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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at issues of honesty and "telling the truth" from a number of different ethical and philosophical perspectives, including utilitarianism, virtue ethics, deontology, contractarianism and communitarianism. Bibliography lists 9 sources.
Page Count:
12 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLethtruth.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
it is useful to look briefly at each of these approaches in turn, and the ethical and moral principles on which they are based.
Firstly, one has to bear in mind that a fundamental issues in any investigation into the nature of ethics, and ethical systems, is the dichotomy between absolute and relative
values. As Blackburn (2002) points out, this is not merely a theoretical issue but one which must be taken into account when deciding how practical matters should be handled. If
one adopts the stance that ethical values are absolute, this indicates that there are fundamental values of moral "good" and "bad" which can be applied in all cases, and which
will be equally valid no matter what the socio-cultural system in which they appear. Human beings, on the whole, tend to assume that
whatever moral values are prevalent in their own culture are absolute: this assumption may be derived from religious belief systems which delineate moral and ethical codes as being of divine
origin, or based on a "common-sense" perspective. However, closer analysis of moral absolutes demonstrates that they are, in fact, less clear-cut than might at first appear. Christians who follow the
commandment "thou shalt not kill", for example, are forced to re-examine their views in the light of military service in wartime, and decide if it is morally right to follow
the commandment as an absolute, or to take the view that killing an enemy to defend ones country is not "covered" by the ethical imperative.
As Blackburn notes, ethics is by nature complex and vulnerable to various "threats" - scepticism, nihilism, altruism, and so on. Because of this, one might consider that ethics are
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