...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. Value judgment: assess or work on something Intrinsic value is a value of a thing for its own sake, value for itself. Extrinsic Value: a value of a thing because it is a means for something else, Ex, for a show, low level value. Normative ethics, typical, average, investigating moral theory, in...
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...Virtue Ethics—Analysis of the Virtue Expected | Virtue ethics draws its inspiration from the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B. C.). In Th e Nicomachean Ethics he explored the nature of a good life. He thought that the goal of life is happiness. Th is is not happiness in a hedonistic sense. Instead, happiness, for Aristotle, is an activity of the soul. We fulfi ll our goal of being happy by living a virtuous life, a life in accordance with reason. Now, virtue is a character of the soul that is demonstrated only in voluntary actions (i.e., in acts that are freely chosen after deliberation). So, we become virtuous by regularly performing virtues acts. But Aristotle also felt that there is a need for ethical education so that people will know what acts are virtuous. Aristotle thought that we can understand and identify virtues by arranging human characteristics in triads, with the two extremes being vices and the middle one being a virtue. For Aristotle, courage is the mean between cowardice and rashness; temperance is between self-indulgence and insensibility. Th e other virtues of pride, ambition, good temper, friendliness, truthfulness, ready wit, shame, and justice can similarly be seen as the middle way between two vices. Virtue is the golden mean. Th is is not an arithmetic mean, but rather a path between extremes positions that would vary depending upon the circumstances. You need to use your reasoning to identify the mean in each ethical situation, and you become better...
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...Aristotelian Virtue ethics is the most developed of the classical philosophy. Virtue Ethics is concerned with the development of ‘virtues’ within a moral agent. Aristotle argues that a ‘virtue’ is an ethical quality that lies between excess and deficiency. His book ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ features a table of personality traits in which there is ‘excess’ and ‘deficiency’ and the doctrine of the mean, which outlines the optimum development of an ethical quality, but it is relative to the people involved, it is described in the book as ‘that which is neither excessive nor deficient, and this is not one and the same for all’. One example he uses in the table of virtues is ‘Shame’, in which shamelessness is excessive and shyness is deficient while modesty lies between them and is the doctrine of the mean. In modern times, Scholars have criticised Aristotle’s Virtue ethics for being too relative, vague and self-centred. Many Modern Ethicists have written their own theories of virtue ethics to try and address some of the issues. Aristotle’s teachings of virtue have been criticised by J.L Mackie, Louden and Sidgewick for being too vague for actual application. Sidgewick said that it ‘only indicates the whereabouts of a virtue’. Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue Ethics attempts to address the vagueness of Aristotle’s teachings. Franklin was a utilitarian who believed that all actions should bring about the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’- he believed that in order for this to work...
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...“what should I do?” or “How should I act?” However, the fundamental questions that define ethics allow individuals to evaluate the moral principles behind the rationalization of their actions. Three forms of ethics come to mind and they are virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. Each has differences, which distinguish one from the other, a point this paper will advocate to readers. In addition, this paper explains and addresses each theory in conjunction to ethics and morality, in addition to the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to each theory. Virtue Theory One of the principles reading into the virtue theory is excellence. Virtue theorizes that when living life, it aims to excelling in everything an individual does. When judging based on this theory, an individual bases their judgment on the exceedingly excellence of others actions. Boylan, 2009 states, “It takes the viewpoint that living your life you should try to cultivate excellence in all that you do and all that others do” (p. 133). In other words, virtue ethics aligns to the absolute good and emphasizes rationalization on the results of their actions that is likely to bring absolute good (Boylan, 2009, p. 62). A virtue theorist may ask what traits and dispositions enable them to act in a way that develops this potential. The answer is attitudes and dispositions that define an individual’s character that consist of traits like honesty, courage, compassion...
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...Anthony Gonzalez ETH/316 2/23/15 Arthur Murphy Introduction Utilitarianism, deontological, and virtue theory ethics are three normative approaches to ethics. This paper will go over the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological principles. It will include information of the variations in how each concept details ethics, morality, and it will also discuss a personal experience to describe the correlation between virtue, values, and moral perceptions as they relate to one of the three theories. Similarities and Differences Virtue theory emphasizes character traits rather than the rules or consequences while deontology is described as an action that is right only if it is in accordance with a moral rule or principle. Utilitarianism puts more emphasis on the consequences and that decisions should be made based on happiness for the greatest number of people. Virtue theory does not judge a person as good (or not) based upon one single action in their lives. Rather, it takes a look over time to judge ones character. Virtue theory also looks at past mistakes that are not normally in a person’s historical nature. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations over a lifetime because that is their character and not because they want to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do their duty ("Virtue," 2010).Utilitarianism usually relies on predicting the consequences of an action. Utilitarianism sets...
