ETHICAL THEORIES

INTRODUCTION:-

Ethical theories provide part of the decision-making foundation for Decision Making When
Ethics Are In Play because these theories represent the viewpoints from which individuals
seek guidance as they make decisions. Each theory emphasizes different points – a different
decision-making style or a decision rule—such as predicting the outcome and following one’s
duties to others in order to reach what the individual considers an ethically correct decision.

In order to understand ethical decision making, it is important for students to realize that not
everyone makes decisions in the same way, using the same information, employing the same
decision rules. In order to further understand ethical theory, there must be some understanding
of a common set of goals that decision makers seek to achieve in order to be successful.

Four of these goals include beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, and justiceAn Introduction to
Ethical Theories Introduction Impulsive acts are described as those acts that are driven by both reaction and
instinct. Not taking responsibility for your own behavior or actions is an example of impulsive behavior. In
some instances an individual will deny any involvement in the situation, activity, or event; in others, the
individual suggests that someone else is responsible. This type if behavior can be categorized as both
impulsive and deliberate.

From the impulsive act this type of behavior occurs on the spur of the moment. When an individual
performs some action that did not produce the desired result and is confronted with the act the individual
either claims to have no knowledge of the action or suggest that someone else may be responsible. In this
scenario, the individual is suddenly, or unexpectedly, confronted with the issue or event. Not wanting to get
into trouble and having to think quickly, the individual acts on impulse trying to provide a solution that is in
his/her best self-interest.

As a deliberate act this usually occurs when an action potentially has grave consequences, such as an action
that may involve incarceration. In an effort to avoid prosecution, when an individual has performed an action
that they know is wrong or against the law they deny any involvement or suggest someone else is at fault.

1. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about
moralityDescriptive ethics is a form of empiricalresearch into the attitudes of individuals or groups of
people. In other words, this is the division of philosophical or general ethics that involves the observation of
the moral decision-making process with the goal of describing the phenomenon. Those working on
descriptive ethics aim to uncover people's beliefs about such things as values, which actions are right and
wrong, and which characteristics of moral agents are virtuous. Research into descriptive ethics may also
investigate people's ethical ideals or what actions societies reward or punish in law or politics. What ought to
be noted is that culture is generational and not static. Therefore, a new generation will come with its own set
of morals and that qualifies to be their ethics. Descriptive ethics will hence try to oversee whether ethics still
holds its place.

Becuse descriptive ethics involves empirical investigation, it is a field that is usually investigated by those
working in the fields of evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology or anthropology. Information that
comes from descriptive ethics is, however, also used in philosophical arguments.

Value theory can be either normative or descriptive but is usually descriptive.

 2. NORMATIVE ETHICS

Normative ethics is the study of ethicalaction. It is the branch of philosophical ethicsthat investigates the set
of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking.

Normative ethics is distinct from meta-ethicsbecause it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness
of actions, while meta-ethics studies the meaning of moral language and the metaphysics of moral facts; and
it is distinct from applied ethics in that the former is more concerned with 'who ought one be' rather than the
ethics of a specific issue (such as if, or when, abortion is acceptable).

Normative ethics is also distinct from descriptive ethics, as the latter is an empirical investigation of people’s
moral beliefs. In this context normative ethics is sometimes called prescriptive, rather than descriptive ethics.
However, on certain versions of the meta-ethical view called moral realism, moral facts are both descriptive
and prescriptive at the same time.

Most traditional moral theories rest on principles that determine whether an action is right or wrong.
Classical theories in this vein include utilitarianism, Kantianism, and some forms of contractarianism. These
theories mainly offered the use of overarching moral principles to resolve difficult moral decisions.

3. APPLIED ETHICS
Applied ethics refers to the practical application of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-
world actions and their moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health,
technology, law, and leadership. For example, the bioethics community is concerned with identifying the
resources, or the use of human embryos in research.

Environmental ethics is concerned with ecological issues such as the responsibility of government and
corporations to clean up pollution.Business ethics includes questions regarding the duties or duty of
'whistleblowers' to the general public or their loyalty to their employers.

Applied ethics has expanded the study of ethics beyond the realms of academic philosophical discourse. The
field of applied ethics, as it appears today, emerged from debate surrounding rapid medical and
technological advances in the early 1970s and is now established as a subdiscipline of moral philosophy.
However, applied ethics is, by its very nature, a multi-professional subject because it requires specialist
understanding of the potential ethical issues in fields like medicine, business or information technology.
Nowadays, ethical codes of conduct exist in almost every profession.

An applied ethics approach to the examination of moral dilemmas can take many different forms but one of
the most influential and most widely utilised approaches in bioethics and health care ethics is the four-
principle approach developed by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress. The four-principle approach,
commonly termed principlism, entails consideration and application of four prima facie ethical principles:
autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice.

4. ANALYTIC ETHICS
Analytic ethics is also refers to the meta ethics.
Meta-ethics is the branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements,
attitudes, and judgments. Meta-ethics is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by
philosophers, the others being normative ethics and applied ethics.

While normative ethics addresses such questions as "What should I do?", evaluating specific practices and
principles of action, meta-ethics addresses questions such as "What is goodness?" and "How can we tell
what is good from what is bad?", seeking to understand the nature of ethical properties and evaluations.
Some theorists argue that a metaphysical account of morality is necessary for the proper evaluation of actual
moral theories and for making practical moral decisions; others reason from opposite premises and suggest
that studying moral judgments about proper actions can guide us to a true account of the nature of morality.

VARIOUS SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT OF ETHICS

In my reading, there are three primary schools of thought in contemporary Ethics, namely:-

(1) Consequentialism (2) Deontology; and (3) Virtue Ethics.

(1) Consequentialism consists of different varieties of Utilitarianism and Hedonism. The main idea is that
Morality is not based on rules, good intentions or goals, but only on the consequences that result from our
behavior. The basic Good is Pleasure or Happiness. The Utilitarian, for example, seeks ‘the greatest good for
the greatest number.’

(2) Deontology consists of different varieties of Rule Morality. The main idea is that Morality is based on
rules, good intentions and goals. The consequences do not matter, as long as the person’s heart was in the
right place. The greatest Good is Obedience to the Rules (or Divine Laws) whether or not that brings
pleasure or pain. Religions tend to be Deontologist.

3) Virtue Ethics is a new variety of Ethics (Anscombe, Foot, Hursthouse). The main idea is that Character is
the measure of all Morality, and this is intuitive in every person, including children. The immorality of
punishing the innocent and breaking promises is intuitive for all people, for all time. Morality is based on
this.