Virtue Theory, Utilitarianism, and Deontological Ethics - Essay Example

Virtue Theory, Utilitarianism, and Deontological Ethics Virtue ethics theory is part of normative ethics that place more emphasize on persons character and focuses more on virtual such as honesty. The virtue of being honest emphasizes on the character of doing what is right and just. It further eliminates vices and ensures that person’s acts are always good. There are three major types of virtue ethics that distinguishes it from utilitarianism and deontological include; eudemonia, practical/actual wisdom and virtue.

Virtue ethics contrast itself from habit in the senses that it takes into consideration personal values, attitude, interest, choices and even personal emotions. The central point of virtue ethics entails honesty. Honest persons tend to do the right thing with or without supervision. For example, as a student who is guided by the virtual of honesty I cannot cheat in an exam. Moreover, a person with the right victuals and morals may not steal or cause harm to others. In addition, a person with the virtual of humbleness tends to respect others and act as servant to others despite his higher status in the society.

This means that virtual ethics can be utilized to determine the ethics and morality of certain action. For example, virtual ethics may be employed to determine whether a particular action is ethically and morally acceptable or not (Garrett, 2005). Unlike virtual theory which emphasizes on personal inside characters in determining something, Utilitarianism /focuses on the preposition that any think that bring pleasure and happiness to human being is ethically and morally acceptable while anything that bring suffering and pain to human being should be avoided.

This means that utilitarianism focuses on the consequences. However, in utilitarianism it tends to be quite difficult to determine the ultimate consequence of a particular action without executing it. In addition, a particular action may be difficult to determine whether it will be morally and ethically acceptable prior executing that act so that the consequences can be raveled. This means that, if the consequences result to pleasure and happiness to the greatest number of human beings then that action is morally and ethically right (Sen, 1999).

On the other hand, deontological ethics is highly differentiated from virtual and utilitarianism in the senses that it is based on some defined rules and principles. This means that in deontological ethics an action is ethically and morally right if that action is within the realms of set rules and principle. Unlike utilitarianism which is based on the consequences, virtual ethics is based on rules and duty. Deontological ethics further asserts that consequences may not determine whether a particular action is ethically and morally correct but rather the motives of the person executing a particular action.

One of the proponents of deontological ethics is Immanuel Kant. He asserted that something may be considered morally and ethically right if its qualification were intrinsically right. Kant further argued that consequences may not be used as a the basis of determining whether a particular action was ethically and morally right because in most scenarios consequences may be directed by bad motives such as causing pain to others (Stanford, 2012). An example of personal experience that explains the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts as they relate to one of the three theories may be explained as follows.

For example, as a student who guided by morality and values of virtual ethics I could not participate in an exam malpractice despite having the chance to so. In addition, based on the utilitarianism theory which place more emphasis on the consequences, I cannot participate in cheating an exam because I understand the severe consequences that might follow and hence, cheating in an exam is ethically and morally wrong based on this theory. Finally, under the deontological ethics which is based on the rules and principles, I could not participate in examination malpractice because it is against the examination rules and regulation (Garrett, 2005).

ReferencesGarrett. (2005).Virtual Ethics: A Basic introductory Essay. Retrieved:.on 3.03.2014.Sen, A. K. (1999). Utilitarianism and beyond. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press [u.a.Stanford. (2012).Deontological Ethics. Retrieved :< http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/> on 3.03.2014.