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As we dive into the textbook, I had come across three different ethical theories. Deontology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics. “Deontology, falls within the domain of the moral theories that help guide and help us to assess our choices of what we ought to do(deontic theories), in contrast to those that guide and assess what kind of person we are and should be.” (Alexander, 2020).
The first example that helped me see was what I was thinking about in a situation in the healthcare field. If you have a terminally ill patient, and they ask you if they will be okay after surgery, that they are going to survive, a deontological approach would for you to not lie to them to comfort them. The truth hurts, and it needs to be said without being sugarcoated.
Consequentialism ” The most prominent form of consequentialism is utilitarianism, it is a broad in scope, seeking to act so as to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” (Magnuson, 2020). This theory is how the system defines “good” or “ethically right”.
Virtue Ethics ” The emphasis on the agent in virtue eithics means that moral reasoning is not focused so much on decision-making as on the nature of virtue, reflection on what makes for the good life, the values and priorities of a community…” (Magnuson,2020). i.g,. good actions as ones that display emobody virtuous character traits, like courage, loyalty, or wisdom.
” In utilitarian ethics, outcomes justify the means or ways to achieve it, whereas in deontological ethics, duties/ obligations are of prime importance (Mandal, 2016). Deontology and Consequentialism are based on rules that give us the right to action, virtue eithics makes the central use of the concept of character.”How should we live?” the answer is that one should live virtuously, to have a virtuous character. These are based on rules that give us “right of action.” Deontology strengths is that when we use reason all the time and the weakness is we do not always agree on normal duties. Consequentialism is that it is a natrual way for any person or persons to have reason about knowing whether an action was correct or not. A weakness to this theory is not having the information before hand. Many people do not agree on what should be assessed in calculating good consequences. It can also be hard to measure and compare the “goodness” of said consequences. Often we choose a different time periods that may produce a different consequence.
References:
Magnuson, Ken. INVITATION to CHRISTIAN ETHICS: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues. Grend Rapids, Mi, Kregel Academic, 2020.
Hak Joon Lee, and Tim Dearborn. Discerning Ethics. InterVarsity Press, 25 Feb. 2020.
Heimbach, Daniel. Fundamental Christian Ethics. B&H Publishing Group, 1 Nov. 2022.
