What is Ethics

Short Intro to Ethics and Business Ethics

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Business
• Philosophical
• Ethics
• definition

[bhigr]

"Behaviour of serious consequence to the well being"? That is one way to ponder this question. However, consequentialism is only one way of thinking about moral questions. Deontology is not a consequentialist theory. Therefore, your definition excludes a whole branch of philosophical ethics. I prefer the following definition: Ethics is the study of the question: What shall I do?

[wmiller24]

My definition is not simply consequentialist. All ethics is concerned with behavior and the effort to determine what kind of behavior is good and what kind of behavior is bad. The difference between consequentialism and deontology, is that deontology is concerned with the long-term view. In other words, both the Ten Commandments and Kant's Categorical Imperative oppose lying, because lying is bad for people. So, according to Kant, lying is prohibited, under any circumstances.

[wmiller24]

Kant (and the Ten Commandments) want people to live in a way which is helpful to human society in general, without regard for immediate consequences. But that does not mean that Kant is not concerned with ultimate outcomes or for the well-being of society. If you say that your version of ethics is not concerned with human well-being (be it physical or spiritual well-being), then I cannot quite see what the basis is for making any kind of ethical judgment.

[dostanden74]

So according to this "serous consequence" theory it's not immoral to steal something of low value, or to tell a "white lie" that does not have a drastic result. This doesn't sound very thought through...

[wmiller24]

If you steal and get in the habit of stealing, don't you think that such behavior could be "of serious consequence." Stealing and lying are always of serious consequence, not only because of what they do to others, but because of the consequences to the character of the one doing the stealing and the lying. There may be times when stealing a small item, or telling a "white lie" might not be unethical (depending on your moral theory), but such behavior always has serious ramifications.

[Blodwen0404]

I have an ethical dilemma! The adverts to my right of vision are annoying me no end! Solution! Extend the screen size of the professors excellent video and they magically disappear! Oh! It also helps if you scroll the video to eye level of non-existent adverts! As David Icke puts it, Problem, reaction,solution! Genius!!

[TOOLSTER88]

@blabblab1212 Well, in my opinion, "ethics" is not a word that can be pluralized.

[streetwarrior31]

Hello from Portugal.

I´ve read you´re a theology studier and professor

I would love to know your understanding on this matter

Being Freemasons well educated people (the majority ) with all the knowledge that they have about sacred teachings, theosophy, theology and understandings about human behaviour, after all they are responsable of a lot of moral and ethics ideas that bringed society forward...why theres a lack of moral and ethics in today Government politicians being them most fremansons?

[wmiller24]

@GusGrizzwald I originally studied science, (Chemistry, Physics, etc.) but wanted to do something which was more involved with people, so I switched to English Lit. From there I moved to the study of religion and theology, and finally philosophy and ethics. I eventually decided ethics was the most useful discipline because so many problems in our world come from a lack of ethics. Furthermore, if religions would focus more on ethics than on theology, we would have fewer religious conflicts.

[andrew32cute]

@blabblab1212 if you look in encarta dic you'll seethat ethicsand ethic doesn't have the same meaning, Bot just because it has 's' in the end means that ut's plural, read about 'morphology' and you'll understand. 

[blabblab1212]

What is Ethics? Shouldn't it be "What are Ethics"? That is like saying "What is cars?" Cars is something you drive.

[GodOfTheInternets]

@Jcolinsol

Of course, if people desire to live in a mutualist society or even a capitalist society they would be free to do so.

[Jcolinsol]

@GodOfTheInternets

Well, let's just say Anarchy without adjectives. A relinquishment of the compulsion for domination of others.

[GodOfTheInternets]

@Jcolinsol

Indeed. The answer: Anarchist Communism.