Ehtics Essay

Ethics Essay

Luis Wiley

ETH/316

November 3, 2014

Robert Sharpe

Ethics Essay

There are many types of moral or ethical theory’s that we tend to fall into, the three that I am focusing on are virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. Each have their own description and differences, first virtue theory, this describes a person that is labeled as virtuous as someone who has ideal character traits, and these traits come from a more natural and internal tendency. Utilitarianism, is an ethical virtue and is mainly focused on promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. Deontological theory is a moral judgment that is based on adherence to rules, as described it is a theory that makes you feel bound to your duties no matter the consequences. These theories have their pros and cons virtue ethics does not just concern itself with how someone acts, but what kind of person should strive to be, but it seems that an absence of rules can make it difficult to generate what ethical behavior is in a situation. Utilitarian theories seek to promote good of humans as a whole, but happiness or good people are only a part of the total, utilitarian theories have issues with thinking that it is morally right to imprison others in order to achieve the greater good for humans. Deontological theories or known as a duty based theory, feels that humans need to follow certain principles and to act above and beyond, but this theory has a problem with identifying and prioritizing duties, which can lead to dangerous outcomes.

Since being in the military as a previous career choice, I felt the military based their actions and leadership calls based on deontological theories, When I first joint the military, it was drilled into our minds that our list of priorities were duty, honor, country and that for those we will give our life, I can understand that it was a form of brainwashing, making people think that it was ok to put those above your own personal safety. Then I started to see a change after I left basic training and went into my first unit in Fort Hood, Texas. The way of thinking seemed to have switched almost transitioned into a virtue theory way of thinking, that our gut and instinct feeling is the one that we need to focus on, but as long as we did what was right and preserve as much life as we could not only on our side of the battle, but even with our enemy, and after I was deployed to Iraq, the mentality switched again to a more utilitarian type of mentality, with winning the hearts and minds of civilians. So in a way, I have seen all three of these theories. And have much of a learning experience in a short amount of time, and would not change it for the world.