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Ethics Exam #2

Business Ethics concepts, examples, source materials, and additional notes

Question	Answer
02/06/2026: Utilitarianism
The Burmese Project appealed to Unocal because:
Burma's labor force was cheap, plentiful, and relatively educated.
Burma was rich in natural gas reserves, and it had oil and other untapped resources that presented major opportunities for future development.
Burma occupied a strategic location that could serve as a door to markets in China, India, and other countries in Southeast Asia.
Burma had a relatively stable political climate primarily because the Burmese government worked hard to secure law and order. However, that government and its methods of ensuring security presented a problem.
Despite risks, Unocal’s management decided to participate in the project because of the benefits to the company and the people of Thailand and Burma
Critics argued that Unocal was supporting the unjust military regime and its brutal violations of the rights of Burmese citizens. They pointed out that direct revenues from the project provided millions of dollars a year to the Burmese government, and tax
Arguements appealed to two distinct kinds of ethical principles: Judgments about justice are based on ethical principles that identify just and unjust ways of distributing benefits and burdens among the members of a society, and judgments about human righ
Utilitarianism: Any view that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society
Ethic of virtue: An ethic based on evaluations of the moral character of persons or groups
Five approaches to moral judgement: justice, rights, utilitarianism, ethic of care, and ethic of virtue
Five questions to Moral Decisions: Is the decision just? Does the decision respect people's rights? Does the decision maximize the good and minimize the bad? Does the decision express caring? Does the decision flow from virtue and not from vice?
The four basic kinds of ethical standards: Rights, Justice, Utilitarianism, and Caring
Despite the gas tank of a Pinto model breaking open, which can lead to fires, the Ford manufacturers decided to go ahead with the design. Several reasons include: the design met all the legal and governmental requirements in effect, the manufacturers knew
Some utilitarians argue that monetary terms (medical costs, loss of income, car damage) were reduced and benefited primarily. While others argue that the benefits should be measured by the happiness or satisfaction of the action, and its costs in unhappin
Utility: The inclusive term used to refer to any net benefits produced by an action. The Utilitarian principle can be summarized like this: “An action is right from an ethical point of view, if and only if, the net sum of utilities produced by that action
Beneficial consequences: Pleasures, health, lives, satisfaction, knowledge, happiness.
Harmful consequences: Pain, sickness, death, dissatisfaction, ignorance, unhappiness
Primary benefits of Utilitarianism: Advocates policies that provide thegreatest benefits, impartially considers everyone’s interests, and explains why some activities are right and some are wrong
Cost-benefit analysis: An analysis used to determine the desirability of investing in a project by calculating whether its present and future economic benefits outweigh its present and future economic costs
Efficiency: Produces the desired output with the lowest resource input possible
Utilitarianism: Matches well with out moral evaluations of public policies, appears intuitive to many people, helps explain why some actions are generally morally right and others are morally wrong, and it influences economics.
Issues that complicate measurements: Utility is subjective and comparisons difficult, some benefits and costs seem impossible to measure, and benefits and costs themselves can be unclear
Non-economic goods: Goods whose value is such that it cannot be measured in economic terms, such as life, love, freedom, beauty, health, and equality. Ex. No matter how much money you offer me, I would never be willing to trade hours of play with my child
Other ways to measure utility: Using estimates, appealing to intrinsic and instrumental goods, distinguishing needs and wants, using monetary values, and accepting monetary values.
Rule utilitarianism: A form of utilitarianism that limits utilitarian analysis to evaluations of moral rules.
The theory of rule-utilitarianism can be summarized as such: “An action is right from an ethical point of view if and only if the action would be required by a correct moral rule. A moral rule is correct if and only if the total utility produced if everyo
The two main difficulties utilitarianism faces are asking us to measure values that are difficult to quantify, and it seems unable to deal adequately with questions of rights and justice
Utilitarianism is really about goals. What does it mean to set a goal for yourself and then look at the outcomes of each action that benefits the most people
Jeremy Bentham “Maximize happiness/Pleasure and pain are our sovereign master” and John Stuart Mill “Actions are right in proportion they tend to promote happiness and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Traditional Utilitarianism)
Steps in utilitarianism analysis:
Determine what alternative actions or policies are available.
Identify all persons affected.
Estimate direct and indirect costs and benefits for all people affected.
The action that produces the greatest net benefit must be chosen as the ethically appropriate action.
Common misunderstandings: Don’t focus on the person performing the action, but instead focus on all persons affected by the action/decision. Don’t consider only direct or immediate consequence,s but also look to all foreseeable future costs and benefits.
What makes utilitarianism attractive? Matches our evaluation of public policies, intuitive to many people, basis for economic analysis - cost/benefit, leads to efficiency, and impartiality considers everyone’s interests without bias and without different
Other criticisms of utiliarianism: It exacts too much require that people shall always act from the inducement of promoting the general interests of society. Mill responds that “it confuses rule of action with motive.” Another says that utilitarianism ren

