Ethical Theories

• An ethical theory is anything that attempts to explain the

existence and facts of ethics and ethical behavior.

• Ethical theory serves as the foundation for ethical solutions

to the difficult situations people encounter in life.

• For centuries, philosophers have come up with theoretical

ways of telling right from wrong and for giving guidelines
about how to live and act ethically.
• Ethical theories provide part of the decision-making foundation for
Decision Making When Ethics Are In Play because these theories
represent the viewpoints from which individuals seek guidance as they
make decisions

• Each theory emphasizes different points – a different decision-making

style or a decision rule

• In order to understand ethical decision making, it is important for students

to realize that not everyone makes decisions in the same way, using the
same information, employing the same decision rules

• In order to further understand ethical theory, there must be some

understanding of a common set of goals that decision makers seek to
achieve in order to be successful

• Four of these goals include beneficence (‫ ) اﻹحسان‬, least harm (‫) أقل ضرر‬
, respect for autonomy (‫ ) احترام اﻻستقﻼلية‬and justice ( ‫) العدالة‬
 Ethical Theories
• We use ethical/moral theories to help us
understand ethical cases and ethical problems that
often face engineers.
• Ethical theory defines terms in uniform ways
and links ideas and problems together in
consistent ways (Harris, Pritchard and Rabins).
• They are not algorithms to resolve complex
dilemmas. They can however, provide systematic
guidance, understanding
 Ethical (Moral) Theories
ethical theories divided into three general
subject areas:
• Metaethics
• Normative ethics
• applied ethics.
 •Meta-ethics is concerned with the theoretical meaning of
morality and ethical principles, i.e. what we understand when
we talk about what is right or wrong.
Normative ethics deals with the content of moral judgments
i.e. determining the moral course of action and includes the
criteria for what is right or wrong, good or bad, kind or evil, etc.

•Applied ethics is concerned with the actions which a person is

obliged to perform in a particular situation.

Thus, ethics are the well-defined standards that impose obligations

to abstain human beings from any misconduct, which could be
harmful to the self as well as for the society.
 Ethical (Moral) Theories
Ttheories assist us in solving engineering ethical
problems.
• Virtue Ethics
• Duty Ethics
• Right Ethics
• Utilitarianism
• Others
– Ethical Egoism
– Ethical Relativism
– Ethical Pluralism
 Virtue Ethics (‫) الفضيلة‬
• Virtue ethics are normative ethical theories which emphasize virtues of
mind and character
• Virtue ethics is person rather than action based: it looks at the virtue or
moral character of the person carrying out an action, rather than at ethical
duties and rules, or the consequences of particular actions.
• Virtue ethics not only deals with the rightness or wrongness of individual
actions, it provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics and behaviours
a good person will seek to achieve.
• In that way, virtue ethics is concerned with the whole of a person's life,
rather than particular episodes or actions.
• A good person is someone who lives virtuously - who possesses and lives
the virtues.
• It's a useful theory since human beings are often more
interested in assessing the character of another person than they
are in assessing the goodness or badness of a particular action.
• This suggests that the way to build a good society is to help its
members to be good people, rather than to use laws and
punishments to prevent or deter bad actions.
• For virtue theory to be really useful it needs to suggest only a
minimum set of characteristics that a person needs to possess in
order to be regarded as virtuous such as responsibility, honesty,
competence, and loyalty
• Considered wisdom and good judgment the most important
virtues.
 Virtues and the Mean (Aristotle´s )
Aristotle golden mean : Moral behaviour is the mean between
two extremes at one end is excess at the other deficiency. Find a
moderate position between those two extremes and you will be
acting morally.
• Defined through Reason
• Education, contemplation, reflection ‫التعليم والتأمل والتفكير‬
• Balanced with Other Virtues and applied using Wisdom:
• To have any single strength of character in full measure, a person must
have the other ones as well.*
• Courage (‫ ) شجاعة‬without good judgement is blind
• Courage without persistence (‫ )مثابرة‬is short-lived
• Courage without a clear sense of your own abilities is unwise
• “The virtuous person has practical wisdom, the
ability to know when and how best to apply these
various moral perspectives.” (*Hinman)
 The Mean
Aristotle describes a virtue as a “mean” or
“intermediate” between two extremes: one of excess
and one of deficiency
 Virtue Ethics (Character-based ethics)
Considered “Professional Responsibility” a virtue with 4 main
components:
– Self direction:
making your own decisions and organizing your own work
rather than being told what to do.
– Public spirited :
willing to help the wider community; socially concerned
– Team work:
Collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal
or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way
– Proficiency : a high degree of skill
• Good points of virtue ethics
• It centres ethics on the person and what it means to be human
• It includes the whole of a person's life
• Bad points of virtue ethics
• it doesn't provide clear guidance on what to do in moral
dilemmas
• although it does provide general guidance on how to be a good
person
• presumably a totally virtuous person would know what to do
and we could consider them a suitable role model to guide us
• there is no general agreement on what the virtues are and it
may be that any list of virtues will be relative to the culture in
which it is being drawn up.
•
 Duty Ethics (Deontological)
• The word 'deontological' comes from the Greek word deon, which means
'duty'
• Deontology is a theory that suggests actions are good or bad according to
a clear set of rules.
• Action are wrong or right in themselves, regardless of the consequences.
Do it because it's the right thing to do.
• Duty-based ethics are usually what people are talking about when they refer
to 'the principle of the thing
• Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not
with the consequences of their actions, i.e, focused on binding rules,
obligation and duty.
• Duty-based ethics teaches that some acts are right or wrong because of the
sorts of things they are, and people have a duty to act accordingly, regardless
of the good or bad consequences that may be produced.
 Duty Ethics (Kant: 1724 – 1804)
• Duty ethics – ethical acts are the result of proper
performance of one’s duties.

