There are three main schools of thought when it comes to the ethics that are applied on an individual and collective level. Most people believe in one of these theories of ethics. Even if we do not make a conscious decision to follow one of these schools of thought our actions still reflect one of them.

To understand how our own ethics are structured is to understand how our lives become structured as a result of what actions are permitted through those ethics and which are prohibited. The three main schools of thought can be summarised as deontological ethics, teleological ethics, and virtue-based ethics.

1. The Deontologist

The people's good is the highest law.

The aim of deontological ethics is to find the most moral behaviour and to make that a law or a set of rules for others to follow. The use of deontological ethics is extensive in our world, observed most as laws, rules, and ethical codes.

Theories of deontological ethics might suggest that it would be possible to create a complete and comprehensive law that would prevent all negative behaviour for all people who follow that law.

2. The Consequentialist

That which is evil to one at one time, becomes good at another time to someone else.

The consequential might state that in most circumstances it is wrong to push another human being or to shoot another human being. However if someone is about to walk in front of a speeding car then through consequence it becomes ethical to push that person out of the path of getting hit. Likewise if a person is about to detonate explosives inside a building it becomes ethical to shoot them according to consequentialism.

This seems to suggest that how ethical the action is becomes irrelevant… the result of the action in preventing harm and promoting the most happiness for the most number of people becomes the single benchmark for ethical behaviour.

No. 3: Moral Individualism

I must find a truth that is true for me … the idea for which I can live or die.

Moral individualism suggests that a person cannot know what it is to be moral without first discovering what it is within themselves that determines certain behaviour to be linked to moral or immoral acts. Likewise he or she must also give others the freedom to undergo this process within themselves to find their own moral center.

Moral individualism is the ethical principle that I am most in agreement with. I believe deontological ethics force the "right" behaviour on to others, whereas consequential ethics are too subjective for a sense of moral action to be clear. Yet if a person understands their own moral drive and the drives that others have, then he or she can understand what the most appropriate behaviour is for all those involved in the ethical decision.

Your Opinion on Ethics

Please share Your own viewpoints on what kind of ethics are the most valid and what makes them effective.