02/08/2026: Utilitarianism
The Ones who walk away from Omelas: Imagining the perfect most happy society and this is because of the suffering of one child
Some were angry, others walked away quietly, others continued to live with it
Other criticisms of utilitarianism: Utilitarianism is unable to deal with moral issues relating to rights and justice
A moral rule forbbidng murder wuthout due process of law in the loing run produces greater utility for society than other kinds of rules. It would be wrong to kill your uncle because doing so wouild violate a correct moral rule.
Utilitarianism in disguise: allows for an exception whenever an exception maximizes utility. But will allow the same injustice and violation of moral rights found i traditional utilitarianism
Case of Ford Pinto: Ford exec. Decide to produce a new subcompact auto in response to foreign competition. It was a “rush project”. Regulations needed to pass the Rear End Collision Result they didn’t pass when hit at 30 mph because the gas tank was in th
This shows that their are 2 competiting approaches to justic: The right thing to do is produced the greatest number happiness for the most amount of people. Certain duties and right should command our respect for reasons other than social consquences

02/11/2026: Rights
Much of Disney’s merchandise is manufactured in China in factories that contract with Disney to produce the merchandise according to Disney's specifications.
Chinese workers can't form or join independent trade unions, and workers who seek redress for wrongs committed by their employers often face harassment and criminal charges. Moreover, child labor continues to be a problem in some sectors of the economy, a
“Undercover visits to a dozen of Walt Disney's Chinese factories and reported that it found “excessively long hours of work, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, workplace hazards, poor food, and dangerously overcrowded dormitories.”
Disney stockholders urged others to vote in favor of the company adopting 11 principles, which would be based on a widely accepted and thorough set of human and labor rights. The six most important principles were:
No goods or products produced within our company's facilities or those of suppliers shall be manufactured by bonded labor, forced labor, within prison camps, or as part of reform-through-labor or reeducation-through-labor programs.
Our facilities and suppliers shall adhere to wages that meet workers' basic needs, fair and decent working hours, and, at a minimum, to the wage and hour guidelines provided by China's national labor laws.\
Our facilities and suppliers shall prohibit the use of corporal punishment, any physical, sexual, or verbal abuse, or harassment of workers.
Our facilities and suppliers shall use production methods that do not negatively affect the workers' occupational safety and health.
Our facilities and suppliers shall not call on the police or military to enter their premises to prevent workers from exercising their rights.
We shall undertake to promote the following freedoms among our employees and the employees of our suppliers: freedom of association and assembly, including the rights to form unions and bargain collectively; freedom of expression, and freedom from arbitra

