Ethical Theories
Research papers on ethical theories take a look at ethics from the point of view of several types of ethical schools of thought. Paper Masters custom writes philosophical research papers for college classes and at any level of study.
Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that deals with the concepts of right and wrong. There are three major schools of ethics in philosophy:
- Meta-ethics - the theoretical meaning of truth
- Normative ethics - the practical means of determining a course of action
- Applied ethics - which defines a person's obligations under specific circumstances.
Each of these schools has a number of different ethical theories.
Modern understandings of ethics have a tendency to refer to "ethical theories" as a part of applied ethics. There are ethical theories for nursing, or bioethics, and even business. Many ethical theories are bound together by common goals intended to produce the most successful outcomes. These principles include beneficence (doing what is good), least harm, respect for autonomy, and justice.
Some of the more major ethical theories in philosophy include utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. Utilitarianism is the ethical theory espoused by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and rests upon the Greatest Happiness Principle. Bentham believed that an individual was bound to live in ways that produced the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
Deontology was espoused by Immanuel Kant and holds that rightness comes from specific acts. Kant believed that people must act from duty. Virtue ethics, on the other hand, emphasize the role of a person's character in determining behavior.