Ethical Frameworks

Some of the ethical frameworks that I would like to write about:

The Utilitarian Approach:
This approach emphasizes that the ethical action is the one that provides the most good or the least harm, or produces the greatest balance of good over harm. [1] This approach deals with consequences; it tries to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done. Thus this approach is a form of consequentialism, meaning that the end justify the means. One of the early writers of utilitarianism was Jeremy Benthem and John Stuart Mill.
Utilitarianism is applied in various walks of our society like the government formulating a new law, a drug company pushing a new drug or a business venture trying to yield maximum customers. Although it has proven successful in certain situations, I feel that it is not always right to make a decision just based on the utilitarian principle. Utilitarian principle must be used in combination with the other ethical approaches. I believe that every life is valuable and it is unethical to subject a part of any population to any harm in order to save the majority of the population. It’s impossible to measure and compare the worth of any human being and utilitarian principles should not be employed in cases where the adoption of this principle might cause a greater harm to some people.

The Fairness or Justice Approach:
Aristotle and Greek philosophers have contributed to the idea that all should be treated equally. This approach suggests that ethical actions treat all human beings equally or if unequally, then fairly based on some standard. [1] For example people get paid based on their hard work and their contribution to the organization. But this doesn’t explain the vast gap existing between the CEO salary and that of an employee which has been one of the recent debates hitting the headlines. Fairness and Justice Approach also accounts for equal employment opportunity, equality in laws that govern them and equality in the rights provided to the individuals. It ensures that the rules would be stated properly and also enforced justly without being partial to anyone. This approach need not be just limited to actions that relate to humans, but also humans’ actions to animals and the environment. To rightly say, this approach is the one that should breathe equality and fairness in anything you perform.

The Virtue Approach:
A very ancient approach to ethics again contributed by Greek philosophers is that ethical actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of our humanity. These virtues are habits that enable us to act according to values like honesty, compassion, generosity, love, tolerance, fidelity etc. [1]. This approach makes us to question our actions based on these values and makes us to think what kind of person we would become if we happen to act in a certain way.

The framework that I feel most comfortable using:
Different ethical approaches or a combination of various frameworks must be used for different situations. I particularly like the virtue approach because this approach motivates people to be better at what they do and make them always go for virtuous deeds. These virtuous deeds will also have a long term benefit on our body and mind. It is a good approach to rethink and evaluate our actions and understand what actions we should have taken to make ourselves a better human being. This approach especially seems to make the point that anything starts with the individual. It is a bottom up approach where you start with a single individual to achieve the most favorable results for the society. If every single human being in this world adopts the virtue framework, I believe that there would be lesser tensions around the globe and it would be a stimulus for world peace. Almost all the religions in this world support the virtue approach and so according to me it is obvious that this approach provides the best results for the individual and the society as a whole.

Are some frameworks more appropriate for a virtual environment than others? Why or why not?
There shouldn’t be much distinction between the kind of person you are and the one that you want to be in a virtual environment. Then why adopt a different ethical standard in both these environments? Anything that a person does in a virtual role has some kind of implication in the real world as well. For example a person who has intimate relationship with someone in Second Life has a detrimental impact on his married life in the real world. So a person must know where to set his boundaries and where his virtual life misdemeanors might show up in his real life. The ethical standards that a person follows in his real life should be transported to the virtual life. The new generation is spending more time in the virtual world and slowly the gap between the real and virtual is getting diminished and so there needs to be proper ethical standards in the virtual world which is not much different from the real world ethics. Thus I suggest that a person should follow the same ethical framework in the virtual world that he does in the real world.

References:
1. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html
2. http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-2sixpillars.htm
3, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism