Morals,Ethics and Virtues!

I find people’s attitudes towards ethics and morals to be very interesting as everyone has their own concepts of right and wrong. I have a lot in common with my two sisters in terms of food, clothes and film’s however our principles and morals are very dissimilar which causes huge debates in my household.  There are general rules that most of us abide by like “don’t steal money that’s not yours” however there are specific moral choices that we have to make, for example “do you give money to the homeless?”

We all have different traits and qualities that create and build our character. Our behavior and thoughts are based on underlying values and inner qualities that contribute to our personality.  I believe a virtuous person is kind in their lifetime because that is there character beneath; however a person who puts on a front is not showing their true personality, not their true virtue. I have been thinking about my personal true virtues and values and how they relate to my profession. 

Generous- I sometimes buy stickers and presents for my children in my classes.

Kind/thoughtful- I am always kind and well-mannered in my classes. I reflect upon my work to try and improve for the next time to progress the classes for the children. 

Creativity- I aim to be artistic and unusual in my work.

Individualism- I try to be diverse, so I can offer something different that nobody else has.

Loyalty- I feel the people I work for can trust as I would never let them down.

Enthusiasm- I am always energetic and motivated in my work as this encourages the children to work hard.

Helpful- I always help children who are struggling to pick steps up in my dance classes.

Ambitious-I have a strong desire for success and achievement.

I have been struggling to fully connect and understand the differences between virtues, morals and ethics. I have done a few bullet points which I have found on Internet sites and these have created a better understanding.

Virtue

A virtue is a trait of character that is admired, well-liked and praiseworthy. 

Your true identity, character is more important than many other things such as rules.

It is possible that a person could obey every moral rule where they would be like a robot, whereas we need to know what the person is like, how they feel about things and what effects them, not just that they are focused on duty.

Who I should be rather than what I should do.

Virtue is an intrinsic value, coming from within, but it is impersonal.

Ethics

Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty.

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

Norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior

The system or code of morals of a particular person, religion, group, profession, etc.

3 main theory’s of ethics that we have acknowledged on this course

Consequential Ethics

Consequential ethics: An action is ethical depending on the consequences of that action. Lying isn't wrong if the consequences that result are positive.  http://answers.yourdictionary.com/language/what-is-ethics.htmlIt seems sensible to base ethics on producing happiness and reducing unhappiness.

My own consequential ethic that I have used before. My friend asked if she had lost weight, I didn’t want to upset her as she clearly hadn’t. I said yes and she left with a smile on her face!

The most influential contributors to this theory are considered to be Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.  They believed an action is right if it produces a much more of an increase in happiness of all affected by it than any alternative action, and wrong if it does not. This then connects to a utilitation.A utilitarian is someone who accepts the principle of utility - and is therefore concerned with maximising the value (utility) of the universe - which makes utilitarianism a consequentialist (goal-based) theory of ethics, as opposed to a deontological (rule-based) theory.

I found this situation on-line and I like it-

"A billionaire needs an organ transplant. He says that if he is given the next suitable organ he will fund 1000 hip-replacements a year for 10 years. Giving him the next available organ means Mr X, who was top of the list, will die - but it also means that thousands of people will be very happy with their new hips. Consequentialism might be used to argue that Mr X's human rights (and his and his family's happiness) should be ignored, in order to increase the overall amount of human well-being. "

Deontology

Ethical theories that maintain that the moral rightness or wrongness of an action depends on its intrinsic qualities, and not (as in consequentialism) on the nature of its consequences. Deontological ethics holds that at least some acts are morally wrong in themselves (e.g., lying, breaking a promise, punishing the innocent, murder). A deontologist might argue that lying is always wrong, regardless of any potential "good" that might come from lying.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/deontological-ethics#ixzz1GbVYVe3V

Immanuel Kant who argued that lying is always considered wrong, which firstly I don't agree with. Just because of your ethics you have to hurt somebody else? Deontology says that certain types of action are right or wrong. So murder is wrong however what if you accidently killed someone or you were defending yourself?  I feel
options are made for reasons, and with a purpose in mind.

Virtue ethics

A virtue ethicist would focus less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie said about one's character and moral behavior. I feel this is the best option as one of my virtues is honesty, however sometimes I tell the odd lie to support my other vitue, kindness.

Morals

The difference between ethics and morals can seem somewhat arbitrary to many, but there is a basic, albeit subtle, difference. Morals define personal character, while ethics stress a social system in which those morals are applied. 

A good example I like is-

"Abortion is legal and therefore medically ethical, while many people find it personally immoral."

I have found the subtle difference between morals and ethics to be very hard to distinguish however after an hour of research come up with my own statement to understand.

Morals are something an individual defines as wrong, ethics is the 

distinction between what is right and what is wrong.