This exposes another weakness of the deontological approach: it provides no guidance for determining which of two contradictory rules must be respected. If the supervisor respects the company rule prohibiting disclosing the information to the employee, he must violate the general moral rule prohibiting lying. Conversely, if the supervisor respects the general moral rule about lying, he must violate the company policy about non-disclosure.
In this particular scenario, the supervisor would have little help from deontological principles to decide which rule to follow and which rule to violate. Therefore, his only option might be to respond that he is simply not at liberty to respond to the question, although most of the time, that response would already suggest to the employee that the supervisor is aware that layoffs in the department are anticipated.
Other ethical systems are far preferable because they might allow the supervisor to decide what to do based…...
mlaReferences
Rosenstand, N. (2008). The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
I have two thoughts regarding your narrative about duty. The first is that I see your point with respect to people having different ideas about what their duty might be towards others. Holly and yourself are described as having different ideas about what her duty towards Chelsea should be. That's a valid point – if we are to use a deontological framework then that assumes that we all have roughly the same framework with which we're working. The roots of deontological ethics derive from a European culture that was fairly homogenous and from a time when a lot of the ethical framework was religious in nature. In the modern world, in a county where there are so many cultures, there cannot be the same high level of agreement about the underlying deontological ethics of many situations in everyday life. The second point I would add is that even if yourself and…...
KANT
Deontological ethics suggests that there are certain moral principles which are so important that one should follow them as if setting a moral law for all time. Kant formulated his categorical imperative to suggest that there are some transcendent moral laws that are applicable to all situations, and cannot be waived no matter how dire the consequences (Kant and business ethics, 2013, S). Anticipated positive consequences, according to deontological ethicists, do not excuse immoral or questionable behavior.
Kant's ethical notions contradict many accepted notions of firm behavior. For example, it is largely accepted that an organization has an obligation to make a profit to enrich its shareholders. Some business ethicists consider it immoral to take shareholder money and use it to engage in ethical initiatives because that is using other people's investment capital to satisfy the manager's own personal sense of morality. In Kant's view, however, if every entity put profitability…...
mlaReferences
Kant and business ethics. (2013). RS. Retrieved:
http://www.rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/business/a2theoriesbusinessfilledin.pdf
ethics, teleology refers to consequentialist ethics, in which the morality of an action is based on its consequences rather than on the nature of the act itself. Utilitarianism is a type of teleological ethics, because utilitarianism is based on creating the maximum amount of happiness (or some other predetermined desirable outcome such as prosperity or health) for the most people possible. Ethical egoism, the view that benefitting the self justifies an action, is also a type of teleology ("Deontological and Teleological Assumptions in Normative Ethics," n.d.). Deontological ethics are opposite to teleological ethics because the consequences are less important than the nature of the act itself. According to the deontological ethical framework, an act is categorically moral or immoral. It does not matter if an act produces happiness or any other result. Deontology espouses the view that the ends do not justify the means; whereas the teleologist believes that…...
mlaReferences
"Deontological and Teleological Assumptions in Normative Ethics," (n.d.). Regis University. Retrieved online: http://rhchp.regis.edu/hce/ethicsataglance/DeontologicalTeleological/DeontologicalTeleological_01.html
"Teleological Ethics," (n.d.). Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/585940/teleological-ethics
oss thought that all people should be benevolent and so if lying affects one's benevolence, one needs to decide if lying is better for the sake of benevolence.
oss' non-absolutist take to ethics is preferred because is considers what is morally right in certain situations. In the instance of a Poker game, it is a game that relies upon lying or "bluffing" so it actually does pass Kant's universal law test. Kant would probably not take issue with the game of Poker because it is a game that needs the aspect of bluffing in order to work. But, if we want to use the example and examine it purely from a Kantian perspective on lying, then we must consider that people are acting from a means approach and not an end approach and all of the players have the same intention in mind -- to wind the game -- and…...
mlaReferences
Bennett, Jonathan. (2010). Groundwork for the metaphysic model. Immanuel Kant.