• Ethical actions can be written down as a list of

duties (be good, be honest etc.)
• may not be good for all
• Duty ethical actions express respect for
individuals.
• Kantian duty-based ethics says that some things
should never be done, no matter what good
consequences they produce.
 Duty Ethics (Deontological)
• Duty people believe that the goal of moral
philosophy should be to figure out the “rules” for
living a moral life and that once people know those
rules they should follow them.

• “The Golden Rule” (do unto others as you would

have them do unto you) is an example of
deontology .
((‫ ))ﻻ يؤمن أحدكم حتى يحب ﻷخيه ما يحب لنفسه‬:‫)حديث‬
• Be honest, be fair, do not hurt others, keep your
promise, and obey the law. These would result in an
increased respect for humanity. Under this theory
 Duty Ethics (Rawls)
 The duties we should follow are what rational people would
agree to in a hypothetical contracting situation. • A "rational
person ‫" شخص عاقل‬:
 has no self interest (bias)
 has knowledge about human psychology, society, science
etc.
 will promote their long term interests
 will seek agreement with others (about principles all will
voluntarily follow)

Rational people make statements, decisions, or judgments using

reasoned thinking, based on facts, and applying rules.
Good and bad points
Good points of duty-based ethics
• emphasizes the value of every human being
• Duty-based ethical systems tend to focus on giving equal respect to all
human beings.
• This provides a basis for human rights
• Actions are wrong or right in themselves, regardless of the consequences.
Bad points of duty-based ethics
• Duty-based ethics sets absolute rules. The only way of dealing with
cases that don't seem to fit is to build a list of exceptions to the rule.
• Because duty-based ethics is not interested in the results it can lead to
courses of action that produce a reduction in the overall happiness of
the world.
• Duty-based ethics doesn't deal well with the cases where duties are in
conflict.
Rights Ethics (John Locke: 1632 – 1704)
 Humans have the right to life, liberty and property

