Running head: ACCOUNTING ETHICS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEONTOLOGY AND UTILITARIANISM

Accounting Ethics: Differences between Deontology and Utilitarianism
Yaa Mendez
Liberty University

Outline: Introduction with thesis Deontology: definition, concepts Utilitarianism: definition, concepts Similarities between deontology and utilitarianism Difference between deontology and utilitarianism Conclusion

In 2013, the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street portrayed the dishonest dealings of people involved in securities exchange and trades of foreign and public companies. The actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, had an sensational thirst for wealth and learned of greed from his superior. This movie portrays the idea that greed, an unethical behavior, is an acceptable behavior that business individuals must cultivate to increase their wealth. So what is ethics? According to Spiceland, Sepe, and Tomassini (2007), ethics is “a code or moral system that provides a criteria for evaluating what is right and wrong” (Spiceland, Sepe, and Tomassni, 2007). Deontological theories base morality on certain duties or obligations and claim that certain actions are right or wrong regardless of the consequences that may follow from the actions.
Deontology is a moral theory that depends on scriptures that are governed by rules, moral laws, and intuition. The word deontology is derived from the Greek term “deon” and “logos” which means the “study of duty” (Moreland, 2009). Moreland (2009) describes three features of deontology. The first is that “duty should be done for duty's sake” (Moreland, 2009). Moreland's (2009) second feature is for individuals to treat each other as “objects of intrinsic moral value” (Moreland, 2009). Individuals with this point of view believe that “some actions cannot be justified by their consequences” meaning that the end does not justify the