Eth 316 - Ethics Week one

Ethics Week One

Davis Wallick

ETH/316

Dr Catherine Reyes

Understanding Ethics and Morals

As children some of us were taught what is right and what is wrong, these values are presented to us at an early age so that we may use them in our adulthood. Such as parents telling their children how to act and treat other people, because it's the right thing to do. These values are instilled in us so that it may help in deciding on what the best course of action would be in a given situation or a moral dilemma. It also may teach us what our elders or society would want us to do in a certain situation because that is what they would expect of us.

Ethics and Morals Defined

"Ethics, also termed moral philosophy or the science of morals, is the branch of philosophy that studies morality through the critical examination of right and wrong in human action (Bennett-Woods, 2005)." By definition ethics is basically philosophical process of answering questions about morals such as what is good or bad, just and unjust, right or wrong. Another definition would be an observation of persons' moral beliefs and their actions. Morality is defined as a set of guidelines for a society that recommends a course of action for how to respond to certain situations. Another definition for morality is a set of rules or policies imposed on a society dictating how they should treat one another so long as all in the society abide by these set rules or policies.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics concentrates more on persons' character rather than laws and penalties of a situation. Character is molded over a long period of time pared with natural preference and the influences of family, culture, education, and self- reflection. Which simply means some people will most likely choose honorable behavior rather than the other. In other words, do the right thing when faced with a moral decision. Doing the right thing is not enough; one must be a person of honorable character and must show the correct purpose as well.

Utilitarianism

A situation is morally correct when that situation pays out more value. "The principle of utility also referred to as the Greatest Happiness Principle, states that actions are right if they produce the greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness (Mill, 1861)." Simply defined as what is good for the greater good, for example a lead driver had to be laid off so that the other drivers