Chapter 16 of our textbook focuses on several different ethical theories. Ethics is the branch of philosophy that seeks to determine the ‘best life’ for human beings. There are two popular theories that seem to be at odds:
Utilitarianism (focuses on the consequences of an action, concerned with doing the most good for the most people)
Kantianism or deontology (focuses on intention, is non-consequentialist and follows the categorical imperative).
A third option is virtue ethics. This theory holds that ethics is about ‘being’ and not about ‘doing’. In other words, the focus ought to be on character and virtue.
These three theories are not exhaustive – there are many more in ethics that we could reflect on. But, for this exercise please select one of the above theories and defend it as a ‘best’ option for human beings. Please state whether you think we do live under the rules of this theory now and why it would be beneficial as ‘the’ ethical theory for all of us to follow.