Sweatshop: A workplace that has numerous health and safety hazards and poor working conditions, as well as low wages.
China Labor Watch, a workers' rights group, released a report in 2007 detailing “brutal” conditions in several Chinese factories making toys for Disney
The concept of a right has played a crucial role in many of the ethical controversies businesses face. Employees, for example, argue that they have a “right to equal pay for equal work”; managers assert that unions violate their “right to manage”; investo
Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims that all human beings are entitled to: The right to own property alone as well as in association with others. The right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to pr
A right is an individual's entitlement to something. A person has a right when that person is entitled to act in a certain way or is entitled to have others act in a certain way towards him or her.
The entitlement may derive from a legal system that permits or empowers the person to act in a specified way or that requires others to act in certain ways toward that person; the entitlement is then called a legal right. Ex. all citizens right to freedom
Moral rights (human rights): Rights that all human beings everywhere possess to an equal extent simply by virtue of being human beings.
The most important moral rights are rights that impose prohibitions or requirements on others and allow or empower individuals to pursue their own interests or activities. They can harm someone even if no one is hurt
Three key features of moral rights: Tightly correlate with duties, provide autonomy and equality in the pursuit of interests, and provide a basis for justifying action (invoking the protection or aid of others).
They also focus on securing the interests of the individual, unlike utilitarian standards, which focus on securing the aggregate utility of everyone in society
Negative rights: Rights that can be defined wholly in terms of the duties others have not to interfere in certain activities of the person who holds a given right; freedom from interference
Positive rights: Implies that some other agents have the positive duty of providing the holders of the right with whatever they need to pursue what the right guarantees (health care, workers compesation)
Contractual rights and duties are the limited rights and correlative duties that arise when one person enters an agreement with another person.
Contractual rights and duties are distinguished as follows:
Contractual rights and duties are attached to specific individuals, and correlative duties are imposed only on other specific individuals. If I agree to do something for you, everyone else does not acquire new rights over me, nor do I acquire any new duti
Contractual rights arise out of a specific transaction between particular individuals. Unless I actually make a promise or enter into some other, similar arrangement with you, you do not acquire any contractual rights over me.
Contractual rights and duties depend on a publicly accepted system of rules that define the transactions that give rise to those rights and duties. Contracts, for example, create special rights and duties between people only if these people recognize and

Contractual rights and duties also provide a basis for the special duties or obligations that people acquire when they accept a position or role within a legitimate social institution or an organization.
What kind of ethical rules govern contracts?
Both of the parties to a contract must have full knowledge of the nature of the agreement they are entering into.
Neither party to a contract must intentionally misrepresent the facts of the contractual situation to the other party.
Neither party to the contract must be forced to enter the contract under duress or coercion.
The contract must not bind the parties to an immoral act.

Immanuel Kant: attempts to show that there are certain moral rights and duties that all human beings possess, regardless of any utilitarian benefits that the exercise of those rights and duties may provide to others. He talked about the journey, not the d
Kant says, “Nothing can possibly be conceived of in the world or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a goodwill. The sight of a being not adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will, enjoying unbroken prosperi
The categorical imperative: an unconditional duty that exists regardless of the circumstances. Motive matters because we act because it is the right thing to do, not because it is useful or convenient. Actions with moral matter more than the outcome.
First Formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative: An action is morally right for a person in a certain situation if and only if the person’s reason for carrying out the action is a reason that he or she would be willing to have every person act on, in a
Second Formulation: An action is morally right if and only is in performing the action, the person does not use others only as a means for advancing his or her own interests, but always treating them as they have consented to be treated and contributes to
Steps using Kant's Approach:
Identify course of action you could take.
For each alternative - Universalize (what if everyone made the same choice), Reverse (How would I feel if someone did that to you), and ask yourself (are you treating people as an end or means to an end).
Pick the action that you would like to be a universal law, and that traits humans as an end in themselves
Criticisms of Rights as the Ethical Standard: It's not utilitarianism (protecting the individual, not society). It is not about maximizing happiness - it's about respecting persons as ends in themselves. This does not focus on the outcome. Vague. What hap
For Kant, morality is not about consequences; it's about principles, and the duty to tell the truth holds regardless of the consequences

