Egoism And Virtue Ethics: The Theories Of Ethics And Morality

Although ethics and morality are usually used interchangeably, they are dissimilar. Ethics are the right and wrong/ good and bad associated within a society, while morality is the right and wrong associated with personal beliefs. In other words, morality focuses on personal characters while ethics focuses on social system in which these morals are applied. Ethics is a branch of philosophy in which right and wrong is defined theoretically, logically and rationally while morals are subjective and personal (Mujtaba, 2005).

The normative theories are the branch of philosophy that studies ethical behavior. The major normative theories are egoism, utilitarianism, Kantianism and virtue ethics. Egoism and Utilitarianism are strongly related they lie under consequentialist theories. From its name, consequentialist theories demonstrate that the action depends on its consequence. The difference between the two is that egoism focuses on self-interest, while utilitarianism addresses maximum happiness to everyone (Sansbury, Barry and Shaw, 2013). On the other hand, Kantianism claims that an action is moral if it’s done under the sense of duty (Vlach, n.d.). Virtue ethics looks at the character rather than the duties of act itself and its consequences (Sansbury, Barry and Shaw, 2013). Some other theories covered are: Ethics of Capitalism, Ethics of Consumption, Ethics and Globalization and Ethics at workplace. Although they are all related to the individual and business ethics, I am going