“Chapter 2: The Roots of Ethics” Summary

This chapter is merely a brief overview of ethics, not enough to understand the nuances and interpretations surrounding each of the ethical schools. Because our society is based on Western philosophy and ethics, many of our texts focus mainly on the West. Ethics, as defined by Webster is the priniciples of conduct governing an individual or a group. The earliest ethics’ writings were written for the boys of an Egyptian class. Socrates was from Greece and was one of the well-known teachers of ethics. The Socratic method involves a teacher posting a question that theDeontological theories teach us to look at the means rather than the end. A duty is a moral obligation, such as paying money that we owe to a creditor or caring for our children. Deontological ethics bring us to agency. Agency is surrendering the need to make ethical judgments because we are under the control of the military or our employer. A legalism is our attributing an action to “obeying the law.” Another deontological theory is rights theory, a European, constitutional concept. According to rights theory, all people naturally have rights, and other people are obligated to acknowledgeConfucianism deals with maintaining harmony and is a western name developed after Confucius, who developed a system mainly of ethical relations, defining values of family and government. Communitarians hold that it is through our families and communities that we acquire a sense of our personal an civic responsibilities, an appreciation of our and its members. Utilitarians hold that happiness is the ultimate intrinsic good because it is not desired for the sake of anything else, and that we can judge an action by its outcome for everyone. Rationalization is justifying our behavior to make it appear rational or socially acceptable by ignoring, concealing, or glossing it real motive.