...Jessica Salinas Theories of Morality Throughout the evolutionary process of rules and regulations that we abide by, we come to a discrete conclusion that "morality" has complete power over our beings. Morality is the quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. The installation of a moral system is vital in every society. Yet, every moral system must deal with the major conflicting general moral issues: Consequentialism versus Non-consequentialism; Self versus Other-Interestedness; Act Utilitarianism versus Rule Utilitarianism; and Emotion versus reason as well as others. The approaches that are used to deal with these issues are up to the person which dilemma or situation is best fitted. In order to use one of these methods you have to understand these theories and their purposes. Immanuel Kant was a dominant philosopher of his time (1724-1804), the theory of Kant is the most difficult to understand but when understood is a simple approach. Kant argues that “the moral worth of an action is to be judged not by its consequences but by the nature of the maxim or principal that motivated the action”(Cahn pg. 98). The only actions that are correct are the ones that can serve as universal laws. People should act only on principles or maxims that can be universalized without contradiction. Another theory that is the theory of a leading English philosopher known as John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), his theory differentiates between Kant’s in that...
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...Introduction to Moral Philosophy and some of its Theories Most humans judge the moral consequences of what they and others do. They classify everything as good or bad. Thus, ethical philosophy is a branch of philosophy which is relevant at some level to even laymen, who are not philoso- phers. All of us make moral judgments based on some preconceived or preexist- ing moral principle. Investigation of how such a principle came about, whether it is right or wrong and such discussion on the principle constitutes the branch of ethics or moral philosophy. Ethics is further subdivided into three areas. These are meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral- ity, investigates questions like what exactly morality is and so on. Normative ethics is the branch of ethics which is involved in creating a moral framework for judging whether a given action is right or wrong. This further has three tra- ditions, virtue ethics, deontology and consequentialism. Applied ethics is the branch of ethics which applies the moral framework created by normative ethics to various actions and tells whether they are right or wrong. Now, we take a deeper look into the three traditions of normative ethics, the branch which creates a framework for judgments. According to virtue ethics, the character of the doer of an action is the main judge for ethics. It is the ethics of Socrates, Aristotle and other early Greek philosophers. These philoso- phers asked people to turn...
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...Paper lecture 1: Lindblom: What is this market system? A market system exists only when markets proliferate and link with each other in a particular way. A market system is a system of society-wide coordination of human activities not by central command but by mutual interactions in the form of transactions. Three kinds of markets are the most familiar: The labor markets, the agricultural markets, and markets for services and goods that industry provides to customers. Two less obvious kinds of markets are no less necessary for a market system. One is markets for intermediate services and goods produced for other producers. The other is market for capital. In market systems people do not go their own way; they are tied together and turned this way or that through market interactions. In our time it is a governed market system, heavily burdened or ornamented with what old-fashioned free marketers decry as ‘interferences’. Although buying and selling may be natural to human-kind, market systems are not. The market system that lies closest to our span of attention is the capitalist market system. In ostensibly democratic societies, market skeptics sometimes fear that the market system may bring an end to democracy. One of their fears is that big corporations already exercise powers inconsistent with democracy; and that multinational corporations overwhelm small nation-states. Despite the growing consensus in favor of the market system, it is of course possible...
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...There are countless people out there thinking and trying to reason and there were before. And there are people who are trying to find the logic in reasoning. They contributed to look for the meaning in life, science, morality and shared it with the world. So who are these people? Joshua Greene is one of the great example for this subject.Joshua Greene was philosophy major at Harvard University.he was fond of the puzzle of moral judgements. He thinks that logical decisions that people came up with is not only the fruit of their power of reason but also it depends on their emotions.Also Joshua Greene who spends his days thinking about right and wrong and how we separate the two says "Let's say you're walking by a pond and there's a drowning baby," "If you said, 'I've just paid $200 for these shoes and the water would ruin them, so I won't save the baby,' you'd be an awful, horrible person. But there are millions of children around the world in the same situation, where just a little money for medicine or food could save their lives. And yet we don't consider ourselves monsters for having this dinner rather than giving the money to Oxfam. Why is that?"...
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...The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7739.htm LODJ 33,1 Are ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership? Michel Dion ´ Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada Abstract Purpose – The aim of this study is to know if ethical theories could be connected to some leadership approaches. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper eight leadership approaches are selected: directive leadership, self-leadership, authentic leadership, transactional leadership, shared leadership, charismatic leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership. Five western ethical theories (philosophical egoism, utilitarianism, Kantianism, ethics of virtue, ethics of responsibility) are analyzed to see to what extent their basic concepts could be connected to one or the other leadership approach. Findings – A given ethical theory (such as philosophical egoism) could be suitable to the components of various leadership approaches. Ethical leadership does not imply that a given leadership approach is reflecting only one ethical theory. Rather, ethical leadership implies that for different reasons, various leadership approaches could agree with the same ethical theory. This is what we could call the “moral flexibility of leadership approaches”. Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on western ethical theories. A similar study should be undertaken for Eastern ethical theories coming from Buddhism, Hinduism...
