...customers, he would earn an extra $5 commission each sale, thus able to support his wife for English classes and his infant. Roger would get a commission on the sale too and would renovate the pharmacy. It would also increase the sale volume for EastPharma. However, his decision would result in the pharmacy’s customers, mainly elderly buying more expensive medicine. If Ming does not sell Modoxolin, he would be serving the customers justly by not making them pay more when there is a cheaper alternative available. In this case, he might not get the job thereby making his family's financial situation tight and being unable to pay for his wife's education. Roger would be making lower profits which would hinder his renovation plans. Lastly, EastPharma will face lesser sales volume during the discount period while WestPharma will have an increase in sales...
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...installed a software into the diesel engine. A deontologist, utilitarian and virtue ethicist could describe the action taken place by Volkswagen. A deontologist, utilitarian, and a virtue ethicist have different ways of describing what is morally...
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...Ethics and ethical theories: a road map for teaching ethics in business schools Joan Fontrodona (IESE Business School, Spain), Manuel Guillén (University of Valencia, Spain), and Alfredo Rodríguez-Sedano (University of Navarre, Spain) Introduction A three-dimensional framework to explain ethical theories Ethical approaches of business firms Teaching ethics experiences using this framework Discussion of the teaching experiences Conclusions References 1 2 6 9 10 12 13 Introduction This paper tries to contribute, in some way, to the urgent need recently warned by Benedict XVI: “the university, for its part, must never lose sight of its particular calling to be a "universitas" in which the various disciplines, each in its own way, are seen as part of a greater unum. How urgent is the need to rediscover the unity of knowledge and to counter the tendency to fragmentation and lack of communicability that is all too often the case in our schools!”1 This seems to be a challenge for both, Catholic and non-Catholic universities. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework that helps to conceptualize ethics and to clarify the characteristics and limits of the different ethical theories. In other words, students without philosophical background will find here a synthetic “road map” of ethical approaches. This framework has been previously published in a book in Spain2. In this paper, authors will describe the model and discuss how it has been successfully tested...
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...engineering encompasses a vast number of disciplines and the tasks that engineers face will be proportionally vast, it is likely that a fair few will be wholly unique and unprecedented. With their welfare and sometimes people’s lives on the line, it can be challenging to know which decision is the right one. Ethical archetypes like egoism, utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics provide a framework to attempt to answer that very question. However, in all of these cases, the optimal result comes with the fore knowledge of all the variables. While this works reasonably well in many cases, even without all the requisite information, in cases that are new, with no documented information, the proper course of action becomes unclear. Virtue...
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...tue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: “Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.” Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits. These traits derive from natural internal tendencies, but need to be nurtured; however, once established, they will become stable. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations over a lifetime because that is her character and not because she wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do her duty. Unlike deontological and consequentialist theories, theories of virtue ethics do not aim primarily to identify universal principles that can be applied in any moral situation. And virtue ethics theories deal with wider questions—“How should I live?” and “What is the good life?” and “What are proper family and social values?” Since its revival in the twentieth century, virtue ethics has been developed in three main directions: Eudaimonism, agent-based theories, and the ethics of care. Eudaimonism bases virtues in human flourishing, where flourishing is equated with performing one’s distinctive function well. In the case of humans, Aristotle argued that our distinctive function is reasoning...
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...Ethical theories and unethical Companies that destroy environment. “Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its non-human contents”(Brennan and Lo, 2015). Morality is “the degree to which something is right and good: the moral goodness or badness of something” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). This report will focus on ethical issues that companies create and the five main theories to serve as a guide for ethics. How this theories affect business and how it affects people. In this report I will give brief explanation of the theories and will focus on virtue ethics. The four main theories are Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Ethical egoism, Social contract theory and virtue ethics. Utilitarianism is universal theory of utility, where utility is the priority of an act. People have to act in the way that creates more utility or in other words an act should bring more happiness for greater number of people, rather than pain, if the act brings more pain than happiness it is considered to be morally unacceptable. Kantianism is a theory named after German famous philosopher Immanuel Kant. He believed that people are rational beings and they will follow and do rational things. Kantianism is based on duty and commitment more than any other thing, where if the performed act followed duty it was morally acceptable. Ethical egoism is the theory based on satisfying self-interest...
