ADV 225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Virtue Ethics, Distributive Justice, Egotism
ADV 225: Lecture 7
●Ethics in public relations
○What is ethics
■An academic discipline studied by philosophers
■The study of what constitutes right and wrong behavior
■Theories of ethics
●Deontology
●Consequentialism
●Distributive justice
●Egoism
●Virtue ethics
■Denology
●‘Means-based’ ethics
●Certain underlying principles are right or wrong, regardless of
their consequences
●To be moral, results must come from actions undertaken with
good intentions
●The end does NOT justify the means- the means must be
ethical, as well
■Consequentialism
●‘Ends-based’ means
●If a result is moral, then the actions employed to achieve the
results are ok
●Actions are neither moral nor immoral
●The only thing that matters is the end result
■Distributive justice
●A moral society is one that considers the needs and rights of all
its members
■Egoism
●Enlightened self-interest
●An act is moral of and only if it best promotes the individuals
long-term interests
●If an action will likely produce more good than evil for the
individual over the long term then it is the correct action
■Virtue ethics
●Actor-based ethics
●The ‘golden mean’
●Focuses on what makes an individual ethical, instead of what is
the right thing to do
●People of good character will naturally do the right thing
■Personal
●Those standards that derive from your learned beliefs and values
■Group
Document Summary
The study of what constitutes right and wrong behavior. Certain underlying principles are right or wrong, regardless of their consequences. To be moral, results must come from actions undertaken with good intentions. The end does not justify the means- the means must be ethical, as well. If a result is moral, then the actions employed to achieve the results are ok. The only thing that matters is the end result. A moral society is one that considers the needs and rights of all its members. An act is moral of and only if it best promotes the individuals long-term interests. If an action will likely produce more good than evil for the individual over the long term then it is the correct action. Focuses on what makes an individual ethical, instead of what is the right thing to do. People of good character will naturally do the right thing. Those standards that derive from your learned beliefs and values.
