...one’s understanding of the 'good life' based on a light or mid green ethic. Ethics are a broad way of thinking about what constitutes a good life and how to live one. Ethics address questions of right and wrong, making good decisions, and the character or attributes nessasary to live a good life. Ethical praxis addresses these issues with a special focus on how they can be live out in a practical manner. Environmental ethics apply ethical thinking to the non-human world and the relationship between this green space and humans. In the most general sense, environmental ethics puts forward three basic yet challenging propositions. Firstly, the idea that the Earth and its non-human creatures have a moral status and are subsequantly worthy of our ethical concern. Secondly, that the Earth and its creatures have an intrinsic value. This is to say that they have a moral value purely because they exist above human needs. Thirdly, from the ecosystem perspective, human beings should consider environmnetal wholes as opposed to isolated individualism. The documentary Earthlings graphically illustrates how human beings use animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and for scientific research. Animals constitute part of the natural resources that are used in the production of the modern conception of the plentiful good life and it is very easy for one to overlook the moral considerations behind what it takes to live such a life. Is the good life still good if its worng? As with...
Words: 679 - Pages: 3
...are the most important types of ethical standards to apply in business activities? Utilitarian ethic claims that something is right to the extent it diminishes social costs and increases social benefits. Ethic of rights, closely associated with Kantian duty ethic, claims that one should always consider and respect people’s rights to freedom and well-being. Aristotelian virtue ethic evaluates the moral character of persons or groups. As articulated by Mill and Bentham, utilitarianism aims not for the pleasure of the individual but the “greatest good for the greatest number” of people. Refined by its later interprets, utilitarianism also rejects a simplistic belief in pursuing the most pleasure possible in favour of the view that incorporates qualitative standards and elevates pleasures of the mind over pleasures of the body. The term “happiness” seems to capture this broadened sense best, and Utilitarian philosophers sometimes call their principle the “greatest happiness principle.” To apply correctly the utilitarian approach, one should avoid several possible misunderstandings of the utilitarian principle. First, the principle does not refer to that action which produces the most utility for the person performing that action; rather, an action is right if it produces the most utility for all persons affected by the action (including the person performing the action). Nor does the utilitarian principle say that an action is right so long as its benefits outweigh its costs. Rather...
Words: 2796 - Pages: 12
...CHAPTER 2 – Ethical Decision Making Model Objectives: * To know the definition of Ethics, * To discuss Principles of Ethical Conduct * To identify the Ideas organizing Principle of Ethics * To provide a systematic way of making ethical decision. * To encourage, motivate you to think about Ethical Decision you make. Meaning of Ethics Ethics: * Ethics provides a set of standards for behavior that helps us decide how we ought to act in a range of situations. In a sense, we can say that ethics is all about making choices, and about providing reasons why we should make these choices. moving from a primary focus on teaching employees to master the knowledge, skills, and job behaviors and apply them to the day-to-day activities (Making Choices: Ethical Decisions at the Frontier of Global Science) * Ethics refers to principles that define behavior as right, good and proper. Such principles do not always dictate a single "moral" course of action, but provide a means of evaluating and deciding among competing options. * The terms "ethics" and "values" are not interchangeable. Ethics is concerned with how a moral person should behave, whereas values are the inner judgments that determine how a person actually behaves. Values concern ethics when they pertain to beliefs about what is right and wrong. Most values, however, have nothing to do with ethics. For instance, the desire for health and wealth are values, but not ethical values. (www.josephsoninstitute...
