Kantian Ethics Essays (Examples)

In this light, the individual is given emphasis in the senses that, if one individual's life is compromised, say in order to find a cure for a disease; Kantian ethics would heavily oppose this approach. Utilitarianism, on the other hand would accept the measure.

Both Kant's moral principles and his theory of human nature are designed only to add to our discontent with ourselves. For Kant, the task of philosophy is not to reconcile us to the human condition. Kant thinks that as rational creatures our condition must be on our dissatisfaction, self alienation and endless striving. Philosophy should not try to transcend that condition, but only to help us live with its inevitability and more importantly, to make progress in the painful tasks it sets us. To some this aim may seem unhealthy, perhaps even dangerous. From a Kantian standpoint, however, any other way of representing our condition appears…

Kantian Ethical Analysis

Introduction to Kantian Ethics.

Kantian ethics may depart from what Kant wrote and thought. Kantian ethics can criticize and modify the theory that Kant put forward as well as sympathetically interpret or defend it. Kant's ethics are contained in Kant's own writings: the Groundwork, the Critique of Practical eason, the Metaphysics of Morals, as well as others. Kantian ethics are the theory that Kant himself put forward, the fundamental principle of morality as he formulated it, the system of duties as he presented it, and the moral conclusions he thought (Wood 2007). When thinking or interpreting Kant's ethics, we are interpreting his theory, illustrating how its parts are meant to fit together, relating it to Kant's philosophy in entirety.

Kantian ethics is based upon Kant's theories. According to Kant, the concept of "motive" is the most important factor in determining what is ethical -- or what is…

Powell points to the fact that "in Georgia, for example, the time between the date of the murder and the murderer's execution (if it occurs) averages close to I0 years 25 Although the average lapsed time in Georgia may be the highest, the same situation generally prevails in a number of other states. No one would suggest that this is satisfactory." (Powell, 1038)

Indeed, according to Calvert (1993) it demonstrates a process which is crowded with rational causes to delay in the implementation, primarily because the application of the death penalty is so difficult to evaluate ethically. The degree of doubt which has been cast upon the efficiency, fairness or consistency of the death penalty is sufficient to warrant an inquiry on its ethical rationality. In many ways, those perspectives which have supported its unquestioned usage tend to align philosophically with authoritarian state structures, connectivity between the legitimacy of state…

prostitution is a dirty word. Yet governments support it and benefit from it. This paper discusses prostitution in light of Kantian ethics and Mill's utilitarianism.

MOAL PINCIPLES:

UTILITAIANISM vs. KANTIAN ETHICS

To every decision there are always two sides attached; one that advocates an absolute standard and the other that questions this standard. Similarly when faced by a moral dilemma, one solution is to do in accordance with absolute moral standards and the other is to weigh the consequences and do in accordance with them. The first allows the assurance that the decision will be absolutely correct in terms absolute morality; however it may harm the parties involved. The second practice ensures that once the consequences are weighed and judged and the decision acted upon, it is going to benefit more people but would harm some. However in event of the second choice, there is no assurance that the decision…

Ethical Frameworks: Case Scenario
This week’s case scenario involves Jenna, who has just been hired as a new recruiter at a large staffing agency. Her trainer advises her to tell candidates that the organization will get back to them within two weeks of an interview date. However, Jenna is concerned that the agency does not live up to this promise and rarely gets back to candidates. She feels that lying to candidates is unethical as she too would not like to be lied to.
The Kantian duty ethical framework applies best to the current scenario. Kantian ethics emphasizes the idea that all people have a duty to act in a certain way and are required to act in line with this duty even when acting so is not in their best interest (Schulzke, 2012). Kantian ethics is based on the categorical imperative, which requires individuals to act a certain way…

There are several ways that BP could have chosen to respond, all of which were "open" to them (i.e. they had free will), yet those chose to take paths that were less moral. Kant's universal law would have them put their responsibility to humanity as the motivator, however, their motives have not proven to be driven by doing what is genuinely good for humanity.

Blackburn (2009) states that it is tricky to apply the categorical imperative and that the most persuasive examples of it being effective are in cases where there is an institution whose existence depends on sufficient performance by a sufficient number of individuals.

Suppose, as is plausible, that our ability to give and receive promises depends upon general compliance with the principle of keeping promises. Were we to break them sufficiently often, or were promise-breaking to become a 'law of nature,' then there would be no such…

Contemporary agency theory dictates that managers only act in the interest of maximizing shareholder (owner) wealth (Roberts, 2004). This standard can be reasonably viewed as the minimum ethical standard that the president of a company should have. Taking this view, Thomas Koltun is essentially in damage control mode. Because of the mistakes of the company in the past, Koltun is faced with significant downside risk from mishandling this situation. It could also be reasonably argued that Thomas Koltun still bears responsibility for the original ethical imperatives that the company has had all along as the result of bringing the Travel-Lite to market. If three-quarters of these products are as yet unaccounted for, then the company still bears ethical obligations as defined by the CPSC with regards in particular to consumers.