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...Moral reasoning using natural law theory and virtue ethics One of the primary debates in ethics is not whether a certain action is right or wrong, as most can agree that acts such as murder are not ethically right, but in what specific situations that these actions become permissible. There are certain absolutist views that determine an action is right or wrong, despite any extraneous circumstances; however, many moral reasoning ethics fall into a grey area where certain acts that would normally be considered wrong are justified in certain conditions. The natural law theory, along with its doctrine of double effect, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics both fall into the aforementioned category of moral ethics. Natural law theory originated from the religious view that a human’s ability to reason sets them apart as higher beings, and with such reasoning we have the responsibility to follow the righteous path set forth for our lives, “to do good and avoid evil”.1 In this manner, a certain act cannot be justified or viewed as “good” because it leads to the satisfaction of desire, setting natural law theory far apart from utilitarianism ethics. The principals laid out by the natural law theory gave birth to the doctrine of double effect, which is the belief that many acts may have both a good and a bad effect. The Catholic Church defends that some acts that would normally be considered immoral may be justified under three distinct conditions: the act itself is not intrinsically wrong...
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...characteristics of virtue ethics are a force that drives ethical behavior, instead of rules or deontology. Normative ethical philosophies are a collection of virtue ethics that stresses being rather than doing. Virtue ethics are focused on the characteristics of morals not rules and consequences. Virtue ethics and deontology are different in the way that moral dilemmas are approached and solved (Virtue Ethics, n.d.). Telling lies is wrong even if the results are good according to deontologists. A virtue ethicist is someone who focuses on the decision to lie more than on the lie told in the first place. While virtue ethics are considered self-centered and they should not be used to guide our actions. These ethics will encourage people to get rid of bad habits and help develop new character traits. A virtue ethicist will in any instance worry less about the lie and think about the decision to lie or not, tells about someone’s character and morals. Lying could be based on a case by case situation, based on personal benefit, intentions and a group benefits from it (Virtue Ethic, n.d.). Following rules would be considered the use of deontology or duty ethics. Deontology approaches the ethics that judges morality based on how you adhere to a rule or rules (Davidson College, 2002). These rules are considered to be a point of contention and criticism in deontological ethics. All actions are judged on how they adhere to or lack, to an objective moral code of ethics. A deontologist...
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...Ethics Essay Nancy Castro Ethics 316 Ruth Embleton March 7, 2012 Ethics Essay Comparing and contrasting ethical theories helps one to understand ones guidance system, which helps or aides one through their decision-making process. “Each theory emphasizes different points such as predicting the outcome and following one's duties to others in order to reach an ethically correct decision.” (2011) each theory has a familiar thread with a goal. In this paper each of the following three ethical theories utilitarianism, Virtue, and Deontological will be described relating to ethics and morality. Concluding with an example with which the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to utilitarianism. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism ethics emphasize that action should be morally beneficial to a group. This course of ethics is often known as “the greatest good for the greatest number” or simply put, “the greater good” (Boylan, 2009). In other words, the consequence of any ethical action should be beneficial by mass appeal. This is a common underlying theme for ethics in capitalist economies and business as well as in democratic governments (Boylan, 2009). Virtue Theory The virtue theory, also known as virtue ethics, focuses more so on the character of a person rather than the rules and consequences of specific acts. What this essentially means is that the primary focus is whether or not the person acting ethically is a person who upholds...
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...Business Ethics and Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics is “a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences” (Athanassoulis, 2010). Virtue ethics are certain principles, such as merit or loyalty in which we should make every effort to consent to the full development in our organizations; these ideals are a reflection of what we ultimately have the potential to become. According to Velasquez, et.al, (1998), “Virtues are attitudes, dispositions, or character traits that enable us to be and to act in ways that develop this potential. They enable us to pursue the ideals we have adopted. Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues”. Virtue ethics also does not provide guidance on how we should act, as there are no clear principles for guiding action other than “act as a virtuous person would act given the situation.” (2010). In this paper, I will address and define three of these virtues, apply each virtue respectively to the Mattel: GMP case, and describe which normative ethic was the most useful in evaluating the case. Courage, Fairness and Honesty According to Dictionary.com, courage is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear. Courage is being brave in the face of adversity. Dictionary.com describes...
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...Ethics Essay Virtue ethics theory is based upon a person’s character. Individuals should strive for excellence in the acts and tasks they partake in every day. “These excellences or virtues are both moral and nonmoral.” (p 133. Boylan 2009). Utilitarianism is an ethics theory wherein people act in a way that brings amount the greatest amount of good or happiness to the greatest number of people. Another aspect to Utilitarianism theory is that people act in a way that maximizes their pleasure and minimizes their pain. The moral theory Deontology focuses on a person’s duty to perform an act simply because of principle and because that act is the right thing to do. Deontology theory doesn’t not take into account the potential consequences that the action in question may cause. Deontology moral theory and Virtue ethical theory are similar in that they both primarily focus on the acts or duties that individuals do. Whereas Utilitarianism theory focuses more on what will be the consequence of one’s decision or action. Will more people be harmed or helped by this decision is what Utilitarianism considers to be of the utmost important. In one way Utilitarianism and Virtue theories are similar because once the action is performed it can then be evaluated and determined to be moral or nonmoral in the case of Virtue theory. Or as bringing about the most good to the most people or the most harm to the most people in the case of Utilitarianism. Deontology and Virtue theories...
