Major Ethical Philosophies

Virtue Ethics

400 BCE

In virtue ethics, a virtue is a morally good disposition to think, feel, and act well in some domain of life. Similarly, a vice is a morally bad disposition involving thinking, feeling, and acting badly. Virtues are not everyday habits; they are character traits, in the sense that they are central to someone’s personality and what they are like as a person. A virtue is a trait that makes its possessor a good person, and a vice is one that makes its possessor a bad person.

Utilitarianism

1701

Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm.Utilitarianism would say that an action is right if it results in the happiness of the greatest number of people in a society or a group.

Deontology

1701

In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action.

Egoism Ethics

1874

Ethical egoism is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to act in their own self-interest. Ethical egoism holds, therefore, that actions whose consequences will benefit the doer are ethical. Ethical egoism contrasts with ethical altruism, which holds that moral agents have an obligation to help others.

Ethics of Care

1980

Ethics of care, also called care ethics, feminist philosophical perspective that uses a relational and context-bound approach toward morality and decision making. The term ethics of care refers to ideas concerning both the nature of morality and normative ethical theory.