E THICAL T HEORIES

 Ethical theory attempts to provide general norms for the

guidance and evaluation of moral conduct.
 Ethical theory is means by which we justify a particular ethical
decision.
 Ethics theories provide a framework for moral decision making
within the current law, intended to be acceptable to all
members of some society.
ETHICAL THEORIES

2
• The Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles
of morality and the well-defined standards of right and wrong that
prescribe the human character and conduct in terms of obligations,
rights, rules, benefit to society, fairness, etc.
• The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing,
defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.
• Ethical theory is means by which we justify a particular ethical
decision.
• An ethical theory is anything that attempts to explain the existence
and facts of ethics and ethical behavior.
An example of an ethical theory would be: “God has written morality
on our hearts.” ie. We are ethical because God made us that way, and
our common values are Gods values.
• Ethics theories provide a framework for moral decision making
within the current law, intended to be acceptable to all
members of some society.
Ethics can be classified into three major study areas:
• Meta-ethics is concerned with the theoretical meaning of
morality and ethical principles, i.e. what we understand when
we talk about what is right or wrong.
• Normative ethics deals with the content of moral judgments i.e.
determining the moral course of action and includes the criteria
for what is right or wrong, good or bad, kind or evil, etc.
• Applied ethics is concerned with the actions which a person is
obliged to perform in a particular situation.
• Descriptive ethics is a form of
empirical research into the
attitudes of individuals or groups
of people
• Descriptive ethics is the study
of how people do behave, and
how they think they should
behave. It is grounded in
observation of some sort —
looking at people as they are, not
necessarily as they should be.
• Normative ethics is the study of
ethical action. It is the branch of
philosophical ethics that investigates
the set of questions that arise when
considering how one have to act.
E THICAL T HEORIES C LASSIFIED
 A. Scholastic Philosophy
• The term scholastic is derived from the Latin word scholasticus and
the Greek scholastikos.
• Scholastic means a man devoted to studying or scholar.
• The term philosophy represents a way of thinking about the world,
the universe, and it works by asking very basic questions about the
nature of human thought, the nature of the universe, and the
connections between them.
• As a single expression, scholastic philosophy can be termed as
scholasticism.
Scholastic philosophy represents a Dialectic means the art or
medieval school of philosophy as practice of arriving at the truth
teaching learning pedagogy through by the exchange of logical
dialectic method. arguments.
 Characteristics
• Its objective was to integrate the knowledge that was right.
• The scholastics believed in the harmony between reason and faith.
• Philosophy can help theology to explain the secrecies and exposés of
faith so that they are understandable to reason.
• It was used as a didactic (Moral) method to explain and teach
scholastics.
• The topics were treated with great care and commitment using reading
and public discussion.
• Christianity used it as a tool to understand faith.
• Thomas Aquinas was its greatest representative.
• Aristotle was accepted as a greater thinker than Plato.
 The Kantian Ethics
 The Kantian ethics is one of the normative ethical theories.
 Kantian ethics is popular as DEONTOLOGY.
 Etymologically, deontology is derived from the Greek words deon, “duty,”
and logos, “science.”
 Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804) is popular German philosopher in
explaining Deontological Ethics.
Kant is famous as Non-consequentialist Philosopher.
 Kantian ethics refers to a deontological ethical theory recognized to
the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
 Central to Kant's construction of the moral law is the categorical
imperative, which acts on all people, regardless of their interests or
desires.
• Duty based morality in human conducts is the main
prescription of Kantian ethics. It suggests us to do our
duty disregards of the consequence.
“Do your duty that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest.”
• In deontological ethics an action is considered morally good
because of some characteristic of the action itself, not
because the product of the action is good. (Do your best, not
to be based on RESULT.)
• Deontological theories hold that some acts are always wrong,
even if the act leads to an admirable outcome, for example
robbery, lying, murdering etc.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
• Kant developed a particular principle to determine moral
duty, which he called the categorical imperative. It suggests
that the imperatives of morality are not hypothetical but
categorical.
For example ‘Do not cheat the customers,’ ‘Fair pricing,’ ‘Honor
your promise’ are the inherent corporate duty.
• Categorical means ‘without any doubt.’ It also represents ‘not
hypothetical.’ It means without conditions. Imperative means
absolutely necessary or unavoidable.
• The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept in
the deontological (duty based) moral philosophy of Kant. It is
referred to as Kantian deontology.
• Kant believed that inclinations, emotions, and consequences should play no