There are serious implications associated with a mishandling of these obligations. The company has suffered ethical failures in relation to…

Ethics is a grey area in many instances within the medical community. Ethical codes help by providing guidance that allow for professional judgment or discretion and the idiosyncratic nature surrounding ethical dilemmas. As mentioned in the first lecture concerning ethics, ethics is mostly observed as being a serious reflective activity essentially concerned with a methodical inspection of the ethical life (Callaghan & yan, 2012). It is intended to illuminate what should be done by asking to consider and reconsider ordinary justification, actions, and judgments.

In the case study, Wayne became afraid to tell anyone anything. Nurses did not know his condition and he was acting in a way that was violent. Medical staff that tended to him saw him as either mentally ill or anti-social. It seemed he was both. In the end, he was able to talk to a psychiatrist, one that he talked to before. He felt confident…

Emperor's Club: Kantian, utilitarian, and Aristotelian views

According to Kantian ethical principles, Mr. Hundert should have allowed the grades of his four students to remain as they were, and not altered them. A Kantian ethical schema suggests that a person should behave as if he is setting a law for all time, not merely reacting to the specifics of a situation. A Kantian philosopher would say teachers cannot subjectively change grades simply because they believe that a particular student emotionally 'needs' to win more than another student. Hundert allowed his personal feelings for Bell and Bell's improvement as a student to influence his decision-making, and hurt another student in the process. However, from a utilitarian standpoint, by showing Bell the importance of hard work and moral activity, a great service is done to society because Bell is the child of a powerful man, and will likely grow up to be…

right, a legal right, a moral right, a human right. How are they related?

ights are privileges or entitlements to perform particular actions, or to be in particular state/situations; or privileges/entitlements to carry out certain actions or be in particular states. ights are the cornerstone of the modern comprehension of what actions are allowed or permissible and which institutions are fair and just. ights structure the content of laws, the form of governments, and shape morality as it is currently viewed (Wenar, 2005).

A legal right

Legal rights are rights which exist under the constitutions and laws of legal systems or by the virtue of decisions by the appropriate legal authorities (Campbell, 2001).

A human right

Human rights have been defined in many circles as essential moral guarantees that people and cultures in all countries apparently have for the simple reason that they are human beings. Thus human rights are…

Bioethics

Ethical Evaluation of Dr. Pou

Ethical Evaluation of Mrs. Everett's Claims

Gert's two-step process Evaluation of Dr. Pou

Nursing Ethics in Emergency

Ethical Evaluation of Dr. Pou

From the contents of the article and the actions and the explanations given by Dr. Pou, it is clearly evident that the Kantian theory of ethics was followed by the doctor while she euthanized the seriously ill patients.

The Kantian theory of ethics was propounded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant which states that the will or intention behind an action is the sole judge of the morality of the action and morality is not influenced by the outcome or the results. The theory essentially emphasis the principles that are followed behind actions and influence the actions and not the end result of the actions. The universal principles that treat everyone equally is the motivating factor for acting according to this theory. Animal…

Deontological theory might criticize Guido's choice if the initial assumptions included the rule prohibiting lying. However, deontological analysis is only as useful as the underlying rules with respect to which it is applied. Therefore, the solution to the deontological issues raised by the issue presented by the movie is simply to reformulate a less restrictive rule that is incapable of being applied to every situation. Instead of proposing the rule that prohibits lying, the better rule might be to prohibit only lying for immoral purposes.

In fact, the blind adherence to rules under deontological principles often produces distinctly immoral results: it is difficult to imagine the moral purpose of informing a dying patient that a loved one was also killed in the same accident; nor is there a moral purpose for informing a child who is to young to understand the concept that he was adopted. In Guido's case, the…

Ethics, Morality, Values, And Beliefs

According to "the ethics site," an Internet resource for college instructors regarding the teaching of different ethical systems, ethics may be defined as "the explicit, philosophical reflection on moral beliefs and practices. The difference between ethics and morality is similar to the difference between musicology and music. Ethics is a conscious stepping back and reflecting on morality, just as musicology is a conscious reflection on music." ("Glossary," The Ethics Site, 2005) In other words, ethics is the philosophy of what is right and wrong, while morality is the practice of ethics, or virtue in action.

The analogy between a musician and a musicologist proposed by the positioning of ethics vs. morality is interesting, because one might understand music very well, and be able to explain its theory and teaching as a musicologist. However, a great musicologist might be only a middling musician. In contrast, there…

Ethics

Consider the three purposes of morality treated in Chapter 1. Which of these would it be easier for utilitarianism to fulfill and which could well be more difficult for that system to fully meet?

Of the three purposes of morality treated in Chapter One, perhaps the easiest purpose for the ethical system of utilitarianism, as developed by the Englishman Jeremy Bentham, to meet would be to create a functional system of social ethics, or the ethical schema that holds a society together by its ethical 'glue.' Utilitarianism suggests that society, when pressed on many sides by the competition of different ethical claims, or even simply by different but equally valid claims for personal happiness, should choose the truth claim that allows for the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals within that particular society. For instance, the happiness of the many in my neighborhood to sleep late at…

On the contrary, for Kant, to live a moral life is to live a life that is lived almost completely because of obligation (Moran, Rein & Goodin 2008, p 354). Someone can still do something that is their duty, but that doesn't mean that what they do isn't immoral. A simple example would be if a person owed money: in Kantian morality, if a person paid back the money simply because they owed it and they felt it was their moral obligation to do so, this would be moral; however, if a person paid back money only because they thought that it would help them out if they ever needed to borrow money again, this would be immoral.

