The Ethics Tradition

This chapter discusses different theories of ethics from the Greeks to the present and divides them into four major categories:

1. Aristotlean Ethics

2. Kantian Ethics

3. Utilitarian Ethics

4. Ethics of Care: Feminist theory of Ethics

Aristotle:

Aristotle considers virtue and personal character to be the basis for ethics. His approach is both pragmatic and philosophical. He is aware about the human imperfections and at the same time believes that we have some divine spirit that helps us determine what is good and what is bad. Ethics for Aristotle involves the intentions and goals to be good rather than the actions themselves. Here, one should be able to go beyond the circumstances and determine what are the good intentions and intrinsic rightness of the behavior. Aristotle's notion of ethics is based on reason. The difference of Aristotle's theory of ethics from Plato's is that it is not idealistic like Plato's. For Aristotle, science deals with the absolute and therefore is not a matter for ethical consideration. This view of Aristotle has been criticized in the present days as science and technology are also though to be rhetorical.

Kant

Kant's focus is on duty based on universal principle that is an extension of an individual's sense of ethics. This is because he believes that every individual has an inherent moral principle. So, for his ethics is not concerned with divine principle, nor with utilitarian notion of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Since he believes in the universal principle, his notion differs from Feminist notion of ethics of care. But his focus on universal principle that every individual has seems to be similar to what Plato would believe to be divine. Kant's is not a relativist notion of ethics.

Utilitarianism

Here, the guiding principle is not universal principle of what is right or wrong. It is nor the idea of divine principle. For utilitarians, the basis for ethical decision is the greatest happiness for greatest number. So, they calculate benefits and costs.

Feminism

Feminism shares major postmodern tendency of challenging all notions of absolute truth and universal principles. That is why feminists reject Kantian notion of ethics as masculinist. Feminists also disagree with the idea that science and technology deal with the absolute and the inherently right. Scientific method avoids contextual and interrelationships of different variables. Feminists believe that language and social values thought to be neutral are themselves gendered.

Feminist principle of ethics believes that "women generally emphasize caring concern, relationship, and the flexible application of values depending on the particular person and circumstance in rendering theri ethical judgments, whereas men generally emphasize justice through inflexible application of abstrct principles regardless of the person or the relationship" (63).

Other Views

Confucianism is based on the idea of collective good and merit. Confucian ethics is based on "immediate realities rather than in immutable, timeless absolutes." It focuses on subduing individual egos for the greater good of the society. So, it is collectivist rather than individual. Similarly, virtue does not depend on abstract principles, rather it is related to the concrete episodes and events.

Levinas

He is postmodern thinker. So, for him ethics is concerned with the particular situation rather than an abstract principle. Ethics results from our awareness of the other. So, it is a recognition that there are other people who think differently than us. So, he rejects any pretension of universal reason or morality. Consider "the other" even more important that you.

Gert

His focus is on avoidance of evil rather than on seeking good.