In this assignment I am going to assess and discuss the major ethical theories, their contents, meanings and why they exist and why we need them. Also I will analyze and elaborate on the code of ethics and its importance to every society, industry business or company. I will integrate both ethical theories and codes of conduct together and will connect them together. This paper's main intention is to clarify and explain to people who don't about ethics and the theories what they are, and so also make it simple to understand.
Rights
In the ethical theory of rights, the rights themselves, attributed by any society, a company or any given business place are the most valued, protected and highly regarded moral standards. Rights are taken most
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It judges the individuals by their characters a rather than their past behavior or actions that may have been different from their everyday personality and normal actions.
This ethical theory's main weakness is that many times a person's change in character wouldn't be taken under consideration. Such as if a researcher has been copying and or plagiarizing or has unintentionally did not source his papers properly and did not accredit those of whom he took the material from. It matters not if it was an honest mistake, he would still be looked at as a person who conducted unethical behavior in according to this society of which was involved
Relativism
The relativism ethical theory is one that claims that there aren't any collective and universal moral principles. The relativism theory claims that the rights and wrongs of actions change according to the society to which they are being applied to, there are no definite moral standards that apply to all men at all societies. The theory claims that each society defines its own values and the core principles that apply for morality. And that since it has always been that way it is unalterable and will always remain so. And also, whenever principles of morality are involved ethics are always
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For example, a person who is not local and has moved to a new country. Will carry own his ethics and rules from home and unless being told else way he will keep practicing them.
The differences between objectivism and relativism are that, in the relativism theory the claiming is that rules and actions are changing according to the situation and to the societies in which they are being conducted whereas in the objectivism theory it clearly states that moral laws are never-changing and will always remain the same.
Consequentalist Vs Deontology is for the hardest comparison to interpret since they are slightly different but not accurately contrasting each other. In the consequentialist it is all depends on what an act might imply on the future and what the act's outcome and exactly which consequence it would be whereas Deontology claims that people should abide by their obligations and laws regardless of the implication and the
Deontology diverges from consequentialism because deontology concentrates on the rightness or wrongness of the actions themselves instead of the consequences. There are different types of deontological theories. According to Kant, theoretical reasoning helps us discover what we should believe whereas the practical reasoning tells us what we should do. Morality falls under theoretical reasoning. In Kantian deontology, motives matter. Rather than consequences, it is the motive of an action makes that action morally right or wrong. Likewise, if an action intends to hurt someone, but eventually it benefits the other person, then it does not make that action morally right. All in all, deontology comes down to common-sense: whether it is a good action or a bad
A personal code of ethics entails written ideas and beliefs that guide one on how they should behave and relate to their family, colleagues, and the society at large. My personal code of ethics act as a foundation for distinguishing good from bad deeds and assists me to determine the rightful emotions and actions to engage in. My family, friends, and the society play a major part in the development of my personal principles and values, including excellence, integrity, responsibility, ambition, respecting family, accountability, and determination. The values enable me to associate well with my family, colleagues, friends, and the society. This paper describes my personal code of ethics in detail and compares it to the United Nation’s (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the NASWA Code of Ethics.
According to Tännsjö (2007), we all have our own moral universes that consists of moral codes that are relevant only to our universe. In Wong’s account of Velleman, (2016), he states that in a relativist world we are each on our own moral islands, independent of everyone else’s rules and judgments. Moral relativism also includes the acceptance of both contradicting moralities possibly being correct (Tännsjö, 2007. Hugly & Sayward, 1985). For example, if one person from one moral universe believes that something is right, but another one believes that this same thing is wrong, moral relativism states that within their own contexts and beliefs this action could be justified as both wrong and right (Tännsjö, 2007). Moral relativism essentially argues that morality is formed through every individual’s own perception and shares very little between moral universes or moral
Review of “Situationism and Virtue Ethics on the Content of Our Character” by Rachana Kamtekatar
Cultural relativism is a theory, which entails what a culture, believes is what is correct for that particular culture, each culture has different views on moral issues. For example, abortion is permissible by American culture and is tolerated by the majority of the culture. While, Catholic culture is against abortion, and is not tolerated by those who belong to the culture. Cultural relativism is a theory a lot of individuals obey when it comes to making moral decisions. What their culture believes is instilled over generations, and frequently has an enormous influence since their families with those cultural beliefs have raised them. With these beliefs, certain cultures have different answers for different moral dilemmas and at times, it is difficult to decide on a specific moral issue because the individual may belong to multiple
There are many ethical systems that were created over the years, each created to support curtain people’s beliefs, cultures, and ideologies. Out of all the systems that were presented in this course I believe that relativism and absolutism most aligns with my beliefs. Relativism is the fact that there is no absolute and that what is considered right and wrong varies from person to person and society to society. While absolutism “is the ethical belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged and that certain actions are right or wrong, regardless of the context of the act”.(Philosophy, n.d). I believe that there is a right and a wrong in the world (absolutism) but,
Cultural Relativism states that there is no objective right or wrong. Right or wrong are defined by your society’s moral code. I will provide reasons why we should not be cultural relativists. My reasons include; how it affects philosophy, the Cultural Differences Argument, examples of why it doesn’t work and societal needs.
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...
Moral relativists believe that no one has the right to judge another individuals choice, decisions, or lifestyle because however they choose to live is right for them. In addition everyone has the right to their own moral beliefs and to impose those beliefs on another individual is wrong. At first glance moral relativism may appear ideal in allowing for individual freedom. After all why shouldn’t each individual be entitled to their own idea of moral values and why should others force their beliefs on anyone else. “American philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), tells us, what is right is only what the individual thinks is right. There is no higher court of appeals, no higher, universal, or absolute moral standard.” (pg 121) Moral relativism means if does not feel wrong than it must be right.
Moral relativism is the concept that people’s moral judgement can only goes as far a one person’s standpoint in a matter. Also, one person’s view on a particular subject carries no extra weight than another person. What I hope to prove in my thesis statement are inner judgements, moral disagreements, and science are what defend and define moral relativism.
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
Someone might reject moral objectivism because different cultures have different morals. For example: some cultures believe that the worst criminals deserve the death penalty, but some cultures believe that know one should be put to death for a crime, but moral objectivism is a better moral theory than ethical relativism because in agreeing with cultural relativism, you are believing that cultures decide between right and wrong. Cultural relativism implies that only the cultures can decide for individuals what is right and what is wrong. With moral objectivism, believing what is right and what is wrong is valid or true for everyone. Believing in cultural relativism means you can also not judge other cultures of what they think is right or wrong.
In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits. The takeaway is that both theories share the guiding principle that morality is bounded by culture or society.
Every day we are confronted with questions of right and wrong. These questions can appear to be very simple (Is it always wrong to lie?), as well as very complicated (Is it ever right to go to war?). Ethics is the study of those questions and suggests various ways we might solve them. Here we will look at three traditional theories that have a long history and that provide a great deal of guidance in struggling with moral problems; we will also see that each theory has its own difficulties. Ethics can offer a great deal of insight into the issues of right and wrong; however, we will also discover that ethics generally won’t provide a simple solution on which everyone can agree (Mosser, 2013).
Philosopher David Hume divided the term “ethics” into three distinctive areas; meta-ethics, which focuses on the language used when talking about ethical issues. The general approach to this area of ethics is, it explores the nature of moral judgement, and it looks at the meaning of ethical principles. Normative ethics tries to find practical moral code that we can live by. It is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for what is right and wrong. Finally applied-ethics is the application of ethical theories and using them in real life issues such as medical research or human rights (Hume D, 2011).