Chad Zingarelli
University of Phoenix
Joseph Becker
Ethics Paper
All of us use ethics in our every day lives. Every day there comes a new challenge, a new decision that needs to be made on how we represent ourselves, sometimes more unethical than ethical. Ethics is a standard of behavior, well-based standards of right and wrong that influence how humans should act. Secondly, ethics refers to the study and Development of one’s ethical Standards. There are numerous types of Ethical theories; but three will be talked about in this essay such as the Virtue Theory, Utilitarianism Theory, and the Deontological Theory.
The Virtue Theory is referred to as character based ethics. This approach deemphasizes rules and consequences but focuses more on the kind of person that is acting. The virtue theory tells you what kind of person to be, what is expected of you to be considered “good.” The theory emphasizes that you need to be a loyal person, honest, and a just person. It expects people to not just perform these actions but emphasizes the development of character and who you are becoming as an individual. With virtue ethics a person strives for excellence performing duties, and acquiring traits that others would admire.
The difference between The Virtue Theory of ethics and The Utilitarianism theory is that the virtue theory focuses on the “Individual,” and Utilitarianism is more focused on a person that makes a decision based on the best results, and what is best for the most amounts of people. Utilitarianism states that actions are right when they provide the greatest benefit to the larger group (Boylan, M.,2009). The utilitarianism theory believes that an action is not morally right if it does not benefit an entire group of people as opposed to benefitting the individual alone. There must be an agreement among the group for this theory to work. An example of the Utilitarianism theory; a baseball team has two great hitting first baseman. One of them is asked to move to right field so the team can have both players offensive production. He is asked because it is best for the team, and everyone on the team agrees.
The Deontology Theory differs from both the Utilitarianism and Virtue