role in the moral action. The core formulations categorical imperative
includes: (i) Autonomy, (ii) Humanity (iii) Universality, and (iv) The Law of
nature.
One should respect human dignities (i.e., treat all people as free and equal to
us, don't exploit people).
CRITICISMS
✓ Rigidity is one of the main problems of Kantian ethics.
✓ It solely dishonors the outcome as a valid factor in evaluating the morality of
an action.
✓ Kant’s categorical imperative is not actually free from consequentialism view.
It is because; its motivation is also oriented toward the consequence, i.e.,
universality.
✓ It denies expectations of growth. Private sectors’ motivation toward the
economic objective (their desire for profit) is not valid as per Kant.
 C. The Machiavellian Principle
✓ Machiavellian principle is well-known political philosophy propounded by
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), renowned western (Italian) philosopher.
✓ The main sources of Machiavellian principles are his book The Discourses
(about republic) and The Prince (about monarchism). These are based on the
observations of political situation of Medieval Period Europe, especially Italy.
✓ Machiavellian principles were more focused on the qualities of political
ruler.
✓ It is more political philosophy than an ethical theory. It is about statecraft.
✓ The Machiavellian principles focus largely on preserving state and retaining
power of ruler rather than pursuing ideals.
The basic assumption of Machiavelli is: “Human nature is
fundamentally bad. They are Selfish, Hesitant (Uncertain), Egoistic,
and Runaway from danger, Aggressive.”
 Therefore, there is significance of
Prince (Monarch).
• Machiavellian principles are
basically the suggestions to the
ruler. He suggests that every
society consists of two
sections: (i) Nobility and (ii)
Common people.
• Nobility section of society is
more dangerous and less
reliable for prince whereas,
common people are less
dangerous and more reliable.
Therefore prince should base
his power on common people.
 Critical overview of Machiavellian principle
✓ Its fundamental assumption about human being is pessimistic.
✓ Machiavelli suggests maintaining fearful environment than love. But he
suggest to ruler to appear as good as he can. Therefore, it is double
standard conception.
✓ According to Machiavellian principle political ruler is allowed to break
the conventional moral principles. Accordingly, ruler (Prince) is above
those principles. Ruler can make moral principles through laws. Whereas
common people must obey those all moral principles.
✓ Machiavellian principle advocates cruelty to political opposition for the
power of political ruler. However, it also advocates preservation of state.
✓ It advocates dual morality concept. One for political ruler and next for
common people. Machiavellian principle argue against the nobility/elite
group of society and suggest cruelty to them when need.
 D. Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill)
✓ It is one of the Normative Ethics and important part of Teleological Ethics
✓ Utilitarianism is also known as Consequentialism
✓ Consequence of the conducts is its major concern, i.e., the end justifies
the means
✓ It suggests to regard the consequence as a predictor to evaluate ethical
stance (Carriage)
✓ Actions those maximize pleasure and minimize pain is to be considered
as ethical
✓ Our duty is to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
✓ Bentham (1748-1832) and Mill (1806-1873) are popular philosophers of
Utilitarianism.
✓ It is consistent with the Buddhist philosophy: Bahujana sukhaya
bahujana hitaya
• Man is under two great masters, pain and pleasure.
• The great good that we should seek is happiness. (a hedonistic perspective)
• Those actions whose results increase happiness or diminish pain are good.
They have “utility.”
Four Theses (Views) of Utilitarianism
• Consequentialism: The rightness of actions is determined solely by their
consequences.
• Hedonism: Utility is the degree to which an act produces pleasure.
Hedonism is the thesis that pleasure or happiness is the good that we seek
and that we should seek.
• Maximalism: A right action produces the greatest good consequences and
the least bad.
• Universalism: The consequences to be considered are those of everyone
affected, and everyone equally.
 Criticisms of the Utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill
Most of the criticisms are directed to their arguments of happiness
as pleasure and how pleasure is to be defined and measured. We
can predict only some of the consequences of our actions. We have
no way of measuring happiness.
• We cannot say, for instance, that the consumption gives us ten
times happiness we would get from a saving.
• There are further difficulties about comparing the happiness of
different people.
• The weighing of consequences is vague intuition than scientific
calculation.
• The same action can be ethical for some time and situation while
unethical for the next.
 Some critical questions are:
• Can utilitarianism account for justice and fairness?
• Is there any space for personal integrity in utilitarianism?
• Is there any space for humanity in utilitarianism?
• Can it address unjust inequalities in society?
• How it can address for minorities?
Utilitarianism (Bentham and Mill) is relatively clear. In many cases:
 Utilitarianism is foundation of law making.
 It is consistent with many religious claims.
 It is comfortable for moral reasoning in different business issues
and dilemma.
 Differences
Teleology Deontology
The end justifies the means The end doesn’t justify the means