Kantian morality -- or the ethical system that we call "deontological" (luhm & Heineman 2007, p. 26) -- has to do with whether or not "its rules do not allow us to…

Criticism of Consequentialism:

The deontological criticism of consequentialism would suggest that the very fact that two identical acts can be highly ethical or highly unethical in different circumstances renders consequentialism purely subjective and dependent on opinion instead of objective principles. In that view, the deontological ethical approach may produce unintended negative results on occasion, but at least deontological ethics are predictable and consistent; furthermore, deontological values lead to the better choice of conduct often enough to justify any specific instances where practical injustices could result from adherence to rules.

Adhering to rules is the surest way of ensuring ethical human conduct notwithstanding that isolated societies may establish rules that could be defined objectively as unethical. One of the best examples of the impracticality of consequentialism is the general law of false arrest in most American states. A citizen arrested unlawfully by a duly authorized law enforcement officer may not flee…

Ethics of the Death Penalty

The death penalty is a majorly decisive issue. Some countries feel that it is a cruel punishment and have outlawed it, such as England. Others practice the punishment liberally with small caliber crimes receiving the harshest possible punishment. In the United States of America, the death penalty exists in some states but has been abolished in others. Crimes that qualify for the death penalty are serious felonies such as murder. Those on opposing sides of the issue often look to the philosophy of ethics to prove their own position or to subvert the opposition's perspective. Often those who support the death penalty argue that this is the only just punishment for someone who has committed heinous crimes against other people. The dignity of the victim is the only one they consider. Antithetically, those who oppose the death penalty argue that committing a crime like that…

Although the tobacco Janet would market is not smoked, it is an addictive substance, and thus it could easily lead to smoking nicotine-containing cigarettes later on in life, and cause harm through second-hand smoke to millions of other people. The societal costs to the legal system because of the lawsuits the product has inspired, and the unhappiness the product has caused for the target audience's families are another example of how the sum total happiness of society is reduced, rather than increased, if Janet takes the job. Also, the campaign is in violation of laws that prohibit minors from using tobacco, and by encouraging the violation of the laws of the land, society's total happiness is reduced, as persons (and marketing departments) feel free to behave and market products in a less law-abiding fashion.

Finally, the idea that Janet can help herself and her future career by taking the job…

Ethics Scenario

Public health ethics relates to the ethics as it relates to an entire population, in contrast to medical ethics, which relates more to the rights of individuals. osenau and oemer (2013) note that there are often ethical conflicts that emerge when individual rights conflict with the greater good. They highlight the overarching public health principles, that provision of care is regardless of external factors, that there should be equity in the distribution of resources, and that there should be respect for human rights. The case of the burn patient is primarily regarding the human rights dimension.

The human rights dimension results in an ethical dilemma here for a couple of reasons. The first is that the individual in this instance has rights -- or the family members have rights -- and there is question as to whether those rights were respected. The outcome might have been the same…

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The question of death ceases to be a personal experience, a family experience, and becomes a societal decision. It suggests that the values that one inherits through the experience of dying and dearth are without merit, and do not serve to better humanity. It reduces the human body that holds life to a commodity, and the decision of whether or not the body's continued living is profitable to the bottom line.

There are many questions that arise when we talk about death in terms of being better for society as a whole. Questions such as to what extent would a solider feel compelled to fight for the lives of his fellow countrymen if the society in which he lives makes decisions about the value of life being measured by wealth? To what extent would a stranger reach out to save the life of another person if economics becomes the…

Speculating has become such a common practice in the stock market that it is an essential element of a proper stock market. It is doubtful that the stock market values would be anywhere near its current value if not for speculation.

Goldman Sachs Investigation

The Goldman Sachs investigation inquires into whether traders at a number of hedge funds and trading firms, improperly gained nonpublic information from Goldman Sachs (who gained the information from industry informants) about pending health-care, technology and other merger deals.

In the Goldman Sachs situation, certain traders benefited from privileged information of impending mergers by buying stock on those mergers before the merger was officially announced.

Thus, they were able to acquire a promising stock at a lower price than they would have otherwise. They profit by selling the stock after the merger announcement induces other traders to buy the stock and push the stock price up.…

He has already placed himself under a cloud of suspicion by the community, and while he still possess the same essential rights, he cannot be regarded deserving of the same attention as the boy. Cappa's rights must be respected to the fullest because he, in so far as anyone knows, has always respected the rights of others. Smoot has not. The temporary abridgment of Smoot's rights in order to ensure the Natural Rights of Mickey Cappa would seem to be in accord with an ideal of happiness for all. In this kind of situation, the existence of a predator or abductor in the community represents a threat to everyone's natural rights. It is a threat that should be removed. If indeed, Sylvester Smoot is innocent, his interrogation can be viewed as means both of making sure that Mickey Cappa's rights were protected, as well as away of showing to the…

Admittedly, we do not know how it that anything (such as a physical universe) exists, let alone exactly how it came about that life came into existence. It is often suggested that there must be a God since it is impossible for anything to come into existence spontaneously through "self-creation" and equally impossible that anything existed forever in the past. Regardless of how elementary the very first particle of matter (or energy) and regardless how long ago it first emerged, it must have come from somewhere and through some process.

