtful through several circumstances throughout a lifetime, as that is their personality and not because they want to get the most value or increase favors or merely do their obligation. Contrasting deontological and consequentialist philosophies, notions of virtue ethics do not have the intention to predominantly isolate general values that can be functional in any ethical circumstances. And virtue ethics concepts manage broader demands such as how one should live and what are the correct familial and social values.

What is the aim of moral (ethical) theory that you learned from the reading? Elaborate on this by explaining how you think that having a clearer understanding of ethics can affect your life.

Not only this, but there is also a common burden of virtue ethics is that it does not produce a solid base of principles since having virtues is unable to guide or justify good actions. Virtue ethicists also face the reality that adequacy is a problem because a person does not need virtuous traits to perform a good action, not only that but if a virtuous person were to cause a wrongful action, it does not always have to mean that they are still not a virtuous person.To put this into perspective, if a murderer were to kill someone, and walk away from the crime, and he sees a homeless man and the murderer gives the homeless man a dollar, he has just performed a good deed. Or if lets say a priest was to curse in church, it does not mean he is not a virtuous person. Virtue ethics also is problematic because of its relativism. Its relativism is a big issue to this because every culture has different ways of defining virtues. Which means that everyone following virtue ethics would ultimately disagree with each other about

“I would rather be a good man than a great king” said the character Thor in Thor: The Dark World. In these words we find a frightening tension. Almost everyone agrees that it is good to be ethical; this is an easy affirmation. It is much more difficult, though, when ethics is in direct opposition to success. This dichotomy- between ethics and success- will no doubt confront an engineer during a professional career of any substantial length. Can you say that you would rather be a good man than rich? Or popular? Or a successful engineer? What should happen when an engineer faces this question? One real world example that can shed some light on this problem is what is known as bid shopping. This essay will provide a thorough definition of the problem of bid shopping and the ethical dilemma surrounding it. It will then apply the ethical theories of Duty Ethics and Virtue Ethics to the question. And seek to show that bid shopping is unethical according to both ethical theories.

Virtue, when I hear that word I think of value and morality and only good people can be virtuous. When I hear the word ethics I think of good versus evil, wrong and right. Now when the two are put together you get virtue ethics. You may wonder what can virtue ethics possibly mean. It’s just two words put together to form some type of fancy theory. Well this paper will discuss virtue ethics and the philosophy behind it.

you ask what the virtues are, it is likely you would be told that we

There are three ethical theories that are three different studies of how human beings ought to live. There three are deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. Deontology is based on duties. It is theory that we are morally obligated to follow a certain set of rules. One of the most well known deontologists is Immanuel Kant. He came up with how we should morally live based on deontology. He believes that an action should not have any motives behind it; it should just be the moral obligation. There is the categorical imperative that is if you aim to be ethical, moral, good, that means never treating anyone as a mere means. A mere means is using someone or an act of manipulation. He came up with universalization test, which is a way to