Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Teleology
– Egoism
– Utilitarianism
• Deontology
• The Relativist
Perspective
• Virtue Ethics
• Justice Perspectives
– Distributive
– Procedural
– Interactional
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Goodness Theories
• Basic concepts:
– Monists believe that only one thing is intrinsically
good
• Often exemplified by hedonism
– Pluralists believe that two or more things are
intrinsically good
– Instrumentalists reject the idea that
• Ends can be separated from the means that produce
them
• Ends, purposes, or outcomes are intrinsically good in
and of themselves
Obligation Theories
Source: Stockbyte
Categories of Teleology
• Egoism: Right or acceptable behavior defined in
terms of consequences to the individual
– Maximizes personal interests
– Enlightened egoists take a long-term
perspective and allow for the well being of others
• Utilitarianism: Seeks the greatest good for the
greatest number of people
– Rule utilitarians determine behavior based on
principles designed to promote the greatest utility
– Act utilitarians examine a specific action itself,
not rules governing it
Deontology
• Refers to moral philosophies that focus on the rights
of individuals and on the intentions associated with a
particular behavior
– Believe that individuals have certain absolute
rights
• Rule deontologists believe that conformity to
general moral principles determines ethicalness
• Act deontologists hold that actions are the proper
basis on which to judge morality or ethicalness
Relativist Perspective
• From the relativist perspective, individuals and
groups derive definitions of ethical behavior
subjectively from experience
• Descriptive relativism relates to observing cultures
• Metaethical relativists understand that people
naturally see situations from their own perspectives
– No objective way of resolving ethical disputes
between cultures
• Normative relativists assume that one person’s
opinion is as good as another’s
Virtue Ethics
• What is moral in a given situation is what the
situation requires and what a person with a “good”
moral character would deem appropriate
• Virtue ethics approach can be summarized as:
1. Good corporate ethics programs encourage
individual virtue and integrity
2. These virtues associated with appropriate
conduct form a good person
3. The ultimate purpose is to serve the public good
4. The well-being of the community goes together
with individual excellence
Justice