UNIT 1: ETHICAL THEORIES

Question 1

are devices which a person may use to analyze and determine moral goodness of his decisions

Answer 1

ethical theories

Question 2

three major ethical theories

Answer 2

• utilitarianism
• categorical imperative
• situational ethics

Question 3

actions are judged to be right or wrong solely according to their causal consequences

Answer 3

utilitarianism

Question 4

an individual should seek only those things that tend to produce

Answer 4

“the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people”

Question 5

the utilitarian percept of pleasure

Answer 5

• physical pleasure
• mental pleasure

Question 6

are sensual indulgences or bodily gratification

Answer 6

physical pleasure

Question 7

refers to the intellectual, spiritual and moral pleasures

Answer 7

mental pleasure

Question 8

if the end of an act promotes unhappiness even if it has intended to promote the greatest happiness, the act can be considered

Answer 8

morally wrong

Question 9

if the end of an act has promoted the greatest amount of happiness of the greatest number of people, whatever means the act employs is

Answer 9

morally justified

Question 10

if an act unintentionally produces the greatest amount of happiness, the act is still

Answer 10

morally good

Question 11

utilitarianism in the workplace

Answer 11

• capability to rationalize/justify various important demands of the workers
• provides the idea that it is perfectly moral
• sheer number of workers can be a basis of moral justifications

Question 12

problems of utilitarian theory

Answer 12

• treats everything as conditional and subservient to utility
• violations of human rights and other unethical acts become morally justifiable
• difficult to imagine discrimination or corruption as morally good simply because it made the greatest number of person happy

Question 13

utilitarian calculation

Answer 13

the happiness of fifty persons justifies the denial of the happiness, or even the life of one person.