Words: 1909 - Pages: 8
...Singer questions our conception of equality as it relates to the human species and other animal species. He fundamentally argues that, “The principle of the equality of human beings is not a description of an alleged actual equality among humans: it is a prescription of how we should treat humans.” The statement, revealing Singer’s essential argument, also comprises two approaches we might take towards establishing equality among living things. Let’s trace Singer’s claims surrounding these two approaches and finally consider his fundamental, philosophical assumption. One approach to equality stems from philosophers, who determine a base-line set of attributes or functions that constitute human beings. Typical treatises attribute humans with rational, linguistic, or emotional capacities that differentiate them from “brutes.” However, Singer culls evidence from the medical field, not research but simple observations of medical disabilities, where a human with born defects actually functions at a lower level than certain animal species. For example, someone with severe cognitive paralysis may be less rational or “able” than a normal-functioning dolphin. Thus, Singer points out that if we wish to establish equality based upon attributes, we have a hard time excluding many species of non-humans. As a corollary, the standard of equality by a typical set of characteristics must be set lower and lower to encompass all humans when we consider those with severe disabilities. In other words...
Words: 1333 - Pages: 6
...Running Head: ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS Ethics: Pollution and Multinational Corporations HRL ETHICS: POLLUTION AND MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS 2 Pollution is a broad term. It encompasses far more than just chemicals affecting our environment. Pollution is defined by The Merriam Webster dictionary as “the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy such as noise, heat or light.” There are many types of pollution including, but not limited to, air pollution from man-made and naturally occurring contaminants, water pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, soil contamination, thermal pollution, as from commercial cooling systems or nuclear power plants, visual pollution from man-made structures like radio towers and billboards, and electromagnetic pollution such as radio frequency interference produced by man-made appliances. There is pollution we can control and pollution that we cannot control. Each type of pollution may have its own set of ethics which, of course, must relate back to the subject of a previous assignment relating to the ethics and culture of the civilization that one is existing in. For example, there are cultures that use incense for religious and entertainment purposes. They would not consider fumes and chemicals...
Words: 1997 - Pages: 8
...Utilitarian And Kantian Concept Of Punishment Print this Table of Contents S. No. | Content | Page No. | | Introduction | 3. | | Research Methodology | 4. | | Chapter 1: Utility of Punishment | 6. | | Chapter 2: Retributive Justice And Legitimacy | 10. | | Chapter 3: Can Capital Punishment Be Justified | 13 | | Chapter 4: Finding A Middle Way | 15. | | Conclusion | 17. | | Bibliography | 18. | Introduction Punishment entails the intentional infliction of pain or some type of deprivation in an institutionalized form that individuals would generally prefer to avoid. This requires justification to be morally acceptable. Attempts to provide justification for infliction of punishment are made by various punishment theories. Punishment theories generally can be separated into a handful of philosophical camps—consequentialist theories, non-consequentialist theories, and mixed (or hybrid) theories that contain both consequentialist and non-consequentialist elements. What distinguishes these theories is their focus and goals: Consequentialist theories are forward-looking, concerned with the future consequences of punishment; non-consequentialist theories are backward-looking, interested solely in past acts and mental states; and mixed theories are both forward- and backward-looking, with each hybrid placing a different emphasis on culpable past conduct versus future consequences. The present paper will briefly examine the two dominant consequentialist and...
Words: 6603 - Pages: 27
...hum and to non-humans. There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the environment. Humans are been considered of rational agents because they have clear preference, models uncertainty via expected values, and always to perform the action with the optimal expected outcome of itself. The action of the rational agent performs depends on the preference, the agents information of its environment, the actions, duties and obligation available and the estimated or actual benefits and the chances of success of the action. I will be arguing that rational agents have a moral obligation towards the environment. Using Peter Singer and John Rawls to argue for and Immanuel Kant to counter argue my arguments. Singer (2011) states rational agents should explore the values of preserving the wild nature; he believes that sentient beings who are capable of experiencing pain including non-humans affected by an action should be taken equally into consideration in assessing the action. Singer regards the animal liberation movement as comparable to the liberation movements of women and people of different colour skin (Singer, 2011). Unlike the environment philosophers who attribute intrinsic value to the natural environment and its inhabitants, Singer and utilitarians in general attribute intrinsic value to the experience of pleasure or interest satisfaction as such, not to the beings who have the experience (Singer, 2011). Similarly, for the utilitarian, non-sentient objects...