In the minds of many people, the only logical explanation for the existence of the universe and (especially) of life is that it must have been created by a God. However, there are serious logical problems with that belief. First, it necessarily relies on completely circular reasoning: either spontaneous existence from nothing is possible or it is impossible; it cannot…

Virtue Ethics

This ethical philosophy draws back from the thought and work of the ancient and great Greek philosopher Aristotle (rown, 2001; SPI, n.d.; Fahey, 2010). The philosophy centers on persons who are moral agents themselves, rather than from their actions or their consequences. A person lives an ethical or the good life if he possesses a right character, also know as virtues. As such he possesses a moral character, according to the philosophy. These character traits or virtues include courage, temperance, justice, wisdom, patience, generosity and compassion. y observing or living by this philosophy, a person develops good habits that build and make up his character. ecause of such a character, he is naturally disposed to act in a certain moral or virtuous way towards situations and persons. He or she does not possess undesirable or vicious traits of character (rown, SPI. Fahey).

The main objections to this philosophy…

As many forms of live donation do not cause harm to others, and as we allow the donation of blood for payment, we violate the categorical imperative by banning the sale of human organs.

It has been argued by some that banning organ donation is within the bounds of Kantian ethics because we have collectively agreed to the conviction that "such a practice would diminish human dignity and our sense of solidarity" (Cohen, 2002). Yet, we do not prohibit the donation of blood or of bone marrow. Indeed, most among us would agree that such donations are necessary and beneficial. Lives are saved. There is nothing morally wrong about saving lives -- indeed live donations today are conducted voluntarily and without any moral consequence.

Allowing live organ donations is ethically consistent with our established principles regarding blood donation and voluntary, unpaid live organ donation. It will increase the supply of…

On the other hand, applicable laws do have authority and under the concept of moral relativism, it may be justified that any duly passed law be complied with (Svensson & Wood, 2008).

One lesson from this case might be that laws between entities in different sovereign nations can be much harder to enforce than laws between entities within the same nation. In the future, Pakistan and other nations might want to make sure that their contractual agreements contain mechanisms that make them enforceable across international borders. On a broader level, another lesson might be that ill-gotten gains should not be promoted by governments in the first place. Those who believe in the supremacy of divine law might consider the position in which Pakistan found herself to be an example of God's reminding us of the obligation to conduct ourselves ethically toward our fellow man.

eferences

Creffield, Lisa. "Why you can't…

.....ethical for an employer to use social media information as a factor when considering whether to hire an employee? What about monitoring social networking activities of employees while on the job? Use ethical reasoning in answering these questions.

The wide-ranging use of social media in the workplace gives rise to serious moral and ethical concerns. Kantian ethics lays emphasis on the form of an action in ascertaining its morality. Kant insists on the Categorical Imperative. Kant implies that this ethical principle is the superlative and outright and proper test to morality, whereas imperative implies that from time to time one must command oneself to be moral and undertake the right thing, even and particularly when one's self-centeredness may be infringed by acting ethically (Mintz, 2015). As an overall moral rule, for an employer to impose into an employee's private life on social media devoid of consent or in a clandestine…

Kant by Onora O'Neill

Analysis of Kantian Morals in the Contemporary Content by Onora O'Neill

Here, Onora O'Neill examines and evaluates the contemporary relevance of Kantian philosophy within how society functions and approves of certain behaviors. Thus, when a person does use another individual as a means to an end, even in an intimate relationship or in a working environment, that person is acting immorally. Personally, despite oppositions, I would tend to agree with such notions, especially because O'Neill is using the concept of consent as a way to define moral and immoral foundations for social interactions.

Essentially, O'Neill presents a strong defense for the modern interpretation of Kantian ethics. Most of Kantian philosophy has been replaced with more recent philosophical discourse, yet there are some elements that still remain prevalent in modern theory. She argues how there is still negative connotations and criticism associated with using other individuals, and…

Morality of Statistics

Ethics/Business Statistics, Christian Worldview

The morality of statistics: Will statistics invariably lie?

A famous book from the 1950s was entitled How to lie with statistics. Implied by the counter-intuitive name was the concept that the old cliche that 'numbers don't lie' was false. In fact, as discussed in the article "eflection before action: The statistical consultant confronts ethical issues" by S. Andrew Ostapski and Claude . Superville, statistics can be highly subjective in terms of how they are presented as are the conclusions which can be drawn from them. Even researchers have been accused of manipulating statistics to prove 'facts' that are not true within academia. The pressures only increase when statisticians are asked to serve the financial 'masters' of commerce. "The ability to be creative in building interdisciplinary bridges can be risky, especially when the parties that are served do not understand the statistical process. The…

Although Sterba might argue in the long run that the children of all the world's people will be best served by placing limits upon development, it is hard to argue that it is just and fair that members of the developing world may suffer fewer benefits from industrialization because of the developed world's excesses. Neither the principles of restitutive or distributive justice are really served by either example. The wrongs done to the formerly colonialized peoples of the world are not addressed if they cannot attain parity with those nations that exploited them in a restitutive fashion, and the extent to which the earth must be and has been damaged by environmental harms caused by man to survive in a modern fashion suggests no restitution can be made to the earth from an environmentalist's perspective without an end to human development. Also, in terms of distributive justice for the greatest…