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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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...that people’s ethical beliefs do not play a role in decisions that have to be made, but that is not the case. Ethics, virtues and values are involved in most decisions that are made. When allocating resources, especially scarce resources there are tough decisions that have to be made to determine who is entitled to get the resource. In order to understand how ethics can play a hand in who is going to get a scarce resource, one must understand exactly what ethics are. Ethics are the basic concepts and principles of right human conduct (“Business Dictionary”, 2013). There are social norms and usually the country is divided on what they deem to be ethical, but there are issues that most everyone agrees with. There are also values and virtues. A value is what a person or their culture value as far as morals and character, for example, being on time or always being neat can be seen as a value. A virtue is more about expressing character, and example of virtue would be loyalty (Sheryl, 2010). All of these play into how people arrive at the decisions they make. When thinking of a difficult decision it is easy to see how ethics, virtues and values play into each decision. When it comes to voting time, it can sometimes be hard to choose between the different amendments and politicians, but we as people use our values and judge people based on what we see as their virtues. There are other difficult decisions that come into play when you get into the area of resources. There have been...
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...Virtues We’ve all heard the famous quote “patience is a virtue”. As true as this statement is, I don’t think we really grasp the meaning of what a virtue really is. I would describe a virtue as a morally good character trait that one is not born with, but must strive for. Patience is a perfect example of this. No child is born with patience. Many times a child will interrupt the mother who is in the middle of a conversation because it wants candy and simply cannot wait for the mother to finish the conversation. So what is it that makes virtues important? I believe the answer can be found in the theory of Virtue Ethics. Virtue Ethics is the theory of how people should be. In other words, we shouldn’t act with honesty, we should be honest. By being honest, honesty becomes second nature to us. It is easier for someone to be honest if they have the virtue of honesty. Being virtuous will benefit someone when they are faced with decisions, challenges, or circumstances. For example, it will benefit a college student to be perseverant because obtaining a degree is not easy. Virtue Ethics defines the context of right and wrong based on the virtues valued in a society. The right thing to do in society as we know it would be to act with virtues like honesty or integrity and the wrong thing to do would be to act with vice, the opposite of a virtue. I believe there are many things about virtue ethics that are true. What I agree with most is Aristotle’s view of how virtues...
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...Ethics: Virtue Theory, Utilitarianism, and Deontological Unknown ETH/316 December 1, 2014 Michael P. McNeal, MBA Ethics: Virtue Theory, Utilitarianism, and Deontological Today’s business environments differ in many ways as compared to those of years past. Ethics have begun to play a crucial role in successful operation of all businesses, large and small. This paper will explain some of the many similarities and differences that exist among virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. It will also offer personal insight of my opinion of virtue, value, and moral concepts as related to deontological ethics. Virtue, value, and morals all directly relate to the field of ethics. Virtue is behavior that relates very high standards to the deed being carried out, representative of the good in the situation. Values are fundamentally the principles of behavior, judging what one deems as important to life. Morals are instinctive feelings of what is right or wrong in decision making. They can vary from person to person discriminative on the culture, lifestyle, and background of the person that is using the moral judgment. Many similarities and differences reside among Utilitarianism, Virtue theory, and Deontological ethics. Those who follow Utilitarianism ethics generally look at matters on a broad scope. They consider all sides to an argument, carefully weighing good versus bad, in an effort to answer the question “What should be done?” Businesses that operate...
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...Military and Societal Values 2799 words (8 double-spaced pages) Colonel Malham M. Wakin, in his evening address, asks whether Plato's claim that "knowledge is virtue" is true. Much contemporary experience suggests otherwise. To some extent, such an observation could apply to the military as well. Col Wakin argues that we do have some basic knowledge about human conduct, but that we live in a highly pluralistic society in which some practices reject that basic knowledge. Nonetheless, even though we draw members of the military from that pluralistic society, the uniqueness of the military function will always keep its leading practitioners apart from the mainstream of civilian society. The military profession swears to defend the values, the lifestyle that incorporates the minimal conditions for human dignity. After examining the convergence of the values that are functionally necessary for the military and those that we know are fundamental to social existence, he concludes that a competent military profession can serve as a moral anchor for its parent society. I Many years ago when I learned I was going to have the opportunity to study philosophy at the graduate level, I was tremendously excited. What a wonderful opportunity this would be, I thought, to sit at the feet of Socrates and be enlightened by those who studied the crucial problems of human existence. I expected that senior philosophy professors would be marvelous role models in their personal lives and I looked...
