Unit 3 ETHICAL THEORIES

INTRODUCTION:

The subject of ethics itself is divided into different area of study;

Normative Ethics

Normative ethics, that branch of moral philosophy concerned with criteria of what
is morally right and wrong. It includes the formulation of moral rules that have
direct implications for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life should be
like. It deals with the subject of human conduct (Teleological & Deontological
ethics) and character (Virtue ethics).

For example: We should do to others what we would want others to do to us. Since
I do not want my neighbor to steal my car, then it is wrong for me to steal her car.
So, based on the Golden Rule, it would also be wrong for me to lie to, harass,
victimize, assault, or kill others.

a. Teleological ethics

It describes the rightness of the act which is determined by its acts.

It holds the belief that rightness of action is determined solely by no. of good
consequences they produce. It is classified as:-

 Utilitarianism: This theory beliefs that best moral action is the one that
maximizes utility. The aim of the action should be the largest possible
balance of greatest happiness of greatest no. or pleasure over pain.

 Ethical egoism: It believes that all action of individual is motivated by self-

interest. According to this human are by nature selfish creatures and there is
nothing like unselfish action. But human may be able to safeguard their
interest without hurting the interest of others.

b. Deontological ethics ( obligation or duty)

• It holds that rightness of an act is determined by the action’s adherence to

independent moral rules or duties regardless of their consequences.

• When we follow our duty, we are behaving morally. When we fail to follow
our duty, we are behaving immorally.

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c. Virtue ethics

• It emphasizes the virtue of mind and character. 

Descriptive ethics

It is the observational study of moral beliefs and practices of different people and
cultures in various places and times.

It describes the whole situation but do not criticizes.

It provides descriptive & empirical accounts of standards that should guide

behavior, as opposed to those standards that should guide behavior.

Ethical theories are patterns of thinking or methodologies, to help us decide what

to do. Ethical theories try to present or justified guidelines about how we ought to
act.

Business leader along with society rely on ethical theories to guide daily decision
making process & logically confirm gut feelings.

Meta-ethics

It the branch of philosophy of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical
properties, statements, attitudes and judgments.

It attempts to discover the origin or cause of right and wrong.

It deals with the meaning of ethical terms, the nature of moral ethical disclosure
and the foundations of moral principles.

Applied ethics

It is the attempts to use philosophical methods to identify the morally correct

course of action in various fields of everyday life.

It deals with ethical issues specific to a professional, disciplinary or practical field.

Applied ethics is not an independent segment of ethics so it includes medical

ethics, business ethics, legal ethics, bio-ethics and others. Ethical theories are
patterns of thinking or methodologies, to help us decide what to do. Ethical
theories try to present or justified guidelines about how we ought to act.
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Business leader along with society rely on ethical theories to guide daily decision
making process & logically confirm gut feelings.

It is an attempt to answer difficult moral questions that actual people face on their
lives

Some of the ethical schools of thoughts are as follows:

SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOHPY: 

 The philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas was the marvel of the middle Ages
& the crown jewel of Catholic scholarship. Yet, Aquinas philosophy was in
many ways the culmination of 1600 years of Greek philosophy.

 Much to the boon of Christian philosophers at the time, the philosophy of

Aristotle re discovered during the Middle Ages after having being lost
during the down fall of the Roman Empire 1200 years earlier.  

 The philosophy of Aristotle gave St. Thomas Aquinas & his contemporaries
the tools they needed to prove the reasonableness & rationality of the
Catholic faith. 

 This unique blend pagan wisdom (the philosophy of Aristotle) & revealed
wisdom (the scriptures and teachings of the Church) is called scholastic
philosophy.

 The most famous scholastic philosophical work was St. Thomas Aquinas
five volume treatise(formal written work) Summa Theologica. 

 In the Summa Theologica, Aquinas used the doctrines of the Church as a

springboard for exploring the deepest questions of philosophy.

 Aristotelian principle is the idea of being and an understanding of what all

things are composed of. What is the nature of things?

 Therefore, if we want to understand what a thing is in the philosophic sense,

we must define a thing as a whole before predicating parts and quantity to it.

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 Aristotle believed that when we ask the question “what is the thing
composed of?”  “What is the nature of being or thing?” the answer lies in the
substance of thing. 

 Substance is a philosophic term that is defined as the primary mode of being.

All things are composed of substances. Therefore the basis of reality lies in
substances. Atoms and other practices are real, yet they are only parts of the
whole.