Ross, W.D. (1930). What makes right acts right? The right and the good. Oxford: Oxford
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical framework. The consequences of an action are more important than the motivations behind the action or the action itself. An action has "utility" if it serves the greatest good. The basic principle of utilitarianism is creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people, or the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The ethics of utilitarianism differ from ethical egoism in that the individual may make a sacrifice for the common good because it is the aggregate of happiness/goodness that matters, not maximizing individual happiness. Central to utilitarianism is the belief that all people are inherently equal and of equal consideration when making ethical decisions (p. 55). John Stuart Mill outlined the core tenets of utilitarianism, which became a fundamental component of Enlightenment political philosophy. Another utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, proposed a happiness calculus that can be used to more rigorously apply…...
mlaWorks Cited
MacKinnon, Barbara and Fiala, Andrew. Ethics. 8th edition. Cengage.
The utilitarian perspective focuses on the broad impacts of the actions, rather than just how the actions affect specific individuals (Andre & Velasquez, 2010). From the utilitarian perspective, genetic testing has the potential to do great harm to many, and to benefit many. The utilitarian arithmetic points out that the benefits to the companies in utilizing genetic testing is that profits increase. The argument can also be made that wealthier companies provide more jobs and wealthier insurance companies are better able to pay out to those who do receive payments. The counter to the former point is that this employment is theoretical -- not only may it not occur, but it may not occur in the United States. The counter to the latter is that insurance is largely price inelastic, so there is no improvement in coverage likely from handing more profits to insurance companies.
On the harm side, many…...
mlaWorks Cited:
Andre, C. & Velasquez, M. (2010). Calculating consequences: The utilitarian approach to ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/calculating.html
Cline, a. (2011). Deontology and ethics: What is deontology, deontological ethics? About.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://atheism.about.com/od/ethicalsystems/a/Deontological.htm
Miller, P. (2007). Genetic testing and the future of disability insurance: Thinking about discrimination in the genetic age. The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. Vol. 35 (2) 47-52.
Schafer, S. (2001). Railroad agrees to stop gene-testing workers. Washington Post. In possession of the author.
Ethics
The ole of Ethics in My Life
Ethics refers to the systematic and logical study of right and wrong behavior. The challenge with ethics is that ethical decisions are often subjective. Variables like personality, culture, and upbringing can all affect one's ethical character. Age and gender can also impact one's ethical decision-making process. The study of ethics has been an ongoing one in the field of philosophy, but it also has direct applications in fields ranging from law to medicine.
Almost all decisions have an ethical component. Even deciding what food to eat is an ethical decision, because the consumer chooses things like fair trade and organic over factory farmed and exploitative. Therefore, ethics can help me to create a more ethical and just society, by making choices that are congruent with core ethical principles. Ethical principles may include such things as fairness and the refrain from harm. Generally, there are two…...
mlaReference
Hill, Kate. "The bystander effect: keeping silent on family violence." ABC. Retrieved online: http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2014/05/07/3999663.htm
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…...
mlaReferences
Davis, S.P. (n.d.). Three-minute philosophy: Immanuel Kant. [video] Retrieved online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCmJevigw
"Ethics." Retrieved online: http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/kant.html
Johnson, R. "Kant's Moral Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Retrieved online: .
Ethics
Cable provider Adelphia was one of the major accounting scandals of the early 2000s that led to the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. A key provision of the Act was to create a stronger ethical climate in the auditing profession, a consequence of the apparent role that auditors played in some of the scandals. SOX mandated that auditors cannot audit the same companies for which they provide consulting services, as this link was perceived to result in audit teams being pressured to perform lax audits in order to secure more consulting business from the clients. There were other provisions in SOX that increased the regulatory burden on the auditing profession in response to lax auditing practices in scandals like Adelphia (McConnell & Banks, 2003). This paper will address the Adelphia scandal as it relates to the auditors, and the deontological ethics of the situation.
Adelphia
Adelphia was once a privately-held firm of…...
mlaWorks Cited:
McConnell, D. & Banks, G. (2003). How Sarbanes-Oxley will change the audit process. Journal of Accountancy. Retrieved April 15, 2013 from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2003/sep/howsarbanesoxleywillchangetheauditprocess.htm
Barlaup, K., Dronen, I. & Stuart, I. (2009). Restoring trust in auditing: Ethical discernment and the Adelphia scandal. Managerial Auditing Journal. Vol. 24 (2) 183-203.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved April 15, 2013 from http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html
Consequence-based ethics
c. I believe people should be able to eat sand because it is the right thing to do. Duty-based ethics
d. I believe people should be able to eat sand because it is good for one's health. Virtue ethics
e. I believe people should be able to eat sand if they decide they want to, regardless of whether it is someone else's sand. Entitlement-based ethics
f. I believe people should be able to eat sand if they want to because they are free to make the decision themselves. ights-based ethics
g. I believe I will eat sand because it is the standard meal for my community. elativistic ethics
Q4. Duty-based ethics: It is my duty to follow through with instructions my boss gives me, even if I do not agree with the concept. It is my moral obligation to respect authority figures.
