Virginia Held's Essay, Criticism’s against Traditional Ethical Theories

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Criticism’s against Traditional Ethical Theories Virginia Held brings up many criticisms of traditional ethical theories in her essay. The ethics of care can be considered as a suitable substitution for other widely accepted ethical theories such as Kantian ethics. The ethics of care recognizes the importance of interpersonal relationships, especially those within the family unit. All people need care at some point during their life, be it at birth or old age. Caring for people that can not provide sufficient care for themselves is a fundamental part of a moral society. Ethical theories based on the importance of a rational and independent individual excludes the importance of interpersonal reliance. Traditional ethical theories see emotion as a way to arrive to a means of reason and rationalistic moralities. Emotions are a very important component of the ethics of care and embrace rather than deny them during the calculations of morality. Prevalent ethical theories distinguish public life from private life within the household when no such distinction should be made. Contemporary feminists have a big problem with traditional ethical theories because of their basis that women can never be fully moral. Traditional ethical theories suggest that an excess of emotion indicates a deficiency of reason. This could not be farther from the truth for lack of emotion is not a requirement for rational reasoning. Traditional ethical theories do not accept the morality of reasoning. For example, the Kantian categorical imperative asks us to reject reason and be completely impartial while calculating morality. In conclusion contemporary feminists have made much progress in transforming the gender hierarchy of traditional ethical theories a... ... middle of paper ... ... Mills on Animal Equality Mills outlines his principles in the book he authored Utilitarianism. I think that Mills would disagree with Singer on his theory that all species should be considered equal and partially agree with Steinbock. Mills believes that the correct action is the one that brings about the most overall human happiness. By this logic using animals for food and experimenting would be ethical. Humans have a basic need for sustenance and protein that comes from animal meat is essential for a healthy diet. Mills would believe that using animals as a source of food increases overall human happiness therefore making it moral to kill animals for food. I do not believe that Mills would have a problem with animal experimentation if the sole reason was for research that improves the well being of humans, again creating the most overall happiness for humans.

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