Philosopher’s Approach in ethical decesion making

Philosopher’s Approach

Philosophers and ethicists believe in a few ethical standards, which can guide ethical decision making

. First, the utilitarian approach

 says that when choosing one ethical action over another, we should select the one that does the most good and least harm. For example, if the cashier at the grocery store gives me too much change, I may ask myself, if I keep the change, what harm is caused? If I keep it, is any good created? Perhaps the good created is that I am not able to pay back my friend whom I owe money to, but the harm would be that the cashier could lose his job. In other words, the 

utilitarian approach

 recognizes that some good and some harm can come out of every situation and looks at balancing the two.

In the 

rights approach

, we look at how our actions will affect the rights of those around us. So rather than looking at good versus harm as in the 

utilitarian approach

, we are looking at individuals and their rights to make our decision. For example, if I am given too much change at the grocery store, I might consider the rights of the corporation, the rights of the cashier to be paid for something I purchased, and the right of me personally to keep the change because it was their mistake.

The common good approach

 says that when making ethical decisions, we should try to benefit the community as a whole. For example, if we accepted the extra change in our last example but donated to a local park cleanup, this might be considered OK because we are focused on the good of the community, as opposed to the rights of just one or two people.

The virtue approach

 asks the question, “What kind of person will I be if I choose this action?” In other words, the 

virtue approach

 to ethics looks at desirable qualities and says we should act to obtain our highest potential. In our grocery store example, if given too much change, someone might think, “If I take this extra change, this might make me a dishonest person—which I don’t want to be.”

The imperfections in these approaches are threefold:^[5]

• Not everyone will necessarily agree on what is harm versus good.
• Not everyone agrees on the same set of human rights.
• We may not agree on what a common good means.

Because of these imperfections, it is recommended to combine several approaches discussed in this section when making ethical decisions. If we consider all approaches and ways to make ethical decisions, it is more likely we will make better ethical decisions. By making better ethical decisions, we improve our ability to self-manage, which at work can improve our relationships with others.