Virtue Ethics: Summarize Key Points

Summarize Key Points

The reading begins by explaining how there are several different approaches one may take to reach an ethical decision, depending on the issue or question at hand. The first school of ethics discussed is virtue ethics. The main interest in virtue ethics is figuring what comprises a good person in terms of their well-being and their ability to thrive in life through self-evaluation and questioning. Aristotle lived by virtue ethics throughout his life and is an example of a person who followed and balanced his values not only at one particular time, but throughout his entire life. Virtue ethics is about how life between human beings will be like in the future and the morals, skills, and virtues people need to need to think

Consequential ethics does not focus on individuals and their values, but on trying to work together and compromise in a world where there is much uncertainty and differing views to achieve the greatest good possible. There is a major emphasis on working together as a whole, results, effects, and the future in Consequentialist ethics. In this school of ethics, it is important to understand that most other people have definitions of what it means to work towards a common good, even though it may differ from our view. Instead of using “right” and “wrong”., the words “good” and “bad” are used in Consequentialist ethics. The text then goes on to examine the school of Deontological or duty-based ethics. Thinking and acting rationally is a main interest of this school of ethics. Deontological focuses on rules and that doing the “right thing” is the obligation one is expected to always follow. The reading continues to discuss how Deontological ethics is always the same and does not change is certain circumstances, like the other two schools of ethics discussed may. The connection between duty-based ethics and human rights is explained using some examples of some amendments. The text concludes by saying that we all use all three schools of ethics as

Before reading this, I thought of ethics only in-terms of what I now know is the virtue school. I was also interested by the Will Rogers analogy that was included in the virtue ethics section because it put the approach into real-life context. I was also interested by the questions that were placed in the text to help us to better understand how we can apply each of these schools of ethics into our daily decision making. In the Consequentialist ethics section, I was interested upon learning that this school of ethics does not apply for the actual decision making process, but my the outcome because I thought that ethics was only about decision making. The thought about it ever being based on an outcome had not occurred to me until reading this. I was also intrigued upon learning that utilitarianism is a subset of Consequentialist ethics and that it is used in the business world because I had never thought about it from that perspective before. I was also interested in the part of Deontological ethics that says that it should not change depending on the circumstances, as that is what up to this point we are taught growing up that certain actions are right and wrong depending on the