Virtue Ethics

963 Words2 Pages

Sally has obviously damaged the company, so her actions will definitely require an appropriate form of punishment. However, there are several factors that have to be taken in account. For example, Sally was a loyal, responsible, and fair worker during the last 20 years, so any extreme form of punishment could damage both Sally and the company. On the other hand, an inappropriate response from the management could encourage her deviant behavior towards the company in the future. With several conflicting factors apparent in this case, working out an appropriate solution is difficulty. The virtue ethics position allows several interpretations because it focuses on the character as the main motive that defines ethical behavior. Unlike deontology that relates moral actions to rules or pragmatism that considers social context related to ethical behavior, virtue ethics approaches the issue based on individual factors.

Although virtue ethics is deeply divided in interpreting the virtue of different characteristics and the morality of their manifestations in society, it consists of six essential rules that can be found in all forms of virtue ethics. According to one of those rules, an action is morally correct if a person with a virtuous character would perform the same action in the same circumstances (Oakly & Cocking, 2004), and that rule could explain Sally's case as morally correct action. However, several people could argue that virtue ethics should be practiced without harming others. While Sally is assisting a man in need, she is also working against the company policy. It has been argued that business environments can provide a suitable environment to practice virtues, but the opposition states that it is closer to deontological requirements for following rules that are not necessarily based on personal characters and virtues (Moore, 2002).

Another division found in virtue ethics is the development and manifestation of virtues. While several philosophers stress the importance of developing virtues in the character, so these virtues can manifest later in actions, other philosophers claim virtues should not be developed subjectively and generalize their development based on the entire society (Oakly & Cocking, 2004). In other words, it is possible to argue that Sally did not develop the virtue of justice and equality because she worked against existing policies and treated one client differently. In this scenario, she did not display loyalty to the company, but it is possible that her compassion overpowered her sense of logical reasoning.

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