02/13/2026: Justice and Fairness
The protesting workers argued that the fast food companies should pay a “living wage”. Even if an employee was given 40 hours of work a week, McDonald's pay of $8.25 an hour would total only $16,500 a year before taxes, insufficient in most U.S. metropoli
A study found that the wages fast food companies paid their workers ended up costing U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion a year in public assistance to make up for the companies' low wages
The protesting workers were demanding that fast food wages be raised to $15.00 an hour. Some observers argued that those higher wages would mean substantially higher prices for fast food. Yet researchers at Purdue University found that raising wages to $1
As in the controversy over fast food wages, disputes in business often refer to justice or fairness. This is the case, for example, when one person accuses another of unjustly discriminating against him or her, showing unjust favoritism toward someone els
Justice and fairness are essentially comparative. They are concerned with how the benefits and burdens one person receives compare with the benefits and burdens other similar persons receive or should receive
If a society is unjust to many of its members, then we normally condemn that society, even if the injustices secure more utilitarian benefits for everyone. If we think that slavery is unjust, for example, then we condemn a society that uses slavery even i
Standards of justice do not generally override the moral rights of individuals. Part of the reason for this is that, to some extent, justice is based on individual moral rights. The moral right to be treated as a free and equal person, for example, is par
Distributive justice: focuses on how society’s benefits and burdens should be allocated fairly (Should equals should be treated as equals?)
Retributive justice: focuses on appropriate punishment for those that have done wrong
Compensary Justice: focuses on restoring a person for what they lost when they were wronged (medical, repairs, health, insurence, etc)
What factors can we look to in deciding the fair distribution of benefits and burdens? Equality, Effort, Need, Performance/ability, Contribution, Freedom, Incentive
Egalitarianism: SInce there are no relevant differences among people that justify unequal treatment. Every person should be given exactly equal share of a society or groups benefits and burdens
Equaliy vs Equity: giving everyone the same thing vs. giving different amonuts of support to make it possible for them to have equal access vs. thirdly the systemic barrier is removed
Capitalism/Capitalistic Justice: Distribute benefits in proportion to what each indivudial contributes. The more you contribute the more you get. Value of contribution is measured by effort, production, and market value.
Socialism: From each according to his abilities, yo each according to his needs. Distributes work based on ability and distributes goods based on need.
Libertarianism: From each as they choose, to each as they are chosen. People should be allowed to keep everything they make and everything they are freely given.
Justice and Fairness are essentially comparative. Individuals who are similar in all respects relevant to the kind of treatment in question should be given similar benefits and burdens even if they are dissimilar in other irreverent respects
John Rawls: Father of the ethics theory. Conflicts involving justice should be settled by first devising a fair method of choosing the principles by which the conflicts are resolved. Once a fair methods of choosing princimpl sis devised, the principles we
Original position: An imaginary meeting of rational self-interested persons who must choose the principles of justice by which their society will be govern
Veil of Ignorance: The requirement that persons in the original position must not know particulars about themselves which might bias their choice
Rawl concludes the utilizing this approach, 2 principles of justice would emerge form the hypothetical contract (a social contrust): Equal basic liberties for all citizens, such as freedom of speech and religion. The distributions of beneifts and burdens
Equal liberty: each citizens liberties are protect from invasions by others and are equal to others
Equal opportunity:everyone should be given equal opportunity to qualify got privilege positons
Difference Principle: we acknowledge inequalities, but they are just ONLY to the extent they work to the advantage of the least well off members of society
Rawl rejects utilitarianism. In a just society the liberties are taken for granted, and the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining. The alternitive: a social contract
Why does this make sense: Preserves basic values that are embedded in our moral beliefs, fits into basic institutions of western civilizations, balances community and individual concepts, takes into account various criteria, and its foundation is the esse
What the critics say: The fact that a set of principles is chosen by hypothetical parties tell us nothing about whether the principles are morally justified. Assumes the parties to the original position would choose the principles Rawls believes they woul