Patents

Ethics in Patents in Amazon One Click

Patents are meant to protect the intellectual property of the people who apply for them. They are given when the process is a unique idea, or it offers an improvement to an existing idea that does not infringe on the original patent and is itself unique. The question is not whether patents themselves are ethical, but whether a business requesting a patent for a process, in its entirety, is ethical. People with different philosophical outlooks would see this case very differently. On the one had rule utilitarian's would see the patent rules and judge based on that criteria whereas a natural rights theorist would have a completely different outlook. This paper looks at the patent application for Amazon's revolutionary "one-click" payment processing through the lens of both a rule utilitarian and a natural rights theorist and determine how a person with that…

The ACA does not by any means fully resolve this, but it makes strides towards addressing this critical issue of morality. The individual mandate is similar -- where the profit of one individual leads to the suffering of another, the suffering takes precedence -- the money is not as important. Not doing harm to others is the more important imperative, so the sacrifice for the greater good in this case would be the moral course of action according to Kant.

Locke

Locke's moral philosophy comprises two parts. The first is natural law, in that there are divine laws, they are obligatory and humans can understand these. The second is more hedonistic, that pleasures and pains serve to "provide morality with its normative force" (Sheridan, 2011). That these two views seem to contrast is well-established and indeed they lead to different interpretations of the key tenets of the Affordable Care Act.…

Ethics

While all ethical theories appeal to me in some way, the one I relate to the most is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism suggests that the ethical decision should enhance as much happiness as possible. I appreciate this idea, which is why I believe I make more decisions using a utilitarian ethic than any other. With Kantian duty ethics, I struggle with the absolutism. I do not believe it is possible to have one principle govern every ethical decision that I make. For example, I do believe that sometimes it is acceptable to tell lies. I have told lies to make my parents or girlfriend feel good, and I do not think it hurt them. In fact, I believe that if they knew now which lies I told and when, they would not even be upset. I would never tell a lie that I could later not admit to, however, I relate…

Ethics and Morality: The ight to Live and Die

The Ethics of Human Cloning

The topic of human cloning came into the limelight in 1996, when Dolly the lamb was cloned by embryologist Ian Wilmut of oslin Institute, Scotland. The American Medical Association (AMA) defines cloning as the "production of genetically-identical organisms via somatic cell nuclear transfer" (Fornsworth, 2001). Essentially, it is the production of a baby with the same genes as its monozygotic parent, and which basically involves inserting the parent's DNA into a nucleated egg and then chemically stimulating the egg to undergo cell division and become an embryo that is a complete genetic copy of its parent / DNA donor (Fornsworth, 2001).

Despite its inherent benefits, which include helping sterile couples get an offspring complete with either the father's or the mother's genetic make-up, and creating humans who can readily be organ donors for each other; cloning…

Ethics

There are several different ethical perspectives that one can take to evaluate the goodness of actions. Among the leading philosophies are virtue ethics, consequentialism, utilitarianism (a specific type of consequentialism) and Kantian ethics, specifically universal law. This paper will examine three scenarios in the workplace against these different ethical philosophies. The first scenario is an employee making long distance phone calls on the company dime; the second two employees having sex in the conference room after hours and the third is an employee who drinks excessively at lunch.

Personal Phone Calls

Among the schools of normative ethics, virtue ethics is the one that emphasizes moral character (Hursthouse, 2012). There are two basic ways to look at these phone calls from the virtue ethics perspective. From the employee's perspective, no moral person would steal, because theft is not a virtuous act. If stealing could ever be virtuous, there would need…

If the leaders of our national financial institutions had asked 'are these moral actions right, ethically speaking, from the point-of-view of my profession' rather than 'will these moral actions make money,' the world financial crisis would never have occurred.

Utilitarianism also tends to deemphasize minority rights -- but merely because a group is in the minority does not mean that it is engaged in a moral wrong. This can be seen in the current debate over gay marriage. Many people stress that marriage is 'naturally' between a man and a woman, simply because the majority of the population is heterosexual. However, by safeguarding only majority rights, African-Americans and other historically-discriminated against groups would never have been allowed to enjoy the promise of the American dream. Kantian principles demand upholding the moral integrity of all human beings, regardless of perceived consequences. During the American Civil Rights movement, many opponents of integration…

Business Ethics

Is your answer from last week closer to the utilitarian approach to moral problems, to the Kantian / deontological approach or to neither?

The answer from last week's problem is considered to be both utilitarian and deontological. The way that it is utilitarian is to encourage the bandits to leave the town alone based on the offering them money. This will maximize happiness and minimize the overall amounts of suffering. In the situation with the town, the offer of money is designed to achieve the greatest amounts of happiness and suffering. This is accomplished by encouraging them never to return through the large financial rewards that are provided. Once the bandits agree to accept this offer is when there will be a transformation in the attitudes of the citizens. This is significant in highlighting how our approach is taking this aspect of ethical thinking and using it to…

Values and Ethics

in the Workplace

Values and Ethics in the Workplace

Values and ethics in the workplace can be extremely different among various jobs, careers, companies and organizations, ages, races, and ethnic groups, cultures and parts of the world, office environments, and the individual employees themselves. For example, a secretary in the administrative office of a Catholic church, a poor and illiterate factory worker in India, and a stockbroker who works as a managing partner in a prestigious firm would all hold different and maybe even opposing morals. The secretary would probably be opposed to working on a Sunday so that she had the time to attend church, while the stockbroker would feel compelled to work even on Sunday so that he did not feel lazy and unmotivated, and the factory worker would not have the option of making such a decision as he would have to work every…

