Distinction in How Virtue and Utilitarianism Theories Addresses Ethics - Essay Example

Utilitarianism stipulates that the greatest happiness should be the guiding principle for the conduct (Shafer-Landau 2012). Finally, Deontological ethics focuses on the rightness or wrongness of individual actions.

It does not put consideration to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of the actions committed. The distinction in how each theory addresses ethics and MoralityA Utilitarianism approach to morals and ethics implies that no moral action is intrinsically right or wrong. The correctness or wrongness of an individual’s action is solely a creation of his or her non-moral good like pleasure, happiness, or knowledge. Deontological ethics asserts that the wrongness or rightness of an individual’s action is at least a portion of the intrinsic moral features like lying (Shafer-Landau 2012).An instance involving my friend who faces a circumstance demanding him to speak the truth. Deontology advocates truth speaking which is an ethical and moral act. Speaking the truth in itself is a virtue and by this virtue, theories support it.