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...mTELECOURSE STUDY GUIDE FOR The Examined Life FOURTH EDITION author J. P. White Chair, Department of Philosophy Santa Barbara City College contributing author Manuel Velasquez Professor of Philosophy Santa Clara University This Telecourse Study Guide for The Examined Life is part of a collegelevel introduction to philosophy telecourse developed in conjunction with the video series The Examined Life, and the text Philosophy: A Text with Readings, tenth edition, by Manuel Velasquez, The Charles Dirksen Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...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”...
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...factories owned by its suppliers. “ The company did not examine the suppliers, and the suppliers squeezed the child labor, finally, the company gets more profit. The ethical dilemma in this essay is that whether it is ethical for a company not to examine if they indirectly use the child labor. I will apply two ethical theories to this ethical dilemma, the Kantian ethics theory and the Utilitarianism theory. In the Kantian ethics theory, he says, “we should do the right thing regardless of reward or loss”, which is core ideas of his ethics theory. Furthermore, in his famous work Groundwork Metaphysics of Morality, he says, “Nothing is good in itself but the good will.” Additionally, in the Utilitarianism theory, it is roughly based on calculating or measuring benefits versus burdens. There are two core philosophers in the Utilitarianism theory, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. I will explain this two theories and how the company fall into the dilemma as follows: Firstly, there is no doubt that it is an unethical matter. As for the Kantian ethics, he thinks there is no relationship between the purpose and ethics; whatever effect of the purpose is content, happy, or kind. We only can do the things with a good will rather than for a special goal. In this dilemma, Apple did not examine whether its suppliers use the child labor or not. However, what Kantian makes us to do is that we should be responsible for everything and we should act on our duties. The first formulation of...
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...Introduction This paper explores three philosophical issues. The concepts examined are personal identity, virtue ethics, and ethical relativism. A personal philosophy in relation to each concept is identified and described. In conclusion, philosophical findings are incorporated into a personal view on the ultimate meaning of life. Philosophical Issues Personal Identity Personal identity of the most basic nature is “what makes one the person one is” (Olson, 2010). This basic nature then leads to the complexities of personal identity. Complexities include questions such as: * Who am I? * What is it to be a person? * What does it take for a person to persist from one time to another – that is, for the same person to exist at different times? * How do we find out who is who? * What am I? * How could I have been? * How different could I have been from the way I actually am? (2010) These questions are crucial to discovering self-purpose of life. Hume’s philosophy is that personal identity is “nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions” and “too inconstant” (n.d.). Several philosophers disagree, arguing that “when the soul and the body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve” (Chaffee, 2011, p. 91). There are many theories of philosophy pertaining to personal identity and social identity. In most cases, the compulsion to rationalize identity by understanding and knowing who...
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...Upton Sinclair where art thou? The job of the muckraker responsible for the bane of high school literature students everywhere, The Jungle, has created more vegetarians than famous vegetarians from Gandhi to Pamela Anderson combined apparently is not yet finished. After the 1906 publication of The Jungle, a disgusted public offended at the thought of eating a line worker as part of their potted meat began to clamor for safer food and safer working conditions. Many years and many pieces of legislation later, if the statistics can be trusted, it would seem like the more things change in the meat packing industry the more they stay the same. During the 1970 creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the meat and meat products industry received the dubious distinction of being designated as one of the five classifications with the highest injury rates (Sparks Companies, 1999). Now almost forty years later the industry is still considered one of the most dangerous. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the meat and meat products industry had the nation’s highest industrial injury for the five consecutive years from 1980 to 1985 (U.S. Department of Labor, 1988). Much the same as it was in 1943 (Horowitz, 2008). It was into this arena that Human Rights Watch decided to step. On its website Human Rights Watch describes itself as an independent organization dedicated to protecting human rights by exposing violations and trying to end abuses (Human Rights...
