Ethical Lenses and Ethical Theories
April Mallari
ETH / 316
02/09/2012
Evelyn Moorman

The purpose of this paper is to compare the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. The differences in how each theory addresses ethics and morality along with a personal experience will be addressed to help explain the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to one of the three theories. A personal experience would be my character results from the University of Phoenix web based Ethics Game called the Ethical Lens Inventory. I was assigned to play the Ethics Game-Ethical Lens Inventory for class to determine which ethical perspective best categorized me. The results were surprisingly quite accurate in describing my character especially after reading the definitions of each lens and found that I fell into the Rights and Responsibilities Lens. There are four lenses in the ethics game, the Rights and Responsibilities Lens, Relationship Lens, Results Lens and Reputation Lens. Three of the four lenses will be covered in the paper as the Rights and Responsibilities Lens and Reputation lens are both categorized into two different views of the deontological theory.
The Rights and Responsibilities Lens classifies me as a “person who uses my reasoning skills and (rationality) to determine your duties as well as the universal rules that each person should follow (autonomy)” (University of Phoenix, 2007). Deontologists such as Immanuel Kant and Plato are typically classified in this lens. “Deontologists base their decisions about what’s right on broad, abstract universal ethical principles or values such as honesty, promise keeping, fairness, loyalty, rights (to safety, privacy, etc.), justice, compassion, and respect for persons and property” (Trevino &