Using Ethical Theories as a Tool for Understanding Cases

Ethics is not the same thing as morality. For one thing, morality is more of a matter of accepted social conventions or religious traditions, without the requirement of any rational, empirical, or scientific justification. In fact, moral stances can appear somewhat arbitrary when they are unfamiliar within your culture. Furthermore, ethics is not the same thing as strongly held personal opinion, “gut feelings,” the law, or compliance with regulations. Each of these may be confused with ethics, but none of them requires rational, empirical, or scientific justification, and each can be just as unethical as some of the social conventions called morality. Ethics, in contrast, is the careful, reflective, systematic, critical and scientific study of morality whose goal is to identify well justified ways to lead one’s life and behave towards others. This chapter presents a brief review of the two great Western philosophical theories of ethics, as well as four less rigorous ‘alternative’ ethical theories that may enrich our understanding and guide our behavior.