MY ETHICAL SYSTEM

My Ethical System and Why It Would Work For Everyone

My Ethical System and Why It Would Work For Everyone

Ethics Defined

Ethics is concerned with prescribing and describing moral requirements and behaviors. There are acceptable and unacceptable ways of behavior. People and organizations exist within a code of ethics. However, this code of ethics is framed by the culture in which the people and organizations exist. In some cultures, it is totally acceptable in a business environment to offer bribes, and accept bribes. In American culture, this behavior is considered unethical. Some organizations think their American code of ethics is the only acceptable behavior and other behaviors, regardless of culture, are unacceptable.

There are two ways of looking at ethics: One way is to determine whether or not something is ethical solely by the consequences of our actions or practices. An action or practice is right if it leads to the greatest possible balance of good. An example of looking at it this way by examining the consequences is Utilitarianism. According to Utilitarianism, actions are right in proportion to their tendency to promote happiness or absence of pain. Utilitarianism is committed to the maximization of good. (Minkes, 1999).

By comparison, the other way of looking at ethics relates to a sense of duty. It considers factors other than outcomes. Actions are not justified by their consequences. One must consider the importance of motives. Those who adhere to this second definition insist on the importance of motives and character. In other words, ethics is based on a set of principles that should be followed and not on the results of our actions (Minkes, 1999).

“Building” ethical community only becomes a concern in the absence or waning of any overarching shared tradition, the loss of foundational beliefs and values, or failure of autocratic governance. The term itself suggests the lack of ethical community, an assumption, that it must be rehabilitated, restored, or created de novo. For traditional societies, in which moral norms are taken as given in their cultural history, neither is such “building” required nor is it a matter of concern. For authoritarian societies, in which a moral code is imposed, no such “building” is allowed. In highly homogeneous societies, shared moral norms operate informally without self-conscious reflection and overt effort to “build” a community rooted in ethics.

In the U.S. context, there is clearly a yearning for more stable and ongoing relatedness to people beyond oneself and a head of the family circle. However, there is also a troubling ambivalence about giving up any of one's individual rights, liberties, and independence to become more involved in the web of community with its interdependence, obligations, and constraints (Orlikoff, 2004).

My ethical System

“What's my ethical system,” then, could be interpreted any of the following ways: (Orlikoff, 2004).

What ethical system am I most comfortable with intellectually?

Act utilitarianism. This system holds that in any given situation, "you should do whatever will maximize expected utility over all sentient beings". There are some tricky questions involved (for example, ...