 This is why the substance is called the primary mode of being. Now it is
important to realize that substance is not an imaginative concept, it is a
rational concept. This means that we can’t picture what a substance is in our
imagination; rather we must use rationality and logic to understand it.

 In addition to the primary mode of being substance, all things have

secondary modes of being called accidents. Accidents are those things that
allow us to imagine a being or thing. Accidents inhere in a substance & give
it physicality.

 Aristotle defined ten categories of being which allow us to answer the

question, “what is a being or things composed of?”

1. Substance- substance is a primary mode of being& defines what a thing is.

Substance is a foundation of reality & cannot be pictured in the mind
without also picturing the accidents that inhere in the substance.

The remaining categories of being are accidents: secondary modes of being.

2. Quantity- quantity allows us to define the parts in a substance. For e.g., a

tabby cat has two eyes, two ears.

3. Quality- quality is descriptive term such as, the softness and brown color of
a tabby cat.

4. Relation- relation identifies the relative state between two objects. For eg
tabby cat has the same color as the Angolan cat.

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5. Action- the action of the subject is also an accident. Action does not
necessarily imply motion or change. For eg. the tabby cat is setting still, is a
valid action accident of cat.

6. Passion- in the philosophic sense, passion is defined as change. For eg we

can say that aging process of the tabby cat is a passion.

7. Location- location is also an accident. For eg the tabby cat is sitting on top
of the sofa.

8. Posture- posture identifies the spatial orientation of the subject. For eg the
tabby cat is sitting with all four feet on the floor and it’s tail is in motion. 

9. Temporality- temporality is the affectation of time on the subject. for eg the

tabby cat is seven years old.

10.State- state seems to change in the subject which allows us to identify it

from other subjects. For eg the tabby cat currently has both eyes closed & is
falling asleep. 

 We can clearly see that nine of ten states of being are accidental. Yet, only
the primary mode of being ,the substance, defines a being or object.

 Therefore, no substance can be imagined without its inherent accidents & no

accident can exist separately from a substance.   

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THE KANTIAN ETHICS

German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was an opponent of

utilitarianism.  Leading 20th century proponent of Kantianism:  Professor
Elizabeth Anscombe (1920-2001).

Basic Summary: Kant believed that certain types of actions (including murder,
theft, and lying) were absolutely prohibited, even in cases where the action would
bring about more happiness than the alternative.

For Kantians, there are two questions that we must ask ourselves whenever we
decide to act: (i) Can I rationally will that everyone act as I propose to act? If the
answer is no, then we must not perform the action. (ii) Does my action respect the
goals of human beings rather than merely using them for my own purposes?
Again, if the answer is no, then we must not perform the action.

Kant’s theory is an example of a deontological moral theory–according to these

theories, the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their
consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty.

Advantages and business applications

a. Kant introduces the importance of humanistic dimension into business

decisions.

b. Kant pressures the importance of motivation & of acting on principles.

c. Kant’s categorical impressive gives rules to follow in moral decision

making.

d. Kant’s morality is very straightforward and based on reason, making it

accessible to everyone.

e. Duty is part of human experience

f. Morality doesn’t depends on motives, consequences or religious law.

g. Categorical impressive tells us exactly what is right and wrong, gives us a

clear sense of moral guidelines

h. Ethical practice should be based on reason not subjective emotion.

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Limitations/criticism 

a. People are different and don’t necessarily have the same sense of good will.

b. Not everyone is capable of making rational moral decision

c. Kant never addresses what a person is. 

d. Philippe Foot have criticized Kant’s theory as doesn’t help the situation of
the double effect. 

e. Kant’s theory is abstract & not always easily applicable.

f. Kant seems confused about whether his ethics are deontological or

teleological.

 THE MACHIAVELLIAN PRINCIPLE

 Italian diplomat and writer Niccolo Machiavelli, neither philosopher nor

systematic thinkers , was characterized by a duplicitous interpersonal style, a
cynical disregard for morality & focus on self interest and personal gain.

 Machiavelli was suggesting that people have to do something not necessarily

good to attain something good.

 His principle indicated that a leader should be prepared to do evil when

necessary to gain power.

 Machiavelli says repeatedly that given men are ungrateful, fickle, liars &
deciders, fearful of danger & greedy for gain a ruler is often obliged not to
be good.

 However, Machiavelli does not simply argue that political suitability

requires that set aside. Rather than being a moral or immoral, commonly
assumed, Machiavelli was an ethical consequentialist, who thought that the
end justifies the means.

