Ethical Theories - Compare & Contrast

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OTA 105878/Xenia Jones

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Ethical Theories

There are, according to Philosopher Gordon Graham (2004), 8 theories of ethics (that branch of philosophy that addresses morality via critical inquiry): religious ethics, consequentialism, hedonism, Kantianism, naturalism, utilitarianism, egoism, existentialism & contractualism. These 8 theories fall under the 3 major normative ethical systems that helps people answering questions like ,"What makes an act right or wrong?" and several particular viewpoints that are based upon them. Mostly, they fall into the two major groups, teleological and deontological ethics. However some argue that the third group - virtue ethics is also as important as deontology and teleology in that they are concerned with a different genre of normative ethics but for the purpose of this solution, we will only explore teleology and deontology and their sample theories although we shall define virtue ethics too, as additional information for you just in case.

Deontology, Teleology & Virtue Ethics

Both Deontology & Teleology are normative systems that take into account the consequences of the action & the moral judgement is based upon it. Deontology though focuses on the validity of the action ascertaining whether the action itself is right or wrong with that focus weighing more than the resulting consequences (with the purpose of the action ...