WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES – ETHICS
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Ethics Simplified | Three Ethical Principles — the concept
Two Categories of Ethics:
Ethics
are generally categorized into two categories such as
● Normative
ethics and
● Descriptive
ethics
Normative Ethics:
● Normative
ethics is a preferred or idealistic approach to decision-making when there are certain standards present to define and
decide the righteousness and wrongness of any act.
Descriptive Ethics:
● Descriptive
Ethics is that kind of ethics when one tries to understand people’s moral beliefs through empirical investigation.
● It
is like understanding those practical aspects of any ethical investigation or
moral consideration.
These
two aspects of ethics shape an individual’s character, which in turn governs
one’s actions or behavior. That normative and applied ethics prepares a
bureaucrat to treat ethics as a guiding force in taking an ethical decision in
a state of dilemmas.
Western Philosophies and Ethics:
As
far Ethics is concerned, it has been referred to by three eminent schools in
Western philosophy.
1. Aristotle:
● The
first school of thought was led by Aristotle who holds that virtues are those values or dispositions which benefit the possessor, as well as the
community at large.
● The
whole concept of civil service advocates the same as it deals with virtues of
justice, probity, trust, and so on. (Here, one should not confuse values and
virtues. What we value is expressed through virtues - For example, the values
of Justice can be practiced through just behaviour).
2. Immanuel Kant:
● The
second school of thought is led by Immanuel Kant, which makes the concept of duty central to morality.
● Here,
human beings are bound from a knowledge of their duty as rational beings, and to obey the categorical imperative to respect other rational beings with whom
they interact.
● The
moral act or duty in itself is the guiding force of ethical decision-making
without thinking too much about the results of the act.
● Kant
believed that man should not be treated
as a means for achieving desired ends.
3. Bentham and Mill:
● The
third is the Utilitarian viewpoint
which asserts that the guiding principle of conduct should be the greatest
happiness (or benefit) of the greatest number.
● The
theory of Utilitarianism is based on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill.
● It
takes the perspective of the costs and
benefits of ethical choices.
● According
to it, any decision must be evaluated from the perspective of how much good or
harm it causes and should consider the effects on all parties. In other words,
the “Greatest good for the greatest
numbers”.
● It
means to promote the idea of a welfare state and thus promote the welfare of
all persons by minimizing harm and maximizing benefits.