The morally right action is the action The morally right action is the action
that produces the most good governed by duty and rules as
consequences are beyond our control

Evaluates the moral rightness of a Evaluates the moral rightness of an

decision based on its outcome action no matter what the consequence
is

It favours good over right It advocates right over good

 The Moral Positivism (Thomas Hobbes 1588–1679)

• Positivism is the state of being certain or very confident of something.

• Moral positivism is the position that human acts are neither good nor
bad, because there is neither a natural law nor a natural...
• The theory that claims there is no natural law, and therefore no natural
right. All human rights, it holds, are derived from the state, from
contracts, from each person's freedom, or from custom.
• The good is reduced to definable norms and not left in the state of a
general exclusion of the bad, there is always some change in standards.
• The moral positivism of Tomas Hobbes is commonly known as political
philosophy that describes the real world situation and the fact about
peaceful coexistence of human being.
 The characteristics of positivism
• There are no differences in the logic of inquiry across sciences.
• The research should aim to explain and predict.
• Research should be empirically observable via human senses. ...
• Science is not the same as the common sense. ...
• Science must be value-free and it should be judged only by logic.
• Science is the only valid knowledge.
• Fact is the object of knowledge.
Positivism describes an approach to the study of society that
specifically utilizes scientific evidence such as experiments, statistics,
and qualitative results to expose a truth about the
way society functions.
• To understand the moral positivism of Tomas Hobbes, first we must think
about THE STATE OF NATURE, the situation when there was not state or
government and no governing power (no ruler).
• It was a pre-political and pre-moral stage of human society. In this situation,
every individual has NATURAL RIGHT.
• In such a situation, the people were equal and free. People are by nature
brutish (Cruel), nasty(bad), and selfish.
• It results war of everyone against everyone due to equality. It is the
situation of NATURAL RIGHT with every individual and no rule of law.