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...Ethics, or moral philosophy, is the study of morality using the methods of philosophy. Ethics is an investigation of principle by which we distinguish goodness from badness and assess the actions as right or wrong. Morality consists of our beliefs about right and wrong actions and good and bad persons or character. Morality has to do with our moral judgments, principles, values, and theories. Ethics is the careful examination of morality and applies critical reason to questions about what we should do and what is of value. Morality is a public system that understood and applied to all rational people. Values expressed in our thoughts, feelings, action, and perceptions. It is a quality of a thing which makes it desirable, useful, or an objective interest. It assesses the worth of something. Moral refers to the individual conduct itself, conform the accepted what is considered right pertaining to the manner in which one behaves in relationship with the others. Immoral refers to something that is contrary to moral Amoral is without morals, an individual taking an action without any consider to commitment to moral or social concept of good or bad. Evil is the idea that sad things happen to people and people do bad things. Etiquette: rules of behavior nothing to do with moral or ethics/ violating the social system, and it is a code of behavior of a society. Law is a rule or a body of rules established by the authority, society or custom. Laws are supposed to reflect morality...
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...Ethics and Social Responsibility (ETH 316) November 29, 2011 Sandra White Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behavior, rather than rules (deontology). Virtue ethics is a collection of normative ethical philosophies that emphasizes on being than doing. Virtue ethics focuses on the character of the moral agent instead of the rules and consequences. The differences between virtue ethics, and deontology lies in the way moral dilemmas are approached and solved. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics) Deontologist says that telling lies are wrong even if gives good results. A Virtue ethicist concentrates less on the lie told and more on the decision to lie. Virtue ethics has been considered to be self centered and not to guide our actions properly. Virtue ethics encourages people to develop good character traits and break bad habits. A virtue ethicist, however, would focus less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie said about one's character and moral behavior. As such, lying would be made in a case-by-case basis that would be based on factors such as personal benefit, group benefit, and intentions (as to whether they are benevolent or malevolent). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics) Deontological or duty ethics emphasizes on following rules. Deontological is an approach to ethics that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence...
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...scoutmaster. Unfortunately, while leading them out of the cave, the scoutmaster somehow managed to get stuck in a narrow opening with only his head and shoulders protruding out. With his upper torso stuck outside the cave, it appears the scoutmaster will survive, but all the boys below will drown if they cannot escape. After you have checked all possible escape routes and have attempted to extricate the scoutmaster, it becomes clear that the only way to save the boys is to sacrifice the scoutmaster and remove him from the hole so the rest of the scouts can escape. What is the correct action for this case? Justify your decision using each of the following: Duty-oriented reasoning (1 to 2 Paragraphs) Consequence-oriented reasoning (1 to 2 Paragraphs) Virtue-ethics reasoning (1 to 2 Paragraphs) Based on your analysis, consider what might be the ultimate dilemma of ethics and include your answer to each of the following questions: What happens when people apply differential standards (all valid) to health care decisions? Explain with supporting examples. (2 to 3 Paragraphs) How does an individual determine who is ultimately right when different decisions are reached? (2 to 3 Paragraphs) Abstract I am a paramedic who has arrived at an emergency scene or a group of scouts enter the cave that is filling with water. The scoutmaster is stuck between a narrow opening with his head and shoulders protruding out. The way the scoutmaster is positioned gives him a good chance...
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...many ways to define "ethics," almost as many as there are ethicists. For our purposes, let's use this definition: Ethics is the discipline and practice of applying value to human behavior (as well as to the constructs of human culture particularly to morality, customs and laws) resulting in meaningfulness. From the earliest moments of recorded human consciousness, the ethical discipline has exhibited four fundamental "approaches" These four approaches are often called "ethical decision-making frameworks:" Utilitarian Ethics (outcome based), Deontological Ethics (duty based), Virtue Ethics (virtue based) and Communitarian Ethics (community based). Each has a distinctive point of departure as well as distinctive ways of doing the fundamental ethical task of raising and answering questions of value. It is also important to understand that all four approaches have both overlaps and common elements. Some of the "common elements" of all four approaches are the following: · Impartiality: weighting interests equally · Rationality: backed by reasons a rational person would accept · Consistency: standards applied similarly to similar cases · Reversibility: standards that apply no matter who "makes" the rules These are, in a sense, the rules of the "ethics game", no matter which school or approach to ethics one feels the closest identity. The Utilitarian approach is perhaps the most familiar and easiest to understand of all the four approaches to ethics. Whether we think...
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