Duty Based Ethics Flashcards, test questions and answers

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What is Duty Based Ethics?

Duty-based ethics is a moral system that emphasizes the importance of fulfilling obligations and avoiding harm in decision making. It is also known as deontological ethics, from the Greek word for duty. Duty-based ethics suggests that people should adhere to certain rules and regulations regardless of their own personal desires or beliefs. This type of ethical system is based on a set of universal moral principles that apply to everyone, regardless of their culture or religion.One example of a duty-based ethical system is Kantianism, developed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, an action can only be considered moral if it is done out of respect for universal laws and not out of self-interest or inclination. For instance, Kant argued that it would be immoral to lie even if doing so could save someone’s life because telling lies goes against a universal law namely, do not lie which must be respected under all circumstances. As such, people should make decisions based on what they believe are the best interests of humanity as a whole rather than on their own individual self-interests or desires.Another example of a duty-based ethical system is utilitarianism, which holds that an action can only be considered good if it maximizes overall happiness while minimizing suffering and pain in the world (known as the greatest good for the greatest number). Thus, according to utilitarianism one should always strive to act in ways that will benefit society as much as possible while still respecting one’s own personal values and goals. In contrast with consequentialist approaches such as utilitarianism which focus primarily on outcomes (i.e., maximizing pleasure/happiness), duty-based approaches emphasize following certain rules even when they might lead to undesirable outcomes; this means that actions may sometimes need to be taken even when there are no obvious benefits (or even potential harms).