ETHICS REVIEWER 1

• Deontology


  We are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules regardless of outcomes
• Virtue Ethics


  • Emphasizes moderation between excess and deficiency
  • Unifies reason and emotions because it attempts to establish a proper disposition not only to act in certain ways but also to feel in certain ways
• Utilitarianism


  • Advocates the theory of Value
  • Includes the theory of right action
  • Is a consequentialist theory
  • Is John Stuart Mill's great work in ethics
• Natural law theory


  • Stressed that all human are governed by basic innate laws of nature
  • Became a frame for criticizing and reforming positive laws
• Divine Command Theory


  We must consult God's commandments
• Jeremy Bentham


  Believes in Utilitarian ethical theory
• Kant's first categorical imperative

  Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction
• Kant's second categorical imperative

  Act in such a way that you treat humanity never merely as a means to an end but always at the same time as an end
• Kant's third categorical imperative

  Every rational being must so act as if he were through his maxim always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends
• Kant's moral theory


  • Based on his view of the human being as having the unique capacity for rationality
  • Good will is exercised by acting according to moral duty or law
• Aristotle


  Categorized the virtues as moral and intellectual virtues
• Virtue Ethics


  Holds that a person must have the right disposition, motivation and traits for being good and doing right
• DEONTOLOGY


  Act as if the maxim of your action were to secure through your will a universal law of nature
• UTILITARIANISM


  1. An act is right when it is useful in bringing about a good end

  2. It seeks to promote the capability of achieving happiness for the most amount of people
• NATURAL LAW ETHICS


  1. Action in accordance with human nature fulfills God's eternal plan

  2. Good should be done and evil be avoided

  3. Natural inclinations and tendencies are good
• DEONTOLOGY


  1. Always act so as to treat humanity as an end in itself

  2. When conflicts occur between duties, our actual duty becomes that which "intuitive judgment discerns as the right thing to do
• UTILITARIANISM


  We ought to maximize the overall satisfaction of the preferences of the greatest numbers of individuals
• VIRTUE ETHICS


  It provides guidance in ethical decision-making by its focus on the central role of character
• 4 Ethical Theories

  • UTILITARIANISM
  • NATURAL LAW
  • DEONTOLOGY
  • VIRTUE ETHICS
• Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill - they are the two foremost utilitarian thinkers
• Bentham equates happiness with pleasure
• St. Thomas Aquinas - proponent of Natural Law
• Immanuel Kant - proponent of Deontology
• Aristotle - proponent of virtue ethics