Ethical Perspective
Ethics are a set of standards that people set for themselves as a baseline for what is right and wrong particularly in situations where the decision is unclear. Ethics guide a person on how he or she should act or what he or she should decide in a particular circumstance. There are different ethical philosophies some of which are thousands of years old. Four basic ethical perspectives include character, obligation, results, and equity/relativism. Based on the Ethics Awareness Assessment, I am an ethical relativist.
Before defining one’s ethical perspective, it is important to understand the components of the different viewpoints. A character based ethical view suggests that actions, ethical or otherwise, do not define the person, rather a person’s make up will determine their actions, “Virtue ethics focuses on the type of person we ought to be, not on specific actions that should be taken”. (Weiss, 2006). The traits of a person whose ethics are based on character include kindness and generosity. The qualities that are valued are honesty, wisdom, and integrity. A person with a character-based ethical perspective has a difficult time believing that a person could make a decision that conflict with any of the traits that a person holds. This viewpoint is not applicable to me because I believe that an honest person, who is generally kind and generous, can make an unethical decision. According to this perspective, that person would not make an unethical choice because it would conflict with their character.
An obligation-based ethical perspective or universalism ties ethical behavior to a sense of duty or obligation. “Universalism, which is also called “deontological ethics,” holds that the ends do not justify the means of an action—the right thing must always be done, even if doing the wrong thing would do the most good for the most people.” (Weiss, 2006) This means that only a person’s actions are judged, regardless of the outcome. Decisions must...
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