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 He argued that, in the normally brutal world of real politics, rulers are forced
to choose between two evils, rather than between two goods or between a
good & an evil.

 This is the classic dilemma of political ethics that is often referred to as ‘the
problem of dirty hands’ in which politicians are often confronted with
situations in which all of the options available to them are morally
repugnant(unacceptance). In such tragic circumstances, choosing the lesser
evil over the greater evil, however cruel & repugnant are the ethically right
things to do.

 The philosopher Kai Nielsen said that “where the only choice is between
evil and evil, it can never be wrong & it will always be right to choose the
lesser evil.”

Machiavelli principles in business

 Don’t be overly generous. Being generous is an admired attribute but being

overly generous is a weakness leading to failure.

 Divide & conquer. In business that could mean encouraging fierce

competition.

 Leaders should be honorable but not if it threatens their rule.

 Keep discipline & order.

 If the result is good, the means will be accepted. It means that leader will
ultimately be judged based on the good
outcomes.                                                                                                            
                                                             

Criticisms of Machiavellian principle:

 The autocratic ruthless use of power by the ruler is the main dangerous
conception of Machiavelli.

 Use of dishonest and clever methods to deceive and win power.

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 Ruler can be used any means in order to create and maintain his autocratic
government.

 Give counseling to avoid the common values of justice, wisdom and love of
their people but to use cruelty, violence, fear and deception.

UTILITARIANISM OF JEREMY BENTHAM AND JOHN STUART MILL

Jeremy Bentham(1978-1832)

 Jeremy Bentham English philosopher and political radical who is primarily

known today for his moral philosophy, especially his principle of
utilitarianism, describe the term utility in two meanings;

 Utility is the property in any object which tends to produce benefit,

advantages, pleasure, good or happiness.

 Utility is an action which is considered right or wrong depending on the

consequences.

 According to Bentham the greatest good is the greatest pleasure of the

greatest number. This simply means that an action is considered to be good
if it gives the person the greatest pleasure of happiness to the majority of
people affected by the action. An action is bad or evil if it does otherwise.

John Stuart Mill(1806-1873)

 John Stuart Mill, provides support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral
theory linking with philosophical empiricism and utilitarianism.

 As a member of parliament, he was a staunch defender of individual liberties

& argued against state interference. In fact, he was one of the first advocates
of women’s equality.

 Mill defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that “actions are
right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of happiness”. Mill defines happiness as pleasure & the
absence is pain.

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 He concluded that since man naturally seeks happiness & avoids pain, then
what constitute good moral is happiness and pain constitutes moral evil.
Therefore an act that promotes happiness is moral, & that which causes pain
is immoral.

 Mill’s argument comprises five chapters.

1. Introduction to the essay

2. Definition of utilitarianism & presents some misconceptions about the

theory

3. Discussion about the ultimate sanctions or rewards that utilitarianism can

offer

4. Discusses methods of proving the  validity of utilitarianism

5. Connection between justice & utility and argues that happiness is the
foundation of justice

 Mill accepted Bentham’s greatest happiness principles but he did not agree
that all differences can be quantified. Some pleasures experienced by
humans differ among each other in qualitative ways.

 Mill’s utilitarianism has three claims:

a. The morality right action is the one that maximizes aggregate good.

b. What is good is the happiness of individual humans.

c. Happiness consists in pleasure and the absence of pain. 

Conclusion:

 Mills concept of utilitarianism was a modification of Jeremy Bentham’s

version in that Mill enriched the concept of pleasure. While Bentham
believed all the pleasures, physical & intellectual, were of equal value. Mill
considered the higher pleasures of the mind as superior. 

 So, the ethical principles of Mill & Bentham also differ:

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 According to Bentham man should carryout activities yielding the maximum

pleasure, without making qualitative distinctions.

 According to Mill man is not to became animal. His humanity is valuable. It

is creditable to be human being even by designing sensual pleasure. Man’s
duty is to attain high qualities and great pleasures. 

Criticisms of the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill

a. It stress happiness as a pleasure and no explained about how pleasure is to

be defined and measured.

b. There are difficulties in comparing the happiness of different people.

c. The critics suggest that even if utilitarianism is roughly workable, it gives

the wrong answers in many moral questions. for eg 

 Can utilitarianism account for justice &fairness?

 Is there any space for personal integrity in utilitarianism? 

THE MORALE POSITIVISM OF THOMOS HOBBES

- The Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)is known as father of modern legal

positivism- the doctrine(belief) that “where there is no law there is no justice” so
the state of nature is a moral vacuum (zero moral) in which force & frauds are
cardinal virtues(essential qualities).