Business Ethics and Morality

Many in the business and sociology fields have attempted to separate the ideas of ethics and morality from religious beliefs. Researchers have worked hard at identifying the principles which hold our societies together from the viewpoint which identifies the common good, or the well-being of the individual or organization as the foundation of moral or ethical behavior. However, this humanistic approach to morality voids the central thesis of what makes moral decisions important, and possible. Moral decisions are based on a code of behavior which lies specifically outside ourselves, and is focused on building a common good on the basis of a moral understanding which is defined, and unchanging. Regardless of how broad a sociological perspective one takes, when morality is separated from an unchanging definition of right and wrong, the foundation changes from rock to sand, only waiting for the next sociological revolution to come…

obert Latimer Case

Ethics

The obert Latimer case details the tragic situation of a father caring for a severely disabled child pushed to his breaking point. After witnessing the suffering of his daughter Tracy through numerous invasive and minimally effective procedures, Latimer eventually decided to take his child's life (Eckstein 1995). For doing so, he was convicted of homicide and although the case was tried in 1995, it still presents a number of troubling ethical challenges to medical ethicists today.

From a deontological or Kantian point-of-view, or the notion that one must behave as if setting a moral law for all time, Latimer's actions are immoral if it is assumed that intentional killing is always wrong, particularly of a disabled person who is not in full possession of his or her ability to determine if he or she is happy or not. A Kantian would ask the question -- if…

Business Ethics

How important is an individual's privacy in the workplace? Is an individual's privacy in the workplace the most important consideration to be taken into account? hat constitutes privacy in a workplace environment? Do the goals and the mission of the organization supersede an individual's desire to protect his or her privacy? Is it ethical for an employer to collect and disperse personal information from employees without their knowledge? How does the philosophy of utilitarianism play into this issue? This paper delves into those questions and provides supporting information for the resolution of this issue.

After careful review of the textbook for this course, after reviewing additional scholarly resources and taking into consideration a utilitarian approach to this issue -- and after researching the Australian laws regarding workplace privacy -- this paper takes the position that an individual's privacy is indeed vitally important (and must by law be protected)…

Kantian Ethics in Medicine

There is little doubt that the nurse did not do the right thing in reassuring the mother about her baby that slept through feeding time. What the nurse did was withhold valuable information about the health and livelihood of that newborn. The mother has a right to such information, and she has a right to it immediately. She should not have to take legal action or go through some form of documentation to ascertain these facts. Instead, she should be able to simply get that information by asking the nurse who is aware of the baby's lapse in breathing. From this perspective, the nurse is not fulfilling her job because she is not imparting this valued information to the person who needs to know this information more than anyone in the world: the mother of the child. Ergo, the nurse did not do the correct thing…

Nursing and Ethics

The emotional debate over abortion had been mischaracterized in the media, and hence disrupted any positive attempt to make progress in resolving the ethical and medical problems which have been created by the practice. A majority of Americans recognize and desire that abortion should be available when the life of the mother is at risk, or in the cases of rape or incest. However, liberal proponets like to expand this definition under the ubiquitous definition of the 'mothers health' which has been used to justify abortion on demand, for any reason. This latter expanded definition is significantly opposed by a majority of the ameircan population. In the midst of this struggle, comes the person needing medical care, who has neither been properly informed as to the dangers of the paractive, nor adequately counseled as to the options which exist regarding the future of her unborn child. The…

However, the issue is more nuanced -- what if, as a humanitarian effort, a pharmaceutical company sold recently expired drugs at very low cost to an impoverished developing nation in the grips of an epidemic? hat if a food company donated food that was safe but 'past its expiration date' to a famine-stricken nation? In this case, a utilitarian calculus would support such exchanges. The balance between the benefit of being cured or not starving to death and potential harm of bad drugs or food would suggest such a donation was ethical. From a Rawlsian point-of-view, imagining whether you were the producer or the consumer, it seems likely that 'you' the consumer would take a risk of eating safe but recently stale rice to avoid starvation, much like a producer would be happy to gain good publicity and unload goods that cannot be sold in the U.S. Everyone, in short,…

Business Ethics

Drucker's approach to business ethics revolves around the belief that business people are rational actors who, as agents for the shareholders, will evaluate all decisions on a cost-benefit basis. His view of business builds upon and only somewhat contrasts with that of Milton Friedman, who in 1971 famously espoused that the "social responsibility of business is to increase its profits." This paper will analyze these two views, showing how they are similar and how they are different from one another.

