B A 300 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Ethical Egoism, Virtue Ethics, Consequentialism
Document Summary
Ethical debates often need to clarify what the conversation is about. Ethics - people"s norms in some descriptive sense, while at other times they use the term to convey their own understandings regardless of prevailing norms. Cultural norms - beliefs or behaviors that people within a given culture generally endorse about what is appropriate or inappropriate. Can clarify why people behave as they do. Ethical theories - attempt to bring systematic order to ethical reflection from a personal point of view. Organize different ways to express people"s sense of ethics, and they convey a view about what ethics is really about. Consequentialism - think about the potential consequences of a decision is to use a specific kind of reasoning. People should choose to do that which produces the best overall consequences. Utilitarianism - ethical theory that the best actions and institutions are those that produce the consequence of maximizing the aggregate utility of everyone involved.
