A Real Divide Between the Law and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Real Divide Between the Law and Ethics - Essay Example Virtue ethics does not really provide clear cut criteria for the rightness or wrongness of an act but, it can tell you whether the person is good or bad depending on behavioural manifestations. Moreover, virtue ethics does not address the problem of relativism – one good trait may not be considered as good in another culture. Another theory is utilitarianism. In this theory, the rightness or wrongness of the act is dependent on the entailed consequences of the act (Velasquez, 2006). If there will be many beneficiaries from the act, then the act is good. In other words, if the act will make more people happy, then the act is good. In this sense, as the focus is turned on the consequence of the act, counting how many will be happier or how many will benefit from the act becomes the parameter for the rightness or wrongness of the act. This theory is criticised because it is vague as to what is happiness and how happy will be measured. Moreover, the question of relativism and the danger of the fallacy of the majority become an inherent concern of this theory. Duty-based ethics is the last theory that will be briefly discussed. According to this theory, rightness or wrongness of the act does not depend on its consequence, rather, rightness or wrongness is inherent in the act itself. As such, there are acts that one ought to do and acts which one ought not to do. This theory provides a straightforward directive on what ought to be done. This is because the theory rests on the assumption that all human beings are a rational human agent and as rational agents, they will do the right act and avoid the wrong one.