Ethics

Individual Ethics Essay ETH/316 10 July 2012 Being a former military which; is ethically based and supports the deontological theory more than any of the three. Personally, I feel that it was my duty to serve my country. After the readings this week, I believe that I am virtuous person. I believe that a person’s character tells who they are and their actions are only a small part of who they become in different situations. Ethically my job was to say the enemy is the enemy and we should not care about them or their family. Morally and personally I wanted to get to know the person and their character before making a judgment. Theories are formed to display different beliefs, most of the time people agree with a portion of different beliefs rather than the entire concept. Theories are often used to put characters into perspective or to help people figure out who they are and where they belong. The virtue theory, the utilitarianism theory and deontological theory have similarity and differences. The theories address ethics and morality differently, which makes it difficult to decide which one to go with. Virtues are what are instilled in us to help us determine good and bad, or wrong or right.  Morals reflect what we believe to be appropriate in society or our community and values are what we hold close to us and differ from individual to individual.  Values may be anything from personality or friendships, or emotions.  All of these attributes help shape the person we are and help make us good individuals in society.  They also influence our decision making process.  They are different in terms of how those concepts are instilled in us.  Ethics can come from our family; values can come from a variety of sources, friends, family and society.  Morals are provided through society.  They all shape who we are but through different avenues. Virtue ethics theory stands on the position that “we become good when we cultivate excellence (virtue) by pursuing the moderate course between excess and defect” (Boylan, 2009). Ethically people are judged by the action they take because of the consequences that come from those actions. This theory addresses ethics by challenging whether or not we judge a person by their actions rather than their character. Utilitarianism is a consequentiality theory that focuses on the greater good for all individuals.  Person’s morals are right when they want what is best for everyone, or the majority, not just for them.  Moral good has positive results that end in pleasure and moral wrongs have a negative result and cause pain. Growing up morals taught me to put ourselves last because sacrifice is one of the greatest gifts we have. Ethics also teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions whether they are good or bad. Selfishness is a major part of human nature this theory goes against that. Even though this theory is morally based, it would have to become ethically coordinated to work. This is so because it takes people coming together so there need to be a form of social contract. Deontology theory is primarily based on an individual’s moral duty and what an individual "ought" to do.  The theory states that a person should do what the moral duty dictates no matter what the consequences might be. The theory bases its duties on the nature of human reason or on the nature of human action. It asserts the existence of moral facts and so is a moral realist theory” (Boylan, 2009). This theory is more ethically bases because it emphasizes a person’s obligation. Obligation or duty requires a code of ethics, it requires a mutual understanding that someone will always do what they are suppose to without being told. Even though morals causes humans to feel guilty when they do the wrong thing it is not enough for a person to always do what they are suppose to. The similarity between the virtue theory, the utilitarianism theory and deontological theory is that they all challenge a person’s moral and ethics. They are also similar because they all require ethics and morals to support these theories. The differences are virtue is both morally and ethically base, utilitarianism is morally based and deontological is more ethnically based. Reference Boylan, M. (2009). Basic ethics: Basic ethics in action (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.