- The theory claims that there is no natural law therefore no natural right. All
human rights are derived from the state, from contracts, from each person’s
freedom or custom.

- Hobbes took a nominalist approach to ethics as he argued that ethical

judgments are the result of human thought & culture and that justice is a function
of positive law.

- In addition to his doctrine of law, Hobbes developed ideas of human nature

depicting human behavior to be rooted in self interest, especially in the sense of
survival.

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- While he did not develop implications of the doctrine of human equality, it

is widely known that Hobbes was a strong believer in human equality.

- According to Hobbes morality arises as out of the law of nature and

discovered by reason. The sole aim of these laws is the preservation of the lives of
the human persons. Morality is therefore created at the point of the making of
social contract.

- According to Hobbes, the reason why it becomes easy for people to come to
a consensus regarding morality is that there is an inherent quest for peace, which is
a result of an opposition of the constant conflicts which is the natural state of the
human person.

- The social contract comes as a result of a surrender of some of the natural

rights for the sake of peace. Morality as such does not exist before the making of
the social contract.

- Therefore, the fundamental argument in Hobbes is that morality is a child of

mutual consent, not desires.

Criticisms of Hobbes’s Theory

1) Many philosophers and politicians have criticized the social contract theory
as very pessimistic(based on false ideas) and dark vision(selfishness) about human
beings.

2) Hobbes thinks that the only way to provide peace for humans is to arrange a
contract and never allow people to break it; they should always fulfill their duties
to the social contract(a contract is simply the mutual transferring of right). The
criticizer said that human capabilities do not remain constant, so it is impossible to
hold from one generation to the next.

3) According to this theory people must fulfill their duties determined in the
previously made social or political contract because they give whole power to the
‘Leviathan’(politician) so there is no space to the people to question the origin and
content of established social contract.

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DIVINE COMMAND EHTICS

- Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-

ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent
to whether it is commanded by God.

- The theory asserts that what is moral is determined by what God commands,
and that for a person to be moral is to follow his commands.

- Followers of both monotheistic and polytheistic religions in ancient and

modern times have often accepted the importance of God's commands in
establishing morality.

- Divine command theory is view that the morality is somehow dependent

upon God, and that moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s command. It
claims that morality and moral obligation and right action is ultimately based on
commands or character of God.

- Robert Merrihew Adams has proposed a "modified divine command theory"

based on the omnibenevolence (anywhere helpful) of God in which morality is
linked to human conceptions of right and wrong.

- Actions are right or wrong because they accord or conflict with the
commands of God.

- Divine command theory holds that morality is all about doing God’s will.
God has issued certain commands to his creatures. We can found these commands
in the Bible or Gita or Kuran or asking religious authorities or perhaps by
consulting our moral institutions. We ought obey these commands; that’s all these
is to ethics.

- According to theory God is the literally all things, then he created morality.
So God’s rule we ought to do what he tells us to do. The consistent message of the
Bible or Gita or Kuran is that we should obey the Gog’s commands.

- The most famous arguments against divine command theory is Euthyphro

dilemma which gets its name from Plato’s Euthyphro dialogue. The Euthyphro
dilemma possesses the question: does God command the good because it is
commanded by the God?

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- However, the divine command theorist answers this question as

unacceptable consequences seem to arise.

VIRTUE ETHICS

- Virtue ethics is a normative ethical theory in which development of virtues

or positive character traits such as courage, justice and truthfulness, is the basis of
morality.

- A morality excellent (good) person develops virtues & distinguishes them

from vices or negative character traits such as cowardice(weakness) and
vanity(ego). This development of virtues occurs through practice.

- Virtues are the habits of mind that move us toward excellence, the good life
or human flourishing.

- As guide to business ethics virtue ethics requires that managers act in such a
way that they will increase their contributions to the good life.

- Virtue ethics tells them to follow the character traits that they see a
consistent with virtue.

- Identifying the relevant virtues & vices required reasoning about the kind of
human behavior that moves us toward the good, successful or happy life.

- According to supporters of virtue ethics the right action is the one that a
virtuous agent would choose under the same circumstances.

- John McDowell puts its practical wisdom involves a perceptual sensitivity to

what a situation requires.

- Eudemonia translated from Greek as wellbeing, happiness, blessedness and

in the context of virtue ethics.

- So, virtues are character traits, dispositions to act in certain ways that is, it is
good to posses.

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