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The case of utilitarianism
Description on virtue ethics
Virtue Ethics
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Virtue Ethics
When a person is virtuous he or she cares about both the action and the consequences of the action. Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behaviors. Virtuous ethics are common in this day in age, every day you hear a mom tell their child to be kind, to share, and tell the truth. Virtuous ethics are the ones that all children grow up with, schools give out awards for their students who show these character traits. These traits are supposed to be the basics of being as good person. No matter what ethical perspective people ascribe to virtue should be at the center of every decision he or she makes. Honesty, personally one of the harder virtues to use every day. No one wants another person’s honest opinion, and being truthful is just as hard as hearing the truth and listening. As people grow older they are given so many chances to speak truth whether its telling a good friend they do not look good or putting away a criminal for a crime they witnessed. Honesty takes a lot of work, but being trustworthy is
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Even though a person makes decisions based on where his or her duty lies, said person is loyal to something, which is part of being virtuous. When a person focuses on Utilitarianism that person focuses on the consequences rather than the action so the consequence of giving a hitchhiker a ride in a downpour would be compassionate and generous, which are again virtuous ethics. All decisions are based should be based on virtuous ethics because they already are, we cannot make a decision without reverting back to a child remembering our parents telling us to be kind, loyal, compassionate, full of integrity, in control of our selves. Our parents told us to be brave and generous and fair. Parents raise their children with virtuous ethics because these character traits are tools that people use every day to make
Virtue ethics is an approach that “deemphasizes rules, consequences and particular acts and places the focus on the kind of person who is acting” (Garrett, 2005). A person’s character is the totality of his character traits. Our character traits can be goo...
According to Aristotle, a virtue is a state that makes something good, and in order for something to be good, it must fulfill its function well. The proper function of a human soul is to reason well. Aristotle says that there are two parts of the soul that correspond to different types of virtues: the appetitive part of the soul involves character virtues, while the rational part involves intellectual virtues. The character virtues allow one to deliberate and find the “golden mean” in a specific situation, while the intellectual virtues allow one to contemplate and seek the truth. A virtuous person is someone who maintains an appropriate balance of these two parts of the soul, which allows them to reason well in different types of situations.
When we discuss morality we know that it is a code of values that seem to guide our choices and actions. Choices and actions play a significant role in determining the purpose and course of a person’s life. In the case of “Jim and the Indians”, Jim faces a terrible dilemma to which any solution is morbid. On one hand, Jim can choose to ignore the captain’s suggestion and let the whole group of Indians be executed. Alternatively, he may decide upon sacrificing one Indian for the sake of saving the rest. Both options involve taking of person’s life. Regarding what should Jim do in this circumstance, there are two approaches according for Jim’s dilemma that should be examined. By looking into the Deontological moral theory and the moral theory of Consequentialism we can see what determines an action that is morally required.
Utilitarianism is criticized for only looking at the results of actions, not at the desires or intentions which motivate them, while virtue ethics comes under attack for social standards that are considered as outdated. Both theories are not perfect, nor completely wrong. But when one considers the philosophies and follows each theory, utilitarianism proves to be the superior ethical system than virtue theory. Virtue ethics revolves around the concept of perfect happiness. It concerns the good for the self. Acc...
“Decreased moral standards and ethics related to ignorance to accepted social behavior standards”. Morality is defined as an understanding and distinguishing right and wrong and behaving according to socially accepted standards (The Definition of Morality, 2002). People can be inconsiderate and conflictful. From the assessment, it was evident that some people have lack of respect to other’s personal properties and even their own. Abandoned houses and trash on properties suggest social and moral degradations. Some of the contributing factors might be poverty, unemployment, and mental illnesses. Lack of morality might be a problem that affects other states and even countries. However, in some areas of Spokane, it is evident that people
The virtue ethics approach is a theory that suggests that people are judged via their character, not specific actions. An individual who has developed good character traits (virtues) is judged as a morally good person. An individual who has developed bad character traits (vices) is judged as a morally bad person. Most of us have a mixture or virtues and vices. There are many pros and cons linked to this approach. The pros include
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the moral principles and values that govern our behavior as human beings. It is important in the human experience that we are able to grasp the idea of our own ethical code in order to become the most sensible human beings. But in that process, can ethics be taught to us? Or later in a person’s life, can he or she teach ethics the way they learned it? It is a unique and challenging concept because it is difficult to attempt to answer that question objectively because everybody has his or her own sense of morality. And at the same time, another person could have a completely different set of morals. Depending on the state of the person’s life and how they have morally developed vary from one human
Randall recently finished graduate school with an M.A. in advertising and works at a major agency in account services. His job requires him to work as an assistant account executive for a client that is introducing a new sports car. His responsibility would be to drive the new sports car for six months while selling the car and hand out supplementary materials to whomever was interested in the car. Randall would not be able to tell the individuals that the car was not his and this promotion seemed deceptive to him.
