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This 3 page paper discusses some of the basic theories of ethics, and then discusses them with regard to three different cultural communities. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVBasEth.rtf
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how one of them applies in other societies. Discussion In a sense, its difficult to find "basic ethical theories" because the information is too specific. That is, there are a
number of sources that discuss medical ethics, business ethics, and so on, but few that simply talk about ethics theories. Finally, however, a search brought up a list of five
basic ethical theories. They are: * The deontological ethical theory * The utilitarian ethical theory, of which there are two types, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism * The rights
ethical theory * The casuist ethical theory and * The virtue ethical theory (Rainbow, 2002). For analysis, well use the deontological and utilitarian theories, since they are
well known. Deontology suggests that "people should adhere to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma" (Rainbow, 2002). This means that a person will always follow the same
set of principles in any circumstance, which in turn means that their decisions will be fairly easy to predict (Rainbow, 2002). While this theory seems attractively simple, it does have
flaws, the greatest being that the decisions made using this theory do not take the context of the situation into account; all that is required is that the person adhere
to their principles (Rainbow, 2002). While that is admirable, it can also be misleading. Perhaps one of the principles a deontologist holds dear is punctuality, and finds himself running late
(Rainbow, 2002). Does he drive recklessly to get there on time, thus endangering himself and others; or does he drive carefully and arrive late; thus betraying his principle of punctuality?
(Rainbow, 2002). Deontology provides no guidance in situations like this, where there are conflicting obligations that must be met (Rainbow, 2002). Utilitarianism is a very old theory that is founded
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