Notes On Theories Of Ethics

Ethics can be defined as a set of moral principals that can be used to make ethical decisions and a guide solving difficult situations (Dufrene et al., 2004). They are driven

Ethics derives from the Greek word ethos which means character. Essentially ethics is a theory of proper moral conduct. Essentially, in ethics one is trying to make a distinction between what is the case between what ought to be the case. A key player in ethics is the moral agent. A moral agent is a person that has an ability to reflect on moral issues. Moral actions conform to the law and immoral actions do not conform to the law.

The life of prisoners some may never know. There are those who care not to know what goes on behind that wired fence. We find that some people that are convicted of crimes that they did not commit. Some people would rather turn their heads to what actually happens in a prison institution, because they feel it is no concern of theirs. Innocent women and men face a disaster in life when they find their selves incarcerated in such facility as these. The treatment in prison facilities toward prisoners with health issues or those who develop health concerns that

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with values concerning human conduct. These values help cultures determine what actions are appropriate and inappropriate and which motives of such actions are good or bad. Ethical values help humans decipher correct ways to handle problems. Boyd (2005) suggests moral problems are an interpretation of events viewed from a perspective that history and tradition have helped to shape. Perception plays a large role in ethical issues today. The way a culture

Moral Theories Ethics is moral philosophy in which you think about moral problems and judgments. In order to make moral judgments there are some ethical theory’s that have been created and used. In Exploring Ethics, Steven Cahn talks about three theories, which are Virtue, Deontological, and Utilitarian ethics. Which one should you use? While studying all three theories, I have come to the conclusion that Utilitarianism Ethics is the best way to approach an ethical dilemma.

There are a variety of different ethical systems that have developed of the course of millennia. However, even though the subject has been covered so thoroughly, it is still heavily debated. The varieties of ethical systems that are in existence look at various ethical problems from different perspectives and can be applied differently in different circumstances. Because of the subjective aspects to applying ethics, they can be as much an art as they are a science. Ethics are something that must be practiced and really cannot be perfected. In this way, studying ethics is a continual process that does not really stop. This paper will argue that ethics are the most important subject that an individual can pursue.

On August 18, 2015 Police officers pulled over a car that was speeding and running red lights. When the car was stopped the officers found a women about to give birth on the passenger side of the vehicle. The police officers were deemed heroes for their efforts in delivering the unborn child. Reading through chapter 2 of The moral of the story: An introduction to ethics (7th ed.) it briefly goes over the idea that people have a general sense of vulnerability in society(p. 84). Further, it is suspected that stories like the one at the beginning of this paragraph give us a false sense of security and lead us into believing that there are “heroes” to protect us. It also provides us with a sense of trust in our law enforcement. Which leads me to

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.

“Ethical thought is still largely dominated by the abstract notion of an isolated individual man who applies the absolute criterion of a good which is good in itself and has to make his decision incessantly and exclusively between this clearly recognized good and an equally clearly recognized evil. (Bonhoeffer,

that is not a piece of metaethics is included among the readings at the end of

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

The ethical reflections taught in this course, have generated awareness in to our own ethical reasoning allowing us to focus morality on our own lives. The ethical pluralism that is referred to by the title of our text helps to examine the various aspects of our own ethical moral theory. Ethical moral theory dominates our lives on a daily basis. Determining actions we consider being right or wrong depending on the availability of the situation. But, as situations vary, so does the reasoning behind activities. Although each individual has his/her own mindset and beliefs, the ethical moral standards which create the baseline of our own morality, differs with our individual teachings.

Ethics, often referred to as moral philosophy, is a division of philosophy which involves arranging, defending and advising ideas of right and wrong behavior. Ethics often addresses stances of moral diversity. Moral diversity is the extent to which differing decision-makers in a population display preferences for different methods of evaluation. “The word “Ethics” comes from the Greek term “ethics from ethos”, in turn basically means custom or habit.”(1)

Utilitarianism is one of the general moral theories of normative ethics, which is made up of two principles: utility and equality. Utility is to maximize things like happiness, pleasure, and desire-satisfaction. Equality is the principle that the interests of all members of the moral community who are involved are completely equal. The utilitarian theory, therefore, tries to create the most amount of well being and the least amount of displeasure or suffering. To apply the utilitarian view to whether it is possible to be an ethical carnivore, consideration of all the interest of all those involved is essential, which would include humans and non-human animals. Farmers, meat eaters, animals, activists are all affected by ethical and unethical choices made by carnivores. One way to be an ethical carnivore, according to the utilitarian view, would be to consume happy meat, which is meat that is raised, treated and killed humanely, minimizing suffering to animals. According to philosopher Peter Singer, animals have the ability to feel pain and so have an interest in avoiding pain; this makes animals part of the moral community says Singer .In a utilitarian based world, if all meat eaters would only purchase happy meat, it would substantially reduce the pain and suffering of the non human members of the moral community and thus maximizing the good for the most number of beings thus supporting that there can be such a thing as an ethical carnivore.

Over the last couple of weeks in Philosophy 103, we learned five theories concerning normative ethics: utilitarianism, duty ethics, virtue ethics, care ethics, and natural law ethics. While learning about those theories, I often thought about how the arguments for some theories included interesting ideas that I personally agreed with, but the methods of reasoning were somewhat lacking. Contrastingly, I encountered theories with arguments that were not thought-provoking ideas at first, but I became acclimated to them due to the logical and well-thought out methodologies. In this essay, I will argue for my own normative ethical theory; an act is right if it is virtuous and conductive towards relationships with other people and wrong if it is