Ethical Theories Quiz

Moral Theories

• The Categorical Imperative Approach emphasizes that one should always base their actions on maxims or rules that are believed to be universal.
• Moral goodness or badness of an act does not depend on the consequences of the act but on the motive or intention of the actor.

Divine Command Theory

• The standard of right and wrong is the will or law of God.
• Examples include Christian ethics, which are based on the Bible.

Teleological Ethics

• Also known as the Consequentialist Theory.
• Measures the morality of an action based on the consequences.
• If the consequence is good, regardless of the motive, the act is always morally good.
• Examples:
  • Hedonism: all and only pleasure has worth or value, and all and only pain has disvalue.
  • Utilitarianism: the greatest good is the greatest happiness or pleasure of the greatest number.

Moral Sense

• The difference between humans and animals is that humans have a moral perception.
• Humans have a natural insight to morality and a concept of good or bad.
• Moral sense is native to all persons regardless of race, religion, culture, education, and creed.

Business Ethics

• Business organizations are not just created to make profits but to consider their moral and social obligations to stakeholders.
• The essence of business ethics provides a framework for the resolution of moral issues and problems.

Moral Reasoning in Business

• Moral reasoning is a process in which ethical issues and problems are benchmarked against a moral standard.
• Characteristics of a good moral standard include:
  • Looks at the issue as something that is very serious.
  • Grounded on good moral argument, with no room for loopholes and counterarguments.
  • Objective and not subjective.

Normative Ethics

• 3 tasks of normative ethics:
  • To form into a related whole the various norms, rules, and values of a society's morality.
  • To find the basic principle from which the particular norm can be derived.
  • To justify an ethical norm or moral principle.

Methaethics

• Branch of normative ethics concerned with the analysis and meaning of terms like "good", "bad", "moral", "immoral", and "moral obligation".
• Does not evaluate beliefs nor evaluate the process of moral reasoning but simply analyzes the usage and meaning of words.

Problem of Ethical Relativism and Situation Ethics

• Ethical Relativism:
  • Claims that when any two cultures or individuals hold different moral values of an action, both can be right.
  • An action may be right for one person or society but wrong for another, however, both can be equally correct.
• Situation Ethics:
  • Emphasizes moral differences based on personal beliefs and convictions.

Approaches to Moral Differences

• There is no moral truth (Moral Nihilism).
• There is no universal truth.
• Deep down, we can find basic moral truth.
• There is one universal moral truth.
• We cannot know whether or not there is moral truth (Moral Subjectivism).