Unhealthy Aggressive
Competition
Every Body’s NATURAL RIGHT
Results
Dangerous Conflict
 CRITICISMS
• Opponents of Hobbes argue that his approach to the human being is
very pessimistic and based on the false idea that people are selfish
and cruel creatures. So it is a dark theory.
• It proposes severe rules and little space for freedoms.
• A contract is simply “the mutual transferring of right.” The longevity
of such a contract is a major issue. How it is possible to hold from
one generation to the next?
• Origin and content of established social contract may not fit for
coming generation.
 Divine Command Ethics
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-
ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to
whether it is commanded by God.
✓ The word Divine is directed to a deity or a God.
✓ Divine command ethics is an ethical view based on faith or the belief that
God exists. According to divine command ethics, God’s will alone decides
what is right and wrong and human reason has no authority, God has
absolute authority.
✓ The theory of divine command ethics asserts that actions are right or wrong
depending on whether they follow God’s commands or not.
✓ It is also known as theological voluntarism. It can be explained as a theory
of the relationship between morality and religion.
✓ It can be linked with Meta-ethics. It deals with the meaning of ethical
terms, the nature of moral discourse, and the foundations of moral
principles.
✓ One of the greatly admired advocates of divine command ethics is St.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
✓ His most influential work is the Summa Theologica which consists of
three parts explaining existence and attributes of God, ethics, and
Christ.
✓ Divine command ethics believe in religion's role in our society. The
advocates of divine command ethics strongly argue that:
• God is eternal (endless). God created the universe and everything
in it, including human beings.
• If God created human beings, then God has an absolute claim on
our obedience.
• If God has an absolute claim on our obedience, then we should
always obey God's commands.
Therefore, the Divine Command theory is true.
 four assumptions of divine command theory
• There is god.
• God commands and forbids certain acts.
• An action is right if God commands it.
• People ascertain what God commands or forbids.
 CRITICISMS
• Religious scriptures are generally ancient and are hard to interpret
against the complexities of today’s society.
• There are many religions in the world, with each possessing different
prescriptions for morality.
• Religions have different gods from one another that are worshipped.
• Science has no evidence of the existence of God. Without a belief in the
existence of God, divine command theory loses its authority
• If we do believe in God, “who” determines what the commands are is
not absolutely known or agreed upon.
• Those who believe in God can interpret the commands in their own way
• Contradictions in scripture are confusing
 Virtue Ethics
• A good moral quality in a person, or the general quality of being morally good
• Virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one's duty or acting in order
to bring about good consequences.
• Virtue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character.
• Virtue ethics assumes that ethical action depends on virtue and a virtuous
person will naturally act ethically.
• Law, education and practical wisdom plays a greater role in making the citizens
virtuous.
• Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle. Aristotle’s one
of the most widely read and influential works is the Nicomachean Ethics.
• Virtue ethics is popular as Aristotelian ethics. However, many philosophers
consider Cardinal Virtues of Plato (428 BC – 348 BC) and Golden Mean of
Aristotle (384 BC -322 BC) as ground work of VIRTUE ETHICS.
 Twelve Virtues of Rationality

1) Courage – bravery and valor (Courage)

2) Temperance – self-control and restraint (Limit)
3) Liberality – big-heartness, charity and generosity (Kindness)
4) Magnificence – radiance (Happiness)
5) Pride – self-satisfaction
6) Honor – respect, reverence(Devotion), admiration (Esteem)
7) Good Temper – equanimity(Calmness), level headedness
8) Friendliness – conviviality (Welcome) and sociability
9) Truthfulness – straightforwardness, frankness and candor(openness)
10) Wit – sense of humor – meaninglessness and absurdity (silliness)
11) Friendship – camaraderie and companionship
12) Justice – impartiality, evenhandedness and fairness
 According to a Virtue Theory, the central moral concept is that
of the morally good character or morally good disposition.
 It analyzes the rightness or wrongness of individual choices
indirectly in terms of the character or dispositions of the
agent making the choices.
V IRTUE E THICS
 CRITICISMS of VIRTUE ETHICS
• Critiques think that virtue ethics is vague in nature. It fails to give us
any help for moral behavior.
• It fails to be action-guiding in particular and stands only as character
based philosophy.
• There is also the question of how to apply virtue theory to moral
dilemmas.
For example, what is the virtuous stance to take on the issue of
abortion? So identifying the virtues is difficult in many cases. Virtue
ethics cannot give us an easy and instant answer.
• It emphasizes moral judgment with practical wisdoms. In many
cases a life-long process of moral learning that will only provide clear
answers, when one reaches moral maturity.
Theories of Business Ethics : Comparative Description

Ethical Approach Description

Considers the consequences (i.e. harms &

Consequentialis
benefits) of making a particular decision.
m

Recognizes certain actions as right or

Deontology
wrong regardless of the consequences.

Encourages individuals to develop virtues

Virtue Ethics
(e.g. courage and truthfulness) that guides
behavior.

Holds that ethical behavior is determined by

Ethics of Care
actions that care for & maintain human
relationships
 Pros & cons of the different categories of ethical
theories
Type of Theory Advantages Disadvantages

Consequence- Stresses promotion Ignores concerns of

based Utilitarian) of happiness and justice for the
utility minority population

Duty-based Stresses the role of duty Underestimate the

(Deontology) and respect for persons importance of
happiness and social
utility
Contract-based (Rights) Provide a motivation Offers only a
for morality minimal morality

Character-based (Virtue) Stresses character Depends on

development and homogeneous
moral education community standards
S- 66
for morality.