Ethics Essay Eth/316

1. The Mayor of a large city was given a free membership in an exclusive golf club by people who have received several city contracts. He also accepted gifts from organizations that have not done business with the City but might in the future. The gifts ranged from $200 tickets to professional sports events to designer watches and jewelry.

Virtue Theory is one of many different moral theories that exist today. It is based off of Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics which focuses on having an ideal character. The main focus of Virtue Theory is the role of one’s character, which is closely related to its roots in Aristotle. A Virtue Theorist would do things because it is who they themselves are, not because it is good to do them or because they will get something good from doing them.

First, I will introduce the two different theories. Utilitarian theory is an ethical theory that a person is to act based on whether that certain action will benefit the most. For example, if one could sacrifice one person’s interest to maximize the benefit of the majority, then it is ethical to do so.

Utilitarianism also known as the principle of utility is an ethical theory proposed by early philosophers. This theory implies that actions are only judged by its consequences whether they are good or bad. One should perform a particular action because it will yield the best results for all. This approach also analysis the cost and benefit relationship. The downfall with this theory is that not everyone benefits (Fremgen, 2016).

Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory. It concerns how to evaluate a large range of things that involve choices communities or groups face. These choices include policies, laws, human’s rights, moral codes,

Virtue ethics is considered as one of the three major approaches in normative ethics. The founding fathers of Virtue ethics are Plato and more particularly Aristotle. “It suffered a momentary eclipse during the nineteenth century but re-emerged in the late 1950’s in Anglo-American philosophy” (Virtue Ethics , 2012). The re-emergence had an effect on the other two approaches. The consequence of this is the fact that is now necessary to distinguish “virtue ethics” from “virtue theory. Kant’s virtue theory has conveyed philosophers’ attention to Kant’s “Doctrine of Virtue” and the utilitarian’s have developed consequentialist virtue theories. “A virtue such as honesty or generosity is not just a tendency to do what is honest or generous, nor

Utilitarianism is a theory which I can agree with, mostly. I would like to do what makes the majority of people happy, however, it might not always be the correct decision. An example would be people at a workplace each decide to steal five dollars and not tell (no one gets caught), this would make everyone happy but is it really morally correct. It also depends on the outcome, if the consequences outweigh the happiness then the act is not ethical. There are also other factors which can come into play, one scenario about the train going down the tracks. You can save a bunch of people by switching the train to another track, but the person on the other track is someone you love. This one person means more to you than just one unit of happiness which does not follow the rule, everyone’s happiness is the same. Utilitarianism brings a great way to make ethical decisions, but it cannot be used in every situation which is why it only needs to be applied when

Utilitarianism is a moral theory that seeks to define right and wrong actions based solely on the consequences they produce. By utilitarian standards, an act is determined to be right if and

Moral theory of utilitarianism is siting the right and wrong only on outcomes of an action over another action. The theory site that the action is right if it bring greater amount of happiness and pleasure for the greater amount of mankind. The expected utility is concerning about people preference over the choices that uncertain result. The difference between act and rule utilitarianism is that act utilitarianism care about the right moral action as a single act where the rule utilitarianism focus on the consequences of the action when the action repeated more than once.

Virtue ethics acknowledges compassion, truthfulness, and courage. It also describes the avoidance of selfishness and sets forth that if a person does “good” then the person will receive a “good life” in return (Plato). On the other hand, deontological theory acknowledges the actions and the results (Kant). In this essay I will be comparing these two theories to decide which of them was used to resolve an ethical predicament that I had to face.

The act utilitarianism theory focuses on others happiness. It looks over the number of positive and negative benefits and forms an action only if positive benefits are higher compared to negative ones. It focuses on the consequences of specific

Awakening of theory of virtue ethics, the rival of other moral theories like Kantianism and Utilitarianism also has needed to be taken into consideration in the argumentation. The aftermath of these theories comparisons is for the proof of the revival of virtue ethics has been aware with the other alternative moral theories’ perceptions of their opposing. In simple way, the essence of Kant’s idea is focus on doing what is right rather than what is good which mainly deals with rules and obligation. His deontological theory is duty based ethic, which is neither depends on consequences nor virtue. He focuses on motivation and treats humanity for the complete happiness as he believes that good moral complete happiness. However, he found out

Virtue is habit or quality that allows an individual to succeed though a chosen purpose, with the use of intelligible teleological that accounts to the meaning of human life; which is categorized by the moral virtues and intellectual virtues. Virtue ethics is known as virtue theory; which is an approach to ethics that emphasizes an individual’s character element through ethical thinking rather than rules about deontological or consequentialism. It is also said that virtue does not primarily identify universal principles that can be applied to moral situations, but uses deontological and consequentialist to identify principles. This theory shows that it is based on an individual rather than actions issues; it does not only deal with the rightness or wrongness of individual actions, but it provides guidance to sort characteristics and behaviors in the good of an individual who seeks to achieve rather than fail.

For centuries, philosophers have debated the human condition what is good, what is evil, what makes the individual moral, and how are ethics balanced with virtue as a means for the actualization of the individual. Virtue, for many, becomes the theory of the way individuals should follow morality to become, eventually, the best person we can be. Part of being an enlightened human, for instance, is knowing the difference from right and wrong, of making that distinct individualized decision; we have contemplated our own humanity and actualized. Virtue theory, then, is a concept taken up by more than Aristotle that helps individuals define and contrast normative ethics by using deontology, which tends to emphasize cause and effect through rules and duties. Virtue theory, then take admirable human characteristics and tries to find the way in which humans should live best. "...To experience these emotions [fear, courage, desire, anger, pity, and pleasure] at the right times and on the right occasions and toward the right persons and for the right causes and in the right manner is the mean or the supreme good, which is characteristic of virtue" (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II).

The virtue theory is different from all other theories because it focuses on the person instead of simply doing the right thing or taking the correct action (Rae & Wong, 2012). This theory goes beyond the others and says yes people understand right from wrong but if their character is not strong, they will succumb and do the wrong thing. It says that a person must have a strong belief and character so that they always do the right thing regardless of the situation. It says that people who have strong character will do the right thing even when they know it will not benefit them and it may even hurt them. It says that a person must also be able to reason as well as understand right from wrong and have the character to follow through and do the correct thing.