02/16/2026: Ethics of care
Ethics of care: An ethic that requires caring for the concrete well-being of those particular persons with whom we have valuable close relationships, particularly with those dependent to us.
The moral task is not to follow universal and impartial moral principles, but to attend and respond to the good of particular people with whom we have a close and valued relationship
An ethic of care emphasizes the following two moral demands:
We each exist in a web of relationships and should preserve and nurture those concrete and valuable relationships we have with specific persons.
We each should exercise special care for those to whom we are concretely related by attending to their particular needs, values, desires, and well-being as seen from their own personal perspective, and by responding positively to these needs, values, desi
Aaron Feuerstein, owner of Malden Mills decided to remain in Lawrence Massachusetts by rebuilding and caring for his workers by continuing to pay them after a fire burned most of the building/business down. He said that most important people to the busine
Communitarian ethic: an ethic that sees concrete communities and communal relationships as having a fundamental value that should be preserved and maintained
Is not caring about something or caring after someone, inseatd it is about caring for someone, focusing on the positive not negative relationships
What kind of argument can be given in support of an ethic of care? An ethic of care can be based on the claim that the identity of the self—who I am—is based on the relationships the self has with other selves: the individual cannot exist, cannot even be
Therefore, to whatever extent the self has value, to that same extent the relationships that are necessary for the self to exist and be what it is must also have value and so should be maintained and nurtured. The value of the self, then, is ultimately de
Caring for someone: Such caring is focused on persons and their well-being, not on things; it does not seek to foster dependence, but nurtures the person's development so that he or she becomes capable of making his or her own choices and living his or he
Caring about something: the kind of concern and interest that one can have for objects or ideas, and not the concern one has for a person in whose subjective reality one becomes engrossed. Such caring for objects or ideas is not the kind of caring demande
Caring after someone: taking care of someone in a manner that looks after the person's needs but remains objective and distant from that person as, for example, often happens in bureaucratic service institutions such as the post office or a social welfare
Additional issues of ethics of care: Quality of relationships affect the ethic care, demands of caring can conflict with the demands of justice, and there is no fixed rule for conflict resolution exists
Consider that when a manager was hired, she voluntarily promised those who hired her that she would accept the position of manager along with the duties and privileges that would define her role as a manager. If the manager shows favoritism toward a frien
Issues related to an Ethic of Care: Caring is not detached but an engrossed “caring for” a person. Relationships are not valuable when characterized by domination, oppression, harm, hatred, violence, disrespect, viciousness, injustice, or exploitation. Th
Objections to the Caring approach: Unjust favoristism and they respond that conflicting moral demands are inherent characteristics of moral choices. Demands can lead to burnout and the response is an adequate view of caring will balance the need of the ca
Our morality, then, contains the following four kinds of basic moral considerations: utility, rights, justice, and caring.
Utilitarian standards consider only the aggregate social welfare, but ignore the way that welfare is distributed as well as the moral claims of individuals.
Moral rights consider the individual but discount both aggregate well-being and distributive considerations.
Standards of justice consider distributive issues, but they ignore aggregate social welfare and the individual as such.
Although standards of caring consider the partiality that must be shown to those close to us, they ignore the demands of impartiality.
Questions one can ask about an action they are considering: Does the action, as far as possible, maximize benefits and minimize harms? Is the action consistent with the moral rights of those whom it will affect? Will the action lead to a just distribution

Moral rights identify areas in which other people generally may not interfere, even if they can show that they would derive greater benefits from such interference.
Standards concerned with moral rights have greater weight than either utilitarian standards or standards of justice. Similarly, standards of justice are generally accorded greater weight than utilitarian considerations. Further, standards of caring seem t
How can I determine whether the utilitarian benefits in this example are sufficiently large to justify infringing on their right to privacy?
First, I might ask whether the kinds of utilitarian values involved are clearly more important than the kinds of values protected by the right (or distributed by the standard of justice). The utilitarian benefits in this example include the saving of huma
Second, I might ask whether securing the more important kind of value will, in this situation, affect the interests of more (or fewer) people than would be affected by securing the less important kind of value. For example, because the recovered drugs wil
Third, I might ask whether the actual injuries sustained by the persons whose rights are violated (or to whom an injustice is done) will be large or small. For example, suppose that I can ensure that my employees suffer no shame, blackmail, or restriction
Fourth, I might ask whether the potential breakdown in trusting relationships that surveillance risks is more or less important than the theft of life-saving drugs. Let us suppose, for example, that the potential harm that surveillance will inflict on emp

