Ethics Project Part 1

Project Part 1

My personal code of ethics closely matches Rule Utilitarianism. Rule Utilitarianism holds that the rightness of an act depends not on the goodness of its consequences, but on whether or not it is in accordance with a certain code of rules, which has been selected for its good consequences. An example would be to keep your promises, except when breaking them will maximize the good.

Rule Utilitarianism is a close match to my ethical perspective because of the way my mind works. I do believe in following the rules that will bring about the most good. I believe it is wrong to kill, and we should never kill, unless in self-defense. This statement makes a lot of sense to me in that I know it is wrong to kill, but if it came down to someone killing me if I did not, I would find justification.

The ethical perspective that seems most unlike my personal ethical system is psychological egoism. This claims that people can only act in their self-interest and when people choose to help others, they do so ultimately because of the personal benefits that they themselves expect to obtain, directly or indirectly, from doing so.

Psychological egoism is most unlike my personal ethics because I don’t always act in my own self-interest or for personal gain. I believe in helping others for the greater good when I can, even if it doesn’t directly benefit my own self-interest.

If I were to choose an ethical perspective that I would like to follow, it would be Act Utilitarianism. This principle is also related to the principle of utility, which states that we should attempt generate the largest ratio of good over evil possible in the world. This principle claims that ethical theories should strive to achieve the greatest amount of good because all people benefit from the most good.

I find that Act Utilitarianism would benefit the people as a whole and bring the greatest good to the world. The benefit of this ethical theory is that the utilitarian can compare...