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...Ethics What is Ethics? Ethics is the study of what is morally right or wrong, good or bad. Views on ethics can very from person to person, based on individual belief. There are several ethical theories, which include virtue, utilitarianism, and deontology. Each of these theories are very different, yet are similar in some parts. These theories can be used to explain the differences in how they relate to virtue, value, and moral judgment. What is virtue theory? In order to understand virtue theory first, one must understand what defines a person’s character. A person’s character can de defined as all of his traits put together. Character traits can be good, bad, or somewhere in between good and bad. Virtue theory emphasizes on the character traits, and the evaluation of ethical behavior. Virtue theory stresses character over actions, duty, rights, or consequences. A person derives his virtues from his culture and environment. A virtuous person would simply strive to be the best person that he can be morally, using common character traits such as courage. The deontological theory of ethics is the opposite of virtue ethics. Deontological ethics is different from virtue ethics because deontology focuses on the act or duty itself, rather then if it was right or wrong. The focal point of deontological ethics is in the right actions justifying the duty itself. Deontology judges’ morality based on the examination of the actions rather...
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...they can bring real consequences. Aristotle is the father of the virtue ethics, and he concluded that the people who have ideal character traits were virtuous. However, once these characters are established, they need to be nurtured so that they can become stable. For instance, a moral person is kind in very many circumstances during his or her lifetime because that’s how her personality and will simply do her duty without expecting any favors. Virtue ethics shows focuses on how people should live, which the real social are and the family value and also what the best life to live is. The show Sons of anarchy is very interesting because of the way William Shakespeare Hamlet has inspired it. For instance in the play, Jackson has virtue values whereby he is trying to maintain peace with the violent gang. The virtue ethics values have three main categories that include; the care ethics, eudemonism, and the agent-based theories. The human ability to perform the distinctive functions well is equated with human flourishing that is based on eudemonism. Eudemonia means happiness and the well-being of the human. Human will always revenge to get their happiness. For instance in the show Sons of Anarchy, the retaliatory sense becomes a menace to the peace in the society. Jax is called for a talk by the county Attorney Tyne so they can talk about a political order that claims use of violence. According to Aristotle, virtue is not always sufficient but it is very necessary and also the external...
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...Ethics Essay Ethics, according to dictionary.com, is the branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. Or as the textbook states, ethics is the science concerning the “right and wrong” of human action. This paper will be discussing the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. There will be a description of the differences in how each theory addresses ethics and morality. It will contain a personal experience to help explain the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to one of the three theories. The three main views of the normative ethics theory is virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and utilitarianism. Virtue ethics focuses on the virtues, or moral character, while deontological focuses on duties and rules, and utilitarianism focuses on the consequences of ones actions. Virtue ethics is called agent based or character ethics, as well. According to the textbook, when using the virtue ethics approach, one should take the viewpoint that in living their life they should try to cultivate excellence in all that they do (Boylan, 2009). Virtue ethics suggests that people should develop their character so that they will lead a good life. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. This means that the moral worth of an action is determined...
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... Week one reading helps understand and compare the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. As we include a description of the differences in how each theory addresses ethics and morality. Then concluding in a personal experience to explain the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to one of the three theories. “Utilitarianism is the theory that suggests that an action is morally right when that action produces more total utility for the group as a consequence than any other alternative does“(Boylan). Utilitarianism is more morality because it’s a choice of action to either do the right thing or not and if it was ethical then it would be a must to do the right thing. ”Deontological ethics is the moral theory that suggests that an agent’s duty is based upon principle. The theory bases its duties on the nature of human reason or on the nature of human action. It asserts the existence of moral facts and so is a moral realist theory“(Boylan). So deontological is being more ethical because it is based on principles and if it was morality then it would not be based on principles. “Virtue ethics is also called agent-based ethics. Its position is that we become good when we cultivate excellence (virtue) by pursuing the moderate course between excess and defect. Since the origin of the virtues is in question, some practitioners of...
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...Phoenix December 1, 2011 Ethics Ethical development is an important tool needed in today’s society. In this paper, the topic will discuss the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. In addition this papers topic will address how each theory addresses ethics and morality in relation to the authors’ personal experiences with virtue, values, and moral concepts. Similarities and Differences in Ethics Theories To understand the similarities between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics the first order is to define the meaning of each. According to Boylan (2009), virtue theory has a definition of cultivating excellence in life and constituting an aspect of the “good person” (Boylan, 2009). Utilitarianism according to Boylan (2009),” is a theory that suggests that an action is morally right when that action produces more total utility for the group than any other alternative” (p. 153). Deontological ethics have a definition as an analysis of reason, this analysis position decisions based for the morally justified good. The similarities between the three theories represent the good in people and how they strive for excellence and justified good. The differences in the three theories begin with the ethics and morality. Virtue theory describes a person’s character, cultivating “excellence in all we do” (Boylan, 2009, p. 43). Striving for excellence can be challenging at times by deciding what is the most choice...
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