Carol Gilligan continues to argue that this theory provides a plausible explanation for some of the gender differenced in handling ethical dilemmas that researchers have already noted but not explained
Kohlbergs reseach convinced him that our ethics mature and we acquire moral rational and objective outlooks rooted in abstract moral principles. This perspective prizes rules, laws, ans principles applied impartially
Gilligan links different ethical “voices” with gender. She suggests that our moral values and ethical outlook derive from and express the way we define ourselves. The two “voices” parallel with two “selves”, one autonomous and the other a “web” of relatio
Men view moral issues from a rights/justice approach and ethical behavuor results from unbiased decisions that eliminate favoritism. Women approach moral issue with a focus to relationships and caring because moral person is one who helps others, trust is
For the "separated” self, safety comes from the ordered movement of people on hierarchy and having a protected zone. Danger arises with a “seperate” self feels that their protected zone is violated by another or emotional distance is jepordized. Damage to
Argues for an impartial, objetcive, and rulepbased ethical outlook that denies the importance of emotional relationships and trust.
A transgression proceeds from emotional particallity and ethics adopt a game-like quality where moves that are acceptable or unacceptable are clearly defined before the game.
For the “connected” self, safety comes from our connections in a network of caring, protecting, and nourishing relationships. Rights are less important than the responsibilities people to assist each other and preserve the “web” because safety is in conne
Danger arises when the strands of the web are threatened through lack of care, insensitivity to suffering, isolation, or menacing behavior from someone in the web. The dynamics and expectations involved in relationships are central
Markting Research Director and questionnaire - It was legal and gives a competitive advantage, but it was a betrayal of trust and damaged the web of relationships.
Ads promoting overuse of product to your benefit - customers believed that the more you use the shampoo, the better it will be. It is legal and gives a competitive advantage but it is still a betrayal of trust and damages customer relationships
Critisms: Leads to favoritism - the response is “So what?”. Conflicting moral demands are an inherent characteristic of moral choices. Leads to Burnout - adequate understanding of the ethics of care will acknowledge the need of the caregiver to care for h


02/18/2026: Virtue
An “agent-based” focus on what one ought to be, in contrast to an “action-based” focus on how one ought to act, would look carefully at a person's moral character, including whether a person's moral character exhibits virtue or vice.
Are Actions or Character more important? Ethic of virtue looks at it from the perspective of character evaluations. The other 4 focus on action
Ethicists, would take the virtues (such as honesty, courage, temperance, integrity, compassion, self-control) and the vices (such as dishonesty, ruthlessness, greed, lack of integrity, cowardliness) as the basic starting points for ethical reasoning
Nacchio became CEO of Qwest because he delivered a prosperous company and its stock kept rising. However, he was not an easy boss to work for because of high revenue targets and extreme pressure. Nacchio installed “a culture of fear” and was very aggressi
Although he had the virtues of being “charismatic” and “charming,” he also had the vices of an “explosive temper,” being “intolerant of the limitations of others” and being untruthful.
The virtues should be seen as providing a perspective that surveys the same ground as the four moral standards, but from an entirely different perspective.
Moral Virtue: an acquired disposition that is valued as part of the character of a morally good human being and that is exhibited in the person’s habitual behavior. Ex. Honesty → an honest person feels good when he tells the truth and uncomfortable when h
A moral virtue must be acquired and is not a natural characteristic of a person such as intelligence, beauty, and strength.
Issues and questions: What are the traits of character that make a person a morally good human being? Which traits of character are moral virtues?
Aristotle argued that a moral virtue is a habit that enables a human being to live according to reason. He argued that a person lives according to reason when the person knows and habitually chooses the reasonable middle ground
To do the right thing, to the right person, to the right extinct, at the right time, with the right motive
Virtue ethics examines the virtues associates with the ethical principles. It enables us to do what ethical principles require.
He says that “Moral Virtue is a midpoint between two vices, one of excess and the other of deficiency that aims at hitting the midpoint in emotions and actions.”
The Four Cardinal virtues: Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Prudence
Virtues and Vices as Habits: They are acquired through repetition. Ex. By repeatedly standing firm when fearful, I become courageous, or I become just when I repeatedly giving people what they deserve. *The way people are raised determines the virtues and
Virtue as the reasonable Middle Ground: Prudence enables a person to know which choices are likely to make one happy, while the moral virtues give a person the self-control necessary to make those choices. It can restrain a person from making wrong/excess
St. Thomas Aquinas, a Christian philosopher, followed Aristotle in holding that the moral virtues enable people to follow reason in dealing with their desires, emotions, and actions, and he accepted that the four pivotal or cardinal moral virtues are cour
However, Aquinas held that the purpose of a person is not merely a happiness in this life that is achieved through the exercise of reason, but happiness in the next life that is achieved through union with God. Aquinas added the “theological” or Christian
American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has claimed that a virtue is any human disposition that is praised because it enables a person to achieve the good at which human “practices” aim. Virtues are dispositions that enable us to “achieve the goods intern
Practices, MacIntyre points out, have standards about what it means to do well in the practice, and rules about how the practice should be carried out. And to learn live up to these standards and rules, he argues, requires that we develop and have virtues
Critics argue that claiming that virtues include only those traits required by our social practices and external situations. When we say that a person has a certain virtue, he argued, we do not seem to be saying that the person has a disposition that will
Pincoffs argued, virtues should be understood in terms of the role they play in human life. Some dispositions, he pointed out, provide specific grounds for preferring a person because they make a person good or bad at specific tasks, such as painting hous
Virtue Theory: The theory that the aim of the moral life is develop those general dispositions called moral virtues, and to exercise and exhibit them in the many situations that human life sets before us.
Other questions from the virtue theory: How does it help us decide what we are to do? Can an ethic of virtue do more than tell us the kind of people we should be? Is an ethic of virtue able to provide us with any guidance about how we should live our live
This criticism—that virtue theory provides no guidance for action—is not surprising because virtue theory deliberately turns away from action and focuses on moral character as the fundamental moral category. Nevertheless, although virtue is the foundation
Virtue theory as Guidance for Action: Determining whether an action is morally right, Determining whether an action is morally wrong, Evaluating an action’s relationship to the agent’s virtues and vices
Virtue Theory Objection: Virtue theory seems inconsistent with psychology, which showed in the Milgram and Princeton studies that behavior is determined by the external situation and not moral character. The response is moral character determines behavior
What is the relationship between virtue theory and the theories of ethics that we considered earlier (utilitarian, rights, justice, and care theories)? There is, then, no single, simple relationship between the virtues and our moral principles. Some virtu
An ethic of virtue, then, is not a fifth kind of moral principle that should take its place alongside the principles of utilitarianism, rights, justice, and caring. Instead, an ethic of virtue fills out and adds to these principles by looking not at the a
An adequate ethic of virtue, then, will look at the virtues that are associated with utilitarianism, rights, justice, and caring. It will look at the virtues people need to adhere to their moral principles when their feelings, desires, and passions tempt
Other critics argue - the virtue theory provides no guidance for action. That's because we focus on character rather than action
Value based decision making means that circumstances, pressure and expediency do not guide that decision, pre-established values do. Virtue standards incorporate absolutes, they do not vary with circumstances. It weighs the consequences of choosing one co
Virtue standards applied to businesses: Saying things you know are not true, giving or allowing a false impression, buying influence or engaging in a conflict of interest, hiding information, divulging priviate information, violating rules, condoning unet
What leads us to virtuous behavior? Beliefs about others’ virtues (role models), beliefs about our own virtue (what we believe about ourselves and what we think others believe about us), our moral standards (staying aware of them), certain religious belie

