Ethics and Moral Theories - Essay Example

This doctrine assumes that we cannot ask others to act in their own self interest because it can negatively affect my self interest. 2) Individual Ethical Egoism: This is the belief that every individual should work for my interest. This is also termed as egotism and goes to an extreme level of selfishness whereby we believe that not only we should act for our self interests, others in the universe shall also act for our interests. There is no practical justification of this doctrine as it borders on extraordinary levels of selfishness (Pojman & Fieser, 2011). 3) Universal Ethical Egoism: This doctrine argues that all individuals should pursue their own self interest exclusively with no regard to the interest of others or no intention to contribute towards their interest.

An issue with this theory is that without appropriate knowledge of the world, it will be difficult to understand our own interest. Furthermore, there can be debate over to what constitutes self interest. Act Utilitarianism:- Act utilitarianism states that our duty on any specific occasion is to act in a way that will produce greater total good and better consequences than what any other act will produce. This rule is applied directly to a selection of particular actions under particular events.

Rule Utilitarianism:- Rule utilitarianism states that it is our duty to abide by rules designed for the greater total good and produce consequences better than those produced by any other rules. This doctrine is applied to a selection of a set of rules which are then used to determine what to do in particular situations. Feminist ethics is an attempt to reformulate the traditional theories of ethics with respect to the aspects that devalue women’s moral experience. It aims to correct male biases in historical and traditional ethical theory by emphasizing relationships