Words: 1899 - Pages: 8
...Chapter 7 4. On a separate piece of paper, write a one paragraph summary of the arguments raised by each of these issues. Euthanasia This topic discusses that euthanasia is forbidden by the laws of God and morally wrong. Because it is God who gives us life and only He can decide when your life should come to an end. However if you apply the Utilitarian approach if you euthanize man to end his suffering because he is dying and the goal to the ultimate happiness can no longer be achieve then euthanasia is morally right. To believe the way Utilitarian way you view God as nothing more than a benevolent by stander. Is it wrong to euthanize animals, God created them should He not chose when it is their time to die as well? Marijuana This is a discussion on the legalization of pot. It amazes me that so much of tax dollars are spent on this rather than more prevalent issues. Legalization of marijuana can be possible in fact laws have been placed on tobacco and alcohol to regulate its usage, they are in fact a drug as well. Instead of fighting marijuana usage, tax the crap out of it, regulate its distribution, and get our country less out of debt. I believe the utilitarian way, if marijuana usage provides greater happiness for the person using it then good for that person. But also we must consider the production of marijuana today. It is no longer produced in its purest form. Today people grow this plant with so many additives that can be harmful to the person smoking it...
Words: 459 - Pages: 2
...CODE : BUSS 4053 COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT (50%) SUBMISSION DEADLINE : APRIL 29 2013 NAME : NGUYEN HONG HANH ID NUMBER : SCM-021587 FACULTY : OPTOMETRY AND VISION SCIENCE (HONS) INTRODUCTION This document is designed as an introduction to thinking ethically. This provide not only the basis definition of Ethics, but also how to approach and apply it on the real life. Question 1 Some people said that: “Ethics is the same as feelings” “Ethics and religious beliefs is the same thing” “Ethics is not different from laws” “Ethics follow the society accepts” “Ethics is science” All of these definition is NOT true. These replies for these question going to define WHAT ETHIC IS NOT. Question 2 There are five approach is being critically evaluated in this question. The Utilitarian Approach The Rights Approach The Fairness or Justice Approach The Common Good Approach The Virtue Approach Question 3 We all have to make decision on daily basis. It appear everyday in our life, force us to deal with it in our job… So what should we think when a moral issue show up? What should we consider? What to think and what to do? These question going to analyse the problem, shape a framework for ethical decision making by these four step: Get the facts. Evaluate Alternative actions. Make a Decision and Test it Act and reflect on the outcome. QUESTION...
Words: 3217 - Pages: 13
...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 that the millions of people who now endorse it are on the wrong track. A market system can coordinate human behavior or activity with a range and a precision beyond...
Words: 5820 - Pages: 24
...should be able to choose their child’s gender before implantation. Some compare this method of gender selection to human cloning. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is the testing of the chromosomes of the embryo to determine genetic abnormalities and gender prior to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). In the United States, gender selection by PGD is considered a violation of ethical practices for non-medical purposes (Akchurin, n.d.) CNN.com reported recently that a new blood test has been discovered which can determine the sex of a fetus as early as seven weeks gestation. This achievement was reported in the Journal of American Medical Association in August. This technology is already starting ethical debates fearing parents will use this technology for sex determination and abort healthy fetuses (Ravitsky, 2011). This new technology could also be beneficial in determining gender if their child is at risk for a sex-linked disease such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy or hemophilia. In China and India, there is a cultural preference for males, and for years, parents have been having ultrasounds to determine sex and having abortion’s following to avoid having a female. These practices have altered the sex ratios in these countries drastically making there be thirty two million men and under twenty million women. Allowing a simple blood test to determine gender for non-medical purposes will harm...
