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Deontological Theory Vs Rule Utilitarianism

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Dian Davis Professor: Shomaker PHL 115 November 7, 2014 In the past few months I have been introduced to several different theories, but three of those theories stood out in my mind, Deontological theory which rejects consequences as the basis of right and wrong and focus instead on our duty to practice or avoid particular kind of action. On the other hand, Rule Utilitarianism a consequentialist moral theory that defines a morally right rule or practice as one that promote overall utility and Virtue ethics believe that one has to have specific character traits like loyalty, compassion, generosity that have moral value in one self without any underline principles or action guiding them. Some of the similarities of deontological theory and rule …show more content…

Also Rule Utilitarianism believes that everyone should follow rules and laws that would bring about the greatest happiness to the majority of people if that means one has to perform these acts, committing murder, breaking promises, lying and even slavery if it promotes overall utility, however, Deontological believes that no such acts should be done under any given situation and we have a moral duty not to do these things regardless of the outcome. However, virtue ethics believe that if you are guided by the virtue of your actions it would produce good outcome. Deontological theory believes that there can be rules that can be followed when making ethical decisions, in contrast, virtue ethics make right or wrong decisions based on the individual they are, without any general rule guiding their …show more content…

This theory state that people should make decisions because of who they are and not because some rules or law that guides them. If people make decisions based merely on anticipation of only good consequences there would not be new discovery. Discoveries are the unknown and in the unknown you cannot anticipate the consequences of what we do not know so in other words there would be no risk taking. Virtue ethics theory allows one to make decisions by evaluating a situation, weighing circumstances and coming to conclusion on the best possible result. It is not dependent on the greatest outcome because not all right decisions leads to the greatest utility. If one is a virtuous person they will always have good intentions when making any decisions so therefore, with virtue theory there is no primary rule that one should follow or that tells us what to do or not

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When taking the virtues approach to decide what to do in an ethical situation, the decision one believes to be the right action to take depends on the type of person that he or she

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Manhattan tycoon with a personality larger than life explodes onto the American political scene with a populist message that the system is unfair to the little guy, and that the wealthy corporations and their beholding politicians are in control of America. He draws all the oxygen from his adversaries’ campaigns. He confuses the media, mystifies the establishment and seems to be an inexorable force. And he claims to be the only way out for America’s dismal position on the world stage.

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Aristotle describes virtue theory as an ethical theory that emphasizes an individual 's character rather than following a set of rules. Breaking it down even further to specify knowing right from wrong, being able to read an atmosphere by knowing what is right, and it is the midpoint between two extremes. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. display to be a virtue ethicists through his letter oppose to being a deontologist or utilitarian. Laws define a set of rules that the people should follow; however, there are unjust laws that are meant to be challenged.

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a) How do the three theories (Virtue, Deontological, and Utilitarian) differ? First of all it should be mentioned, that Virtue, Deontological, and Utilitarian theories are the tools to justify people, groups or institutions’ behavior. What is wrong and what is right is identified regarding the personal point of view. Due to that, the same situation, action or result can be assessed, particularly based on the moral and ethical background.

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To begin with, this theory relies on moral absolutes which can be defined as actions that are entirely right or entirely wrong. Deontologists cannot consider the consequences of their actions, even if the consequences of a particular action bring about more harm than the act itself. Deontology theory says that certain types of actions are either absolutely right or wrong, but provides no way in which to distinguish which action may be right or wrong and thus duties and principles can conflict (Preston, 2007). For instance,

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Rule utilitarianism however is a more deontological approach, and it provides clear guidelines on how to react. The principles of happiness, consequences and equality are ones which we all think of when making decisions, and therefore rule utilitarianism is an appropriate approach for many of us

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An individual’s importance is seen with regards to the way they positively contribute to the sustenance of their community. In moral terms; it is the collective morality that counts and not individual morality. Furthermore, the actions of an individual are not judged in isolation from the group thus making an individual’s behaviour a reflection of all the members in the community, thus making it important for the individual to conform to communal norms. This differs from Virtue Ethics which states that “only individual moral acts are subject to evaluation and judgment and not the collective conscience of the community”. The manner of how each theory decides what is the right thing to do differs

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The first group are known as deontologists and the second consequentialists. Deontologism seeks to establish a set of common rules for the morality of human decisions or actions. A Deontologists desires, “Actions that are undertaken to be guided as though such actions could potentially become a universal law of nature” (Alexander, 2015). On the opposite spectrum, consequentialists believe no action is really a negative action. Rather, “What’s more important are the consequences of one’s actions” (Alexander, 2015).

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In this essay, I compared Utilitarianism and Deontology, and argued that Deontology is a better ethics system than Utilitarianism because, while Utilitarianism focuses solely on results, Deontology considers humans as more than just a means to an end and provides for a system of generally accepted

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The idea of virtue ethics was first introduced to the world by Aristotle over 2,300 years ago in 325 BC (Rachels 173). Virtue ethics operate on the belief that people develop good character by looking at the virtues they admire in other people and emulating them. In order to do this, a person must ask themselves what kind of person they want to be and focus on choosing characteristics not specific people to emulate. Unfortunately, virtue ethics were quickly overshadowed by other perspectives on ethical theory as Christianity gained popularity and values changed. As time went on people stopped asking themselves, “What traits make a good person?”

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Consequential Ethical theory It is a part of normative ethical theories and it means that the consequence of ones behavior is an ultimate mean for anyone to judge the rightness or wrongness of that behavior. So, from the perspective of a consequentialist an ethically right act is the one that will inherit good outcome or consequence. It usually explains the saying “the end justifies the means” which means that in order to achieve a goal, take any route which leads to achieving it.

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