““Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today, I have learned about normative ethics which is one of the main branches of ethics or moral philosophy. Normative ethics is concerned with the rightness and wrongness of our actions.

According to McComb’s School of Business, it is important for us to look at normative ethics in business because we study the actions and the impacts to self and others of choices stemming from business decisions. Business with its directive for profit maximization is systemically set up to create externalities that compel us to look at our actions, who they impact, and how.

We, people, are part of an organization, and some of us either owned a business or we work for someone else. There are times when we start asking too many questions in our minds if we have experienced or witnessed unethical issues around us. We are also starting to get bothered by what we see or hear and most of the time, we hide the truth for the sake of others. Going through our lesson, I have learned that there are three (3) broad schools of thought about how we should consider ethical questions, and these are:

  1. Virtue ethics;
  2. Deontological ethics; and
  3. Consequentialism ethics.

According to Sexty, when we say virtue ethics, for Aristotle- it is built from the idea that we take action based on the characteristics that are admirable and that we want to see in ourselves. Some characteristics may include taking pride, being friendly, having a good temper, being courageous enough to stand for what is right, etc. On the other hand, deontological ethics are at play when we have rules that guide us. Moreover, when we talk about consequentialism ethics, it is all about weighing the outcomes of a decision. The impact of the action and the judgment to take or not take the action is how we weigh whether it was the right or wrong decision.

To conclude, whatever ethical questions we have in mind, we should always think twice and choose to do what is right not only for ourselves but for the benefit of everyone too.

References:

McComb’s School of Business. Ethics Defined (2017) University of Texas at Austin
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu

Sexty, Robert W. Canadian Business, and Society: Ethics, Responsibilities, and Sustainability –
Third Edition (2014) McGraw Hill Education, Toronto.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind: Integrity Quotes, life quotes, inspirational quotes. Pinterest. (2015, August 27). Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/536069161874304646/

Sussex Publishers. (n.d.). Why is it so important to be right? Psychology Today. Retrieved April 3, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shift-mind/201103/why-is-it-so-important-be-right