Words: 1122 - Pages: 5
...his daughter out of their house and placed her in the cab of his truck where he then proceeded to intentionally fill the cab of the truck with exhaust fumes until his daughter was dead. In lemans terms he poisoned his child with exposure to carbon monoxide. Viewing this from an ethical standpoint of morals, we now have to question if Mr. Latimer was morally justified for his actions or not. Was this a condonable mercy killing or was it cold blooded murder? In the argument of whether or not Mr. Latimer was right or wrong there are many different aspects to look at. On one side you can argue that Mr. Latimer was morally right for his actions. Why? Well, if you agree with the Utilitarian viewpoint, which in this case I do partially agree with, then you’d side with Mr. Latimer being justified. The Utilitarian argument would follow as such:...
Words: 952 - Pages: 4
...situation with a friend of the family after a stroke. After being resuscitated three times in one week, another elderly friend with a pacemaker wanted her life to end in peace. And so it goes with many terminally ill patients; they plead to die. For the doctors and judges this is a debatable question and for relatives a painful choice. But who really has the right to make the decision? Sometimes, there is a senseless prolonging of life within hospitals by the many machines that the patient is hooked up to and it seems like technology has taken over and these machines are the only thing keeping the person alive. When death is unavoidable and the prolonging of life is due extraordinary medical procedures and efforts, many questions arise regarding the right to die with dignity. I would like to think that I have some right in this regard to my final situation and have the option for my death to be agonizing or peaceful? Demonstration Moral Reasoning The utilitarian theory when applied to this very sensitive ethical question and topic offers a unique perspective. The overall general principles states that it’s a difficult task but morality should be guide and instruct each one of us so that our efforts are rational and not solely emotional. If this is the case with utilitarian theory I question, how is this possible with such an emotional issue? This theory further believes that “these questions are to be handled in the terms...
Words: 2307 - Pages: 10
...1. How does UPS’s approach toward sustainability impact the triple bottom line? Be specific Sustainability is regarded as a goal of any business. The accounting framework, to support sustainability goal is called as the triple bottom line (TBL).It focus on performance of an organization with the interrelated dimensions of profits, people and the planet. UPS accelerated progress towards it sustainability goal as stated in its 13th annual sustainability report created impacts on triple bottom lines: People, profit and planet (Environmental). People: Company deploys various innovative strategies and technologies such as ORION routing system, UPS My Choice service and UPS Access Point locations, to cut down the unnecessary miles and give consumers control over the place and time of delivery. They also developed new delivery methods to reach dense urban areas. UPS works closely with its customers, stakeholders, and government leaders in developing new delivery methods to reach dense urban areas. The company is using bikes for deliveries across Europe including Hamburg, Rotterdam etc. Profit: UPS accelerated its investment in alternative fuel and advanced technology by adding more than 5,000 vehicles from the previous year, they increased the vehicles by 61% over 2013 and added 1,100 natural gas vehicles. The company expects the 20 million hours of volunteer work by the end of 2020 to translate into nearly a half-billion dollars which results in economic impact to nonprofit organizations...
Words: 1580 - Pages: 7
...* Moral Issues In Business * Environmental Protection Why Is The Issue of Environment Crucial To Us Today? The resources of this planet are finite and limited – as also its capacity to absorb and dispose of all the waste and garbage we generate. ‘Growth’ ‘Progress’ and ‘Development’ have spelt out one thing: increased consumption of material goods. Increased consumption of material goods has led to irreversible exploitation of natural resources: wood, fossil fuels, water to mention only a few. Rapid industrialization and global trends ↓ Grave problems of ecological imbalance and environmental degradation Environmental destruction is the result of man’s interference with Nature. We all require clean air, fresh, unpolluted water and a healthy habitat. But we also want large houses, all the latest gadgets, big cars and all other material amenities. Modern industry has provided us with unprecedented material prosperity. It has also created unparalleled environmental threats to us and our future generations. Modern technology has enabled us to manipulate and control nature – e.g. quick yielding seeds, artificial rain, BT vegetables and cereals, multiple crops etc. But this has led to increased pollution and severe depletion of natural resources. - Pollutants are pumped into the air - Toxic wastes are produced and dumped into soil, water and seas Major problems facing the world in the 21st century: - Population growth - Global...
Words: 1049 - Pages: 5