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...Ethical and Legal Issues Concerning At-will Employment Jasmine Mills Park University Abstract As years pass by, every sphere of life is taking a new dimension; for instance, advancing technology. This has resulted in some ethical issues in workplaces such as cyberloafing, privacy, information technology usage, employee monitoring. Also, legal issues in workplaces such as lawsuits have emerged. Both employers and employees are worried about the ethical consequences resulting from the ethical issues While bosses use surveillance devices to keep track of their workers' activities and output, these workers feel that excessive monitoring is an attack on their confidentiality and privacy. The strategy of checking workers on a timely basis is contributed by the fact that bosses have rights over everything in the “at-will employment environment.” Additionally, this paper provides a proposal for reducing the ethical and legal issues. The paper also encourages organizations to generate and efficiently communicate ethical standards for workers in their companies. It also includes real examples of workers' perceptions as well as an emotional state from the surveys based on ethical and legal issues raised regarding the topic of study. Keywords: At-will employment, employee monitoring, Ethical and legal issues. Introduction At- will means employment can be terminated at any time, for any reason or no reason without facing legal action. Likewise, an employee can quit a job with or...
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...ABSTRACT The most important general and theoretical horizons regarding bioethics refer to the foundation of ethical theories. We can talk about two main general categories in which we can place the ethical theories: teleological and deontological. From the first category we enumerate the Aristotelian perspective or the one developed by J. St. Mill, while the Kantian perspective is exemplary for deontological ethics. According to the teleological perspective, a form of human behavior is described as moral or non-moral according to the goals explicitly set. The mere achievement of these goals is a necessary and sufficient condition to qualify as moral people’s actions or deeds without taking into account the “intermediate stages” of the actions performed to achieve those goals. Deontology, as a general horizon of articulating the ethical theories, believes on the contrary that in every moment of our existence, every action or deed that we accomplish can be described as moral or non-moral according to the ethical principles underlying our behavior. The very important consequences arising from the two general theoretical horizons concern two different perspectives on “human nature”, or what we call the essence of the human being. Starting from this horizon we will have the consequentialist and deontological dimensions related to euthanasia. The bioethical dimension in which we will discuss the issue of euthanasia involves both dimensions or horizons. The arguments against...
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...Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy Volume 3, Number 1 (Winter 2003), pp. 1‐26 Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics Stephen R. C. Hicks Introduction: business and the free society Advocates of the free society think of business as an integral part of the dynamic, progressive society they advocate. In the West, the rise of a culture hospitable to business has unleashed incalculable productive energies. Business professionals have taken the products of science and revolutionized the fields of agriculture, transportation, and medicine. Business professionals have taken the products of art and dramatically increased our access to them. We have more food, we are more mobile, we have more health care, we have more access to works of fiction, theater, and music than anyone could reasonably have predicted a few centuries ago. The result of business in the West, and more recently in parts of the East, has been an enormous rise in the standard of human living. We have gone, in the space of a few centuries, from a time in which perhaps 10% of the population lived comfortably while 90% lived near subsistence to a time in which 90% live better than comfortably and 10% live near subsistence. And we haven’t given up on the remaining 10%. Intellectuals who study the free society have, in the fields of economics and politics, a good understanding of what makes this possible: individualism. In economics there exists a well worked out understanding of ...
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...clinical experts representing Better Pharmacare Coalition member organizations. ” BC Pharmacies, together with these and other stakeholders as required, should define the process of decision-making from beginning to end” (http://www.betterpharmacare.org/about-corevalues.cfm). Pharmacies stakeholders include patients and patient groups, community and hospital pharmacists, physicians, the College of Pharmacists of B.C., the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., the B.C. Pharmacy Association, B.C. Medical Association, brand and generic pharmaceutical companies, wholesale distributors, and private health insurance companies. Analyze the human rights issues presented by Pharmacies’ treatment of the Calabria’s indigenous population versus that of its executives. In this case, the manner in which Pharmacies has treated Calabria’s indigenous...
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...Effective Communication Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..4 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………5 Chapter One: History of Ethical Theory Development Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….…6 Definition of Ethics Business Ethics and Individual Ethics: Is There a Difference?…………………….…..7 Virtue Ethics…………………………………………………………………………............9 Practical Wisdom……………………………………………………………….14 Eudaimonia……………………………………………………………………...15 Kantian Ethics……………………………………………………………………16 Ethical Egoism…………………………………………………………………………….....18 Consequentialist Ethics.……………………………………………………………………..21 Chapter Two: Corporate Social Responsibility Introduction 27 Corporate Social Responsibility 27 Summary 34 Chapter Three: The National Football League’s Blackout Policy is Unethical Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….…35 The History of the NFL Blackout Policy: The Legal Test…………………………………..37 The Economic Test: Do Blackouts Have a Positive Economic Benefit?...............................39 The Philanthropic Test……………………………………………………………………….43 The Ethics Test………………………………………………………………………………47 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………..51 Chapter Four: Effective Communication Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….....50 Effective Communication Defined………………………………………………………..…50 This Student’s Display of Effective Communication…………………………………….....51 Written Communication………………………………………………………………...
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