Although Friedman's editorial has been distilled into its pithy headline, his view on the subject of business ethics was complex. Friedman viewed business managers -- executives -- under the agency theory whereby they would be accountable only to the shareholders. Under this view, managers would and should only focus on enhancing shareholder wealth as the underlying philosophy of their actions. Friedman allowed, however, that the actions under this…

Corporate Social esponsibility and Environmental Ethics

Abstract/Introduction -- No one can argue that the international business community is becoming more and more complex as a result of globalism. In turn, this complexity is driven by an increasing understanding of sustainability, going "green," and bringing ethical and moral philosophy into the business community. British Telecom, for instance, noted in 2007 that it had reduced its carbon footprint by 60% since 1996, setting itself a target of 80% reductions by 2016 (Hawser, 2007). Francois Barrault, CEO, BT Global Services, said that by supporting sustainability his company hoped not only to reduce its carbon footprint but also to attract younger people who prefer to work for environmentally and socially responsible companies. He didn't always think that way, though. Barrault said that when he first met former U.S. vice president and environmental activist Al Gore, who showed him pictures of icecaps melting, he thought…

agrees that ethics is an important part of effective leadership in the field of health care but there is no universally accepted understanding of what constitutes ethical leadership (Milton, 20004). The concept of ethical leadership has been addressed in the literature of a wide variety of fields associated with the health care profession but none have been able to clearly define its terms. The purpose of this paper will be to examine what ethical leadership means to me and how my personal viewpoints and attitudes have been affected by my background and experience.

Primary Influences

Having been raised in an Irish family my Irish heritage is an important aspect in the formation of my ethical viewpoint. Although I have lived in the United States for nearly forty years, I cannot escape the lessons and values that I learned growing up in the Irish countryside. My family lived in an Irish…

Business Ethics

The organization should take a position that it is okay to pursue its actions on the issue. Hartman (2013) makes the point that the business, and the people within the business, should follow a path that emphasizes selfishness. This selfishness is an expression of individual liberty and should not be constrained by the wishes of others, so long as the actions do not harm others. Given that actions are apt to have unpredictable and unknown outcomes, the only reasonable response is either to never do anything, or to do what you need to do.

The company should have, however, an ethical code that helps to guide decisions. It not reasonable that the organization should approach a complex ethical dilemma with an ad hoc system of solutions, but rather it should focus on developing a system by which managers within the company should know what their course of action…

Legally, forcing Ford to make costly payments to the families of the victims of its maleficent inaction was good for society as well as for the individuals who were harmed. Companies are less likely to make such criminally negligent risk/benefit calculations when they know the legal system will penalize the organization financially and legally. Only by increasing the hazardous potential of financial loss from acting immorally can the tort system truly protect consumers. Even in utilitarian ethical calculations, forcing Ford to make costly payments to victim's families makes acting as Ford did in the Pinto case 'wrong' even in terms of corporate profitability analysis as the company is potentially harming the profit margins of shareholders as well as unwitting drivers.

Of course, it could be argued that such an ethical rationale is undeniably influenced by the current litigious environment -- few companies would feel, in today's environment that they could…

duties of disclosure, confidentiality etc. defined in clinical and other professional relationships are binding in personal relationships (Fienberg, 2005). While John may choose to use such guidelines as a barometer for his personal behavior, there is no stipulation that he need do so. So, John needs to decide this issue from own perspective and according to his own needs, desires, and expectations; in other words based on his own personal sense of ethics.

Ethics can be simply defined as the moral principles that should direct a group or a person's behavior (Williams, 2011). According to Williams (2011) the divisions in Western philosophy divide the notion of ethics into three different types:

The Aristotelian notion that virtues such as generosity, honesty, justice, charity, etc. consist of dispositions for people to act in ways that lead to the benefit of both society and the person possessing them.

The Kantian notion that humans…

Movie Analysis and Ethics Theories Application

The daily operations of organizations across the globe is faced and directed by the ethical decisions that they make and the ethical approach that they use as a culture will determine the end result of their performance and their stability. Art has always helped in imitating real life and movies often depict the actual happenings within corporations that are hailed as the top corporations in the society, and from such depictions teach the same society lessons they never knew about the corporations. This paper takes a keen look at two movies, 'Wall Street (1987)' and 'Michael Clayton' and the association between these movies and the ethical theories or approaches that are available.

Wall Street (1987 original)

Plot

The movie rotates around two central characters; Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox and the daily undertakings they have in the business arena. Fox is depicted as a…

Outsourcing and offshoring are two means by which a business can reduce its costs, and these tactics can also have strategic advantages as well. However, they also typically come at a cost, in particular to workers in industrialized nations. Offshoring in particular has become a political issue as well, cited as a reason for the decline of the middle class. This paper will look at these related issues through a number of different ethical lenses.

Outsourcing is the process of hiring a third party firm to perform tasks that were once performed in-house. Offshoring is the moving of a business function to another country. The processes that are driving globalization -- the regionalization of production, trade agreements, dramatically improved global communication networks -- have also led to increase in offshoring in particular. Outsourcing's growth is similarly related. Many business functions are so routine that there is no need for in-house…

them" principle exemplified in Scott Adams' "Dilbert" cartoon. (Borowski, 1626-30).

Actions must be directed towards the common good, not just toward the profit of the corporation. (1628).

"An ethical relationship between managers and employees is due to the fact respect should govern all human relationship. . . . there is nothing in a 'morally correct' relationship between managers and employees that goes against the company's desire to make a profit -- on the contrary, such a peaceable relationship can help to meet this desire." (1631).

The Malden Mills plant dramatically increased production after Feuerstein's benevolence. (1631).