Consequence-based ethics: Even though some employees use the Internet responsibly, the majority…...
mlaReference
Trevino, L.K., & Nelson, K.A. (2007). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (4th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Criticism of Consequentialism:
The deontological criticism of consequentialism would suggest that the very fact that two identical acts can be highly ethical or highly unethical in different circumstances renders consequentialism purely subjective and dependent on opinion instead of objective principles. In that view, the deontological ethical approach may produce unintended negative results on occasion, but at least deontological ethics are predictable and consistent; furthermore, deontological values lead to the better choice of conduct often enough to justify any specific instances where practical injustices could result from adherence to rules.
Adhering to rules is the surest way of ensuring ethical human conduct notwithstanding that isolated societies may establish rules that could be defined objectively as unethical. One of the best examples of the impracticality of consequentialism is the general law of false arrest in most American states. A citizen arrested unlawfully by a duly authorized law enforcement officer may not flee from…...
mlaReferences
Beauchamp, Bowie, & Arnold. (2009). Ethical Theory and Business. 8th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with what areas of human interest?
life after death b-god c-morality
The answer is c. Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with moral questions, or the question of what actions are considered to be right or wrong. Moral rightness and moral wrongness are philosophical areas of inquiry, requiring analysis and debate. The ethics of an action can be debated on the intentions of the actor, the consequences of the actions, or on other factors. There are many different approaches to the study of ethics, which is why there are so many different ethical and moral philosophers.
Ethics depends on the study of religion, or needs to be based on religious knowledge, true or false.
False. Although some philosophers, like Kant, refer to God in their philosophical treatises, there is no need for a philosophy of ethics to be grounded in religion at all. In…...
Ethics
Utilitarianism is one of the most useful ethical theories. It can frame decisions made in almost every aspect of daily life, and also large-scale decisions made by organizations, enterprises, and governments. The basic principles of utilitarianism, as they were developed first by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill, are all based in the essential notion of utility. Utility means usefulness, but it is also related to net benefit.
Utility is defined in terms of the question, "Is this action beneficial? If so, who is it beneficial for, and how beneficial is it?" Utilitarian theory suggests that an ethical decision should weigh the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If an action is beneficial, it should be beneficial to the greatest number of stakeholders. It should be the decision that most maximizes the target population's happiness, or however success is being measured. This end result can be profit,…...
mlaReferences
"Ethics 5: Utilitarianism." [video]. Retrieved online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdtWu4Cqx1Y
"John Stuart Mill's Essay On Liberty." Retrieved online: http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/jsmill.htm
Santa Clara University (n.d.). A framework for thinking ethically. Retrieved online: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html
Ethics in Nursing
What current ethical issue related to nursing or access to care did you choose to describe?
Therapeutic lying is my subject of choice -- whether or not nurses/care providers cross their ethical boundaries when they lie to patients about their health conditions, or when they withhold information that they perceive as unfavorable and which they believe would be detrimental to the patient's recovery process. A nurse has an ethical and legal duty to be honest with their patient and at the same time look out for their well-being -- so how should one act when these two elements appear to be in conflict?
What are the relevant laws, regulations or policy related to this issue?
The law recognizes the nurse-patient relationship as a fiduciary relationship. Under fiduciary law, the fiduciary (the nurse in this case) is expected to act in the best interests of the agent at all times. This includes…...
mlaReferences
American Medical Association -- ANA (2014). Short Definitions of Ethical Principles and Theories: Familiar Words, What do they Mean? http://www.nursingworld.org/mainmenucategories/ethicsstandards/resources/ethics-definitions.pdf
Corner, J. & Bailey, C.D. (eds.) (2009). Cancer Nursing: Care in Context (2nd Ed.). Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Williams, A. (2013). Dementia sufferers told white lies to keep them happy: Nurses and psychiatrists admit 'therapeutic lying' to confused patients. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2410811/Dementia-sufferers-told-white-lies-happy-Nurses-psychiatrists-admit-therapeutic-lying-confused-patients.html
XXXX (bibliographical details of the book sent as a resource)
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