A Comparison of Ethical Theories

A Comparison of Ethical Theories

ETH/316

A Comparison of Ethical Theories

Ethics are codes of behavior, adopted by a group; a family, community or nations, setting the boarders for behavior. Some examples of ethics theories include: virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology. 

The virtue theory of ethics can be summed up with the statement, that if a person’s character is good, they will make good choices. The choices they make are strictly based on their internal thoughts and belief system, their choices do not rely on the laws of the country they live in or the traditions of their culture. The viewpoint of this theory is that “in living your life you should try to cultivate excellence in all that you do and all that others do. Thomas Aquinas, added a religious aspect to this theory, his focus was on good and evil, specifically avoiding evil, obeying religious laws to be good. “For example, a virtuous person generally (habitually) acts virtuously, while doing virtuous acts also makes one virtuous.”

Utilitarianism, at its most unpretentious explanation is that the moral worth of an action can be measure in the benefit of happiness that it brings. The consequence of an action, defines the morality of the judgment. This viewpoint focuses on the community as a whole, what decisions will enhance the lives of the most people. Groups who make up minorities can be left behind when decisions focus on the majority. Because this theory has a big focus on happiness, decisions can make only most of the population happy, but there could be a vocal minority that opposes some of the decisions.

In deontology, there are more firm boundaries for people to make their moral choices from, there are morally forbidden choices, there are things that you must be do, there are also decisions that can be moral, based on specific situations. For instance, if two different children were drowning, a parent would be able to choose to save their child first. This theory, is about the...