8 Systems Of Ethics

8 Systems of Ethics

While some people see ethics as a fairly cut-and-dry field, people have various perceptions of what ethics are. One reason why ethics are so varied is that they stem from a number of different areas of life. Understanding the thinking behind certain ethics may help people to better understand each other in general. We can do this if we understand what system of ethics other people are using and how each system works separately.

*Utilitarianism is a system of ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. It is a consequential system of ethics that looks for the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Utilitarianism presents good uses in situations where there are zero-sum decisions and some of the problems of it are that no agreement exists about who decides and the actions are not judged, but rather their consequences.

*Universalism The means justify the ends of an action we have the duty to act responsibly and choose to act if and only if every person on earth, in that same situation, should act exactly the same way, act in a way that respects and treats all others involved as ends as well as means to an end. The main problem with this system of ethics is that the limits of what the rights are often come into question and also that it is not practical because not everybody in earth will take the same decision under any circumstances.

*Rights there are three main categories of rights Legal, that refer to those rights bounded to us by the constitution or the laws; Moral, the ones though to us by society in order to judge what is right; and Contractual, (contracts) it establishes that the parties should not be forced to commit unethical or immoral conduct, both parties should freely and without force enter the contractual agreement, neither individual should misrepresent or misinterpret facts in the contract and that both individuals should have complete knowledge of the nature of the contracts and their terms before they are bound by them. There are two categories for rights in general positive, meaning that they oblige action, and negative rights, meaning that they oblige inaction. The most important thing of this system is that the limits of rights come into question and very often these are used as an excuse to abuse the system.

*Justice what is fair? Two recognized principles of fairness include: Equal treatment no matter what color religion or tall you are including your age and sex too. Equal opportunity, access to advantages, argues that we all deserve the same chances of access to technology and positions of power no matter what. There are four types of justice:

Compensatory you get something of equal value to what was lost.

Retributive you get superior value to what was lost.

Distributive is dividing something in equal share for everyone.

Procedural means that the problem is solved by an outside party.

The main problem of this system of ethics is what is right? And what is wrong? Who decides?

*Ethical Relativism No universal standards or rules. People set their own moral standards for judging their actions and there is no such thing as an absolute all is based in experiences.

The main problem is that pretty much people can do anything as long as it feels right for them and one cannot say anything about it.

*Ethical Egoism Consequences of the specific individual matter more than any other result. Egoism permits actions which are good for the individual, but bad for any others. All that matter is self-interest.

*Ethical Virtue Not “What should I do”, but “Who should you be?” Character based, non-consequential. The acts or consequences are not the judging matter, rather the character of the individual involved in the decision. What mostly matters here is what decisions

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