 Humans have fundamental rights (the right to live, for

example) and others have the duty to respect
 Right Ethics (Meldon: 1910-1991.)
• Liberty and welfare rights - based on a sense of community
• moral “rights" meant capacity to show concern for others
• allows for welfare rights - everyone has right to
community support for basic needs
Problems with Duty and Rights theories
 Both focused on the individual

 May conflict; what’s good for one group may not be the
best for another
 Consequentialism Theories
• Of all the things a person might do at any given moment,
the morally right action is the one with the best overall
consequences.
Consequentialism is based on two principles:
• Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the
results of that act
• The more good consequences an act produces, the
better or more right that act
• It gives us this guidance when faced with a moral dilemma
• A person should choose the action that maximizes good
consequences
 Consequentialism Theories
• Three subdivisions of consequentialism emerge:
• Ethical Egoism: an action is morally right if the consequences of
that action are more favorable than unfavorable only to the agent
performing the action.
• Ethical Altruism: an action is morally right if the consequences of
that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except
the agent.
• Utilitarianism: an action is morally right if the consequences of
that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone.
And it gives this general guidance on how to live:
People should live so as to maximise good
consequences

Different forms of consequentialism differ over what

the good thing is that should be maximised.

Utilitarianism states that people should maximise

human welfare or well-being (which they used to call
'utility' - hence the name).

Hedonism states that people should maximise

human pleasure.
 Utilitarianism Ethics
• Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that places the position
of right and wrong solely on the outcomes (consequences)
of choosing one action/policy over other actions/policies.
As such, it moves beyond the scope of one's own interests
and takes into account the interests of others.
• Based on maximizing "goodness" An act or action is proper
if it produces the most good for the most people involved
• Individual actions should be judged on whether the most
good was produced in a given situation.
• Rules should be broken if doing so will lead to the most
good.
• Focused on society versus individual
 Act Utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism is a utilitarian theory of ethics which states that
a person's act is morally right if and only if it produces the best
possible results in that specific situation.

• Focuses on individual actions, rather than general rules

• An act or action is proper if it produces the most good for the
most people involved
• Rules should be broken if they lead to the most good
 Rule Utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says an action
is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or
that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function
of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance".
• Moral rules are most important
• Following to moral rules will ultimately lead to the most good.
• Acts are right when the follow these rules.
• Rules considered in sets called “ Moral codes” The optimal code
is the one that maximizes good for the most people
• Act vs. Rule Utilitarianism More tendency to follow
"Rules”, as "Act" requires constant interpretation.

• In both cases, defining/agreeing on what is "good" is still a

problem.

• Basis for many of our laws

 Utilitarianism has given us –
Techniques familiar to engineers –
• Risk – benefit analysis
• Cost – benefit analysis

Is really an application of utilitarianism

• Cost and benefits are assessed. Only those
projects with the highest benefit to cost ratio are
implemented
 Ethical Egoism
• An act is moral provided that you act in your enlightened self
interest
• Example;
• It’s okay to kill an attacker in self-defense.
• It’s okay to compete aggressively in the business world, provided you
do not break the law or ethical codes.
• Government officer taking bribes; in a long run, he will be caught
and be fired. It is not good for his self-interest
 Ethical relativism

• is the theory that holds that morality is relative to the

norms of one's culture. That is, whether an action is
right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the
society in which it is practiced. The same action may
be morally right in one society but be morally wrong
in another.
 Malpractice, or Minimalist, Model

• This is a minimalist model in which the professional

is concerned only with meeting standards and
requirements of the profession and any other laws or
codes that apply. This model looks to find fault when
problems or accidents arise from someone's failure to
meet a requirement.
 Reasonable-Care, or Due-Care, Model

• A model of engineering practice in which the engineer is

expected to take reasonable precautions or care in the practice
of his profession. The model strives to prevent harm, and it
appeals to a "standard of reasonableness as seen by a normal,
prudent nonprofessional."
 Good Works Model
• A model of engineering practice in which engineers go beyond
the basics of what is required by standards and codes and do
what they "ought" to do to improve product safety, social
health or social well-being.