Ethical Theories and Value Systems - Essay Example

Ethical theories and value systems Introduction Ethics is an aspect of philosophy that systemizes, defends and recommends concepts of either right or wrong conduct. As such, ethics influences how people live in a society. Additionally, ethics influences the right or wrong actions for particular circumstances. Value systems on the other hand refers to a set of values that a person, organization or society adopts or evolves in an attempt to guide behaviors and interactions in all the unique situations. The definitions show that value systems and ethical theories strive to justify the behavior of people with the view to developing an ideal society where everyone maintains cordial and friendly relationship with others. Throughout the course, we have studied a number of ethical theories all of which have substantial significance and relevance in explaining unique behavior in particular situations as the reflection below portrays. Ethical theories just as the name suggests are suppositions of ideas that follow a general principle towards the explanation of rational behavior thus differentiating right from wrong. Ethical theories explain ethics differently with each theory striving to provide a rational explanation to the behaviors. A number of theories explain ethics and value systems with each often complementing the other thereby enhancing the discipline. Among the most common theories are egoism, deontology, utilitarian, care ethics and virtue ethics. Each of the five theories provides unique yet realistic explanation of behaviors and decisions of individuals in different circumstances (Rachels, 1998). They provide rational explanation of the decisions that people should make given their priorities and interests at every situation with each theory providing such explanation with respect to analyzing the nature of relationships and interactions among people in a society. With the above explanation, I believe I am an ethical individual who strives to uphold the social values and cultural virtues as set by the society. I maintain cordial relationship and interactions with others in the society and always strive to minimize the harm that any of my actions may cause those I encounter in my daily endeavors. I acquired my ethical value systems from a number of institutions in the society key among which is my family. I enjoy a close relationship with my parents who often influenced my behavior as I grew up. They taught me a number of principles most of which continue to influence my behavior and desire to minimize the harm that my actions may cause those I encounter. Additionally, I am a Christian who attended Sunday school among other religious organizations I take part in various church activities and the uphold the values of the church. The church encourages cordial and respectful relationships among people. Besides the church, I developed my ethical value systems from the various educational institutions including elementary school, high school and college. In these institutions, I interacted with people from various backgrounds. In each case, I often strived to maintain cordial relationship and exercised caution in my interactions with others. I sought to maintain friendly and respectful relationships with fellow students, teachers, and employees of the facilities and other members of the society. My personal ethical value system has in deed evolved as I matured. As a child, I had fewer responsibilities than I do now. This implies that I faced less challenging experienced that did not required extensive thought. Furthermore, the guidance from my parents ensured that I rarely made mistakes especially when interacting with others. from such tender ages where I strived to avoid abusing others and appearing disrespectful to adults, I value system has changed as I have systematically metamorphosed into a responsible adult capable of taking care of both myself and those under my care at whatever circumstance. I currently appreciate the need for cordial relationship with others and the need to help others in the society. My ethical value system upholds a number of values and social virtues. My priorities are equally systematic beginning with the need to avoid harming others either physically or psychologically. I often consider the ramifications of my actions and avoid those that promise to harm others. Secondly, I strive to make people happy irrespective of their circumstances. I avoid conflicts and in case I cannot avoid them, I always propagate for peaceful ways of resolving the conflicts. I have avoided a number of people in order to maintain peace. I believe that such acts do not show weakness but help minimize harm that my actions may cause others. The third priority in my ethical value system is helping others especially the most vulnerable members of the society. I often help children cross roads. I help different people in different ways depending on the uniqueness of their needs and my ability to help. This helps strength the cordial relationship I strive to maintain with others in the society. A number of factors drive help sustain my ethical value systems. Key among such is my family. As explained earlier, I learnt most of the values I uphold to date from my family. As such, I strive to limit my behavior to the values I borrowed from my parents since I wish to retain my relationship with both my parents and other siblings. The second driver is my strong spiritual beliefs. I am a Christian who believes in the doctrines of Christianity. I attend church services and take part in other activities of the church. in such circles, I share values with other members of the society thereby limiting my behaviors to the cultural values of both the religion and the society. The fact that I have maintained the value system and so far, I have not encountered any problem with other members of the society serves as a constant reminder that the values are appropriate. I, therefore, strive to uphold the values thereby safeguarding my relationship with other members of the society. My ethical values marry with the ethical provision at my place of work. my place of work comprises of people from various backgrounds. The ethical provisions at the workplace coupled with the codes of conducts encourage cordial relationships with the various people at the place of work including colleagues, managers and customers among other publics that interacts with the organization. The organization has a unique culture that encourages integration among the employees. This requires employees to be friendly to each other while limiting the friendship to the productivity of the organization. I am an ideal employee. I maintain friendly and equally respectful relationship with others and often showing concern in cases where I can help. This way, my attitudes and behavior while at the place of work do not cause any conflicts since I share the ethical provisions of the place of work. My ethical value system follows a number of ethical provisions including utilitarian theory. The theory argues that a proper act is one that maximizes such positive effects as welfare and happiness for a great number of people. Utilitarian theorists included John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham who argued that the measure of either right or wrong is the happiness that an act causes to the people. The overriding principle that influences the application of the theory is the greatest happiness principle, which dictates that an action should cause happiness to the greatest number of people or have negative outcomes to the smallest number of people in a society. Utilitarian theory influences the formation of unique value systems that uphold the ethical integrity of individuals by making the people in a society or organization to share a number of values all of which promise greatest happiness to great number of people. This implies that the theory ensures that individual values are consistent to the communal values thereby creating peaceful coexistence among people since everyone strives to minimize the harm that their actions cause to others. Another of such the ethical theories that I strive to uphold is virtue ethics. Proposed by Aristotle and Confucius, virtue ethics argue that something or action is good or bad, right or wrong only if it promotes and embodies a number of culturally acknowledged virtues. Justice, courage, love and friendliness are some of the virtues that should influence the actions of people. Upholding the cultural values influences the flourishing of human lives since it creates a society where people strive to safeguard the virtues most of which safeguard the good of the society while providing everyone an opportunity to flourish. The basic principle that influences the application of the theory dictates that actions that produce either good or bad consequences often embody traits (Broad, 2000). Virtue theory influences the development of an individual. Upholding or disregarding the cultural virtues begin at a tender age and requires systematic nurturing. This way, people grow up recognizing the virtues a feature that results in the creation of character traits. Conclusion Ethical provisions influence the formation of value systems. Value systems, as explained earlier, are a set of ethical values and measurements that help in the creation of an ideological integrity. Among the main concepts in value systems is consistency between the values of an individual and those of a community. Various ethical theories strive to explain right and wrong with the view to enhancing the creation of communally accepted values thus value systems. The five theories above provide different viewpoints to the study of ethics. Despite their differences, they contend that an action is good only if it does not cause any harm to both self and the community. Value systems therefore strive to protect the interests of the two through intricate social and cultural systems that encourage others to behave in a particular manner (Holt, Kabanoff & University of New South Wales, 1995). The theories influence the adoption of particular character traits thereby ensuring that people have a natural respect to the rights and interests of others in their daily interactions. References Broad, C. D. (2000). Five Types of Ethical Theory, Volume 2. New York: Psychology Press. Holt, J., Kabanoff, B., & University of New South Wales. (1995). Organisational value systems and HRM systems: A configurational study. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales, School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour. Rachels, J. (1998). Ethical theory 2: Theories about how we should live. Oxford [England: Oxford University Press. Read More