Ethics Essay
ETH/316
December 2, 2013
Timothy Dorr

Ethics Essay Ethics is the science of what is right and wrong in any human action. The three major approaches are virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. The following essay will compare the similarities and differences between these three ethic approaches. Also this essay will explain a personal experience to explain the relationship between, virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to one of these theories.
Virtue Theory Virtue theory relates to ethics by defining someone’s character. Whether the person is honest, reliable or unreliable, and so on, and so forth. In this theory everyone is looking to see if an individual is good or bad, which would come from the morals that someone has gained over his or her lifetime. However, there is one major flaw in this theory because it does not truly look at the individuals actions. The meaning of this is that if an individual did something that he or she would not normally do, it does not take that into consideration. Their mistake makes them a bad person.
Utilitarianism Theory “Utilitarianism is generally held to be the view that the morally right action is the action that produces the most good” (The History of Utilitarianism, SEP, 2009). If the outcome of a decision benefits an individual by him or herself, and there is little to no consideration to the morals. With this theory individuals need to look at the overall good and not just what is good for him or her.
Deontological Ethics Deontological ethics actually looks at the questions of what is right and wrong from an action of and individual and the consequences that they will face. “If one’s act is not morally demanded, it is morally wrong and forbidden. Whereas for the deontologist, there are acts that are neither morally wrong nor demanded, some –but only some- of which are morally praiseworthy” (Deontological Ethics, SEP, 2007, 2012). This theory is basically stating that something an individual does is either right or wrong, and that whatever has occurred will only be looked at as right or wrong.
Personal Experience My personal experience would go with