Ethics The nineteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant presented an ethical code that assigned a strict "right" or "wrong" to every action. Called the categorical imperative, Kant believed that it does not matter what the consequences or outcome of actions are; there are certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong. These ethical categories of right and wrong are not negotiable. It can never be "sometimes" ok to tell a white lie, or to steal. Instead, Kant created easy to understand categories that apply theoretically to all cultures and all people at all times. Human beings are always morally obliged to do the right thing in any given situation, even if doing so leads to suffering. Therefore, it would be considered right to tell the truth to a murderer and subsequently die rather than to lie to the murderer and survive. Davis (n.d.). uses the example of a man coming to the doorstep of a parent wielding an axe. The man with the axe asks where his victim's children are, and the parent is obliged...
The categorical imperative is insufficient to account for the complexity of human existence. Kant's philosophy seems like a cop out, in the sense that it is always easier to try to ascribe a black-and-white moral code to a world filled with gray areas. It is easier for a person to simply state that it is always right or wrong to do something, then to have to think critically and creatively about any given situation. A person can easily rest on their laurels by claiming that he was doing his or her moral duty by telling the axe murderer where the children were, rather than use the courage to outwit the man. Other problems with the categorical imperative include multiculturalism. What is considered to be always right in one culture might not be considered so in another culture. Similarly, moral values and norms change over time. It might have been one day right from…
Virtue Ethics: The Good and the Bad About Virtue Ethics The philosophy of virtue ethics holds that being a 'good person' or what one might call 'character' is the most important determinant of moral action. Virtue ethics is considered to be one of the major philosophical orientations in the field of normative ethics, along with consequentialism and deontology (Hursthouse 2010). Many consider it to be the oldest form of ethics, harkening
Virtue Ethics Virtue-based vs. duty-based ethics: arguments and examples from Victor Hugo, Aristotle, Bernard Mayo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Frankena In the study of ethics and morality, there have been theoretical foundations in which it was argued that morality comes with being rather than doing, or that a true moral life is one that is a product of doing instead of being. Or, oftentimes, theoreticians and philosophers contend that morality must bear
Virtue Ethics and reasoning for the scenario Virtue ethics is the ethical strategy preferred. Efficient leaders and true professionals strive at achieving moral excellence which encompasses integrity, justice, valor and good sense. In the present day, virtue ethics constitutes one among the three key normative ethics strategies. Primarily, it can be considered a strategy which stresses moral fiber or virtues, contrary to consequentialism (which focuses on the consequences one’s actions have)
This will allow someone to move beyond the different emotions, so that they can be able to see how the different actions will affect the world around them. Despite some of the obvious weaknesses, you can be able to determine the most appropriate course of action, by asking questions and gaining more information. Once this achieved, you will have a greater sense of enlightenment, because you were able to
The question here arises, why did we have to return to ancient philosophy of virtue ethics? But interestingly while a great deal of credit is given to Aristotle and Plato, the modern moral philosophers such as Anscombe, Foot, Murdoch, Slote had mentioned in very precise terms the problems they found in Aristotelian ethics. They must have absorbed the writings of ancient philosophers since a lot is said about the moral
Deontological ethics are based on other theories that focus on duty and obligation. Immanuel Kant (1785) argued that an individual should "always act in such a way that you can also will that the maxim of your action become universal law" (p. v). It can be argued that Kant's arguments are echoed in a quote often attributed to Ghandi, "Be the change you want to see in the world"
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