Child Labor from the Perspective of Virtues Ethics & Kantian Ethics

Anscombe criticized the rule-based ethics associated with the ideas of J.S. Mill and Kant. She thought it made no sense to rely upon a rule-based ethics which commanded a particular course of action for any situation on the basis of universal principles applicable…

Best Ethical Approaches and Alternatives

Frankly, the Satyam case is not one that requires splitting the proverbial hairs sometimes associated with more complex ethical analyses. Virtually every known ethical system other than egoism would condemn aju's conduct (osenstand, 2008; Shaw & Barry, 2007). Unfortunately, the magnitude of the harm caused and the vast numbers of individuals detrimentally affected by aju's subterfuge absolutely defies any conceivable ethical solution that relies on restitution or compensation to the victims.

In the Satyam case, aju would not benefit from any of the ethical systems considered. Act utilitarian ethical analysis would condemn aju's actions simply by virtue of their consequences on the countless victims of his conduct. ights-based ethical analysis would reach the same conclusion regardless of whether the system relies on objective or conventional ethical rules. Justice-based ethics would condemn aju's conduct because it violated both objective ethical principles and the formal rules governing…

Ileana Final Portfolio

Bioethics Final

This portfolio documents performance of key class and personal objectives for HU280-01: Bioethics 1103C, specifically analytical skill building, knowledge acquisition and practical application. The samples demonstrate achievement by presenting excerpts from submitted assignments, Discussion and Seminar interactions, interactions with the instructor and reflections on progress mastering central concepts, ideas and perspectives in bioethics. This work demonstrates a progression from identification, synthesis and recapitulation of selected relevant ethical systems, placing those systems in the contexts through which they arose, and applying those precepts to emerging controversies in modern life. The underlying benchmark this presentation attempts to demonstrate is that if learning is indicated by a change in behavior, then my implementation of new methods considering bioethical dilemmas and also improved critical reasoning and research methods, indicates learning over this process of course inquiry.

This process has provided a structural framework that translates directly to my work…

Merrill Lynch Barge Scenario

Case Summary -- Enron, a Texas-based energy company, was created in 1985 and had such phenomenal growth it was soon the seventh largest company in the U.S. until its bankruptcy in 2001. Enron was involved in a number of scandals, among which was the Nigerian Barge Case. Essentially, Enron attempted to sell interest in three power-generating barges off the coast of Nigeria, but was unsuccessful. By December of 1999, Merrill Lynch agreed to buy Enron's interest. Enron "loaned" ML 75% of the money, offering ML a guaranteed return of 15% on 7 million dollars ($1.05 million in 6 months). Essentially, the entire deal was a fraud, designed only to make Enron appear more profitable than it was. Most of the Enron promises were verbal, and the situation was never really a "sale," but a short-term leverage loan. Enron's objective, in fact, was to improve the way…

The final decision the issue of organizational stakeholders and the impact of these stakeholders on the organization were of vital importance. In this context, I chose to protect the organization, even though others would have made a different choice. Thus, the wide range of decisions made in the simulation indicates that the ethical frameworks employed will be influenced by the specific issues involved in decision making.

3. Considering what I learned from this simulation, it seems reasonable to argue that ethical decision making is a challenging task that provides no real comfort. Even when a person believes that he or she is making the right decision, there is still some concern about whether or not the right framework for reviewing a situation has been used. Because there are so many different "right" ways for exploring a problem, in many instances, is appears as if the individual has no other choice…

Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated?

Fichte's Philosophy of ight and Ethics

Why does Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated?

Moral and political anxieties animate Fichte's entire philosophy and his perceptions to these issues that are innovative and at times tied together. His responses to Kant's vital philosophy in 1790 was a retaliation to the Kantian moral perception and its outset of human self-esteem as embedded in freedom and the moral outlook of human beings as normal agents. Fichte's perception on Wissenschaftslehre principle was a far from the conceptions developed in 1974 by the philosophers of Foundations of the entire Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte's major works in the principle of right and morality are extensively covered in these two areas; Fichte's Foundation of Natural ight (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) And the…

He speculates about a "great king' who carried poison that he intended to take in case of capture so that he could not be coerced into acts that would harm his country," but fails to make a final judgment on such a hypothetical situation (Timmons, 283). This is a significant example because we should assume that this king would be facing certain death regardless of his actions, and that his reason for killing himself would not be to minimize personal pain, but to maximize overall happiness. This is a hazy situation for Kant because although the king would be using himself as a means to overall happiness, knowledge of his imminent death would almost demand that he take the poison so that others might not use him as a means to overall depravity.

A second objection to Kant's stance on suicide is even more powerful; it debases the very foundation…

Other stakeholders were not given a voice to participate in the decision- making discourse. Therefore, the principles that were constructed that allowed the executive financial team to make these decisions led to unethical results.

Statement of Position:

Once reviewing these three ethical concepts and using them to analyze the WorldCom scandal, it becomes clear that the actions of WorldCom were unethical. This was not a matter of simply not understanding the effects their deceitful actions would have, but purposeful deceptive strategies to fool investors and other stakeholders into thinking the company was financially healthier than it truly was.

Arguments in Support of this Position:

The events of the WorldCom scandal will forever be replayed in business and accounting history, along with the variety of other corporate fraud activities recorded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Common to all ethical concepts is the concept of 'good' (Darwall, 2003). WorldCom's actions…