The code of ethics are a guide of principles designed to help professionals conduct business honestly and with integrity.1Most organization have codes of ethics that its members are required to follow and it lays out the rules and acceptable behavior of its the members of ethics and which actions are acceptable or not acceptable business practices. One industry where professional codes of ethics is important is health care. Most health care workers belong to an accredited organization of their profession, such American Medical Association (AMA), American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and American Nurses Association. They may also be required to have additional certification and rules they must follow based on the laws of the individual
Ethics are moral principles that can be used to help guide peoples decisions. We are all different and therefore our beliefs and opinions differ. There are many ethical theories, and according to Panza and Potthast (n.d.) the following are some that are widely used. Virtue ethics is one theory which states that personality is the most important thing. Living an ethical life, acting right, requires that one develops and demonstrates the quality of courage, compassion, wisdom, and temperance. It also requires that greed, jealousy, and selfishness is avoided. Utilitarianism states that the amount of happiness and suffering created by a person’s actions is what matters the most. As a result, acting rightly includes maximizing the amount of happiness and minimizing the amount of suffering around you. At times you may need to break some of the traditional moral rules to achieve such an outcome. Kantianism is another theory which highlights the principles behind actions rather than an actions results. It states that it requires to be motivated by good principles that treats everyone with respect. If you’re motivated by good principles, you overcome your animal instinct and act ethically. Another ethical theory is the Contract theory, which suggest that ethics should be thought of as terms of agreements between people. It suggests that doing the right thing means obeying agreements set by members rather than those of society. For this theory ethics isn’t necessarily about character, consequences, or principles. The last theory I’m going to mention is Care ethics. Care ethics focuses on ethical attention on relationships before other factors. As a result, acting rightly involves building, strengthening, and maintaining strong relationship...
The concept of virtue ethics was first developed by Aristotle in 'nichomachean ethics '. He believed that the point of ethics is to become good, and virtue ethics highlights this well. It is an agent centred idea of morality and focuses on how a person can develop virtues and what sort of person you should be, rather than how you should act in order to be good. An alternative name for it is aretaic ethics, which comes from the Greek arete meaning any kind of excellence.
It has more to do with character and the nature of what it is to be. human, than with the rights and wrongs of our actions. Instead of concentrating on what is the right thing to do, virtue ethics asks how. you can be a better person. Aristotle says that those who do lead a virtuous life, are very happy and have a sense of well-being.
How does one judge the quality of their life? Is is it based upon your own personal view or is it up to the scrutiny of your peers to judge if you lived well? For me, to live a good life you must positively influence those around you; this to me means that you not only do what is right for yourself but doing the same for others. I believe that you can take a simpler approach to this by saying that in order to live a good life a person must be a moral exemplar.
Moral ethics is the belief that all human beings are born to know right from wrong. We come into this world as good people, but the temptations and challenges in life influence our mind set to as it will. Every person on Earth chooses if they’re to follow through with their life of good or go down the path of bad. “A person’s moral ethics” (unknown.)
One of the most notorious saying we grow up to know and embody is one that concerns are greatest possession, are family. “Family comes first no matter what, because at the end of the day they are the ones who are always there”. To most this is means to do anything possible to provide and protect our loved ones. If thrown into a situation, could you practice what you preach?! Society has guided us to believe that stealing is wrong but when placed in the footsteps, could one think differently. For every situation moral theories is used as to explain rather an action was right or wrong. It is depicted as being wrong in society but society never thinks about the normal people and their life. Society believes stealing bread to feed a starving family is wrong and immoral, as they look at as the concept of stealing, not the bigger picture. Normal people see it as a means of supporting as they are the ones in the footsteps being walked. For this reason stealing bread to feed your starving family is moral.