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics:
Core Themes:
Happiness = rational activity in accordance with virtue
Virtue = habit + reason
Moral character is formed through repeated action
The Golden Mean guides moral behavior
Friendship is necessary for flourishing
Contemplation is the highest human activity
Explores the nature of the good life for humans. Asks what is the highest good? The highest good is happiness
Eudiamonia or Happiness is not pleasure, wealth, or honor, but living and doing well. It is achieved through rational activity in accordance with virtue (chosen by the self, self-sufficient, and is the ultimate goal of a person’s life).
Aristotle asks what is the function of a human? Humans = reason. Therefore, the human good is equal to the activity of the soul in accordance with reason and to achieve excellence in this area, you need virtue.
Moral Virtue: Is developed through habit and repetition. Ex. The four cardinal virtues - courage, temperance, justice, and prudence
Intellectual virtue: Is developed through teaching (often how we are raised). Ex. Intelligence, understanding situations, practical judgement
The Golden Mean: Virtue is the mean between two extremes. It is relative to us and requires practical wisdom
Virtuous actions must be: Done knowingly, chosen for their own sake, and done from a stable character. We are responsible because virtue and vice are formed by repeated choices
Aristotle says friendship is essential to happiness. The three types are friendship of pleasure, friendship of utility, and friendship of virtue (highest form). True friendship is based on mutual goodness, is enduring, and rare.
Pleasure is not the highest good, but it completes activity, and roper pleasures align with virtuous action
The Highest Life: The life of Contemplation which involves intellectual virtue and is closest to divine activity.

Created by: user-2026220

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