Ethical Frameworks
Ethical Frameworks
Created on Oct 09, 2025, Last Updated on Oct 09, 2025, By a
When discussing a ethical problem, it is hard to establish standards. In order to set up the baseline for discussion there are few ethical frameworks to reference. However these frameworks don’t mean for picking one and ignoring other, but giving different aspects to perceive the topics.
Kantianism
Kantianism is introduced by Immanuel Kant. The core concept is that morality is based on universal moral rules, not the consequences, and treat people as ends in themselves, never merely as means to an end. Universal moral rules would be as simple as honesty.
Virtue Ethics
Virtue Ethics is brought by Aristotle. The key idea is that morality is about good character. It is similar to Kantianism but respecting the culture background, age background and even different cases for each individual.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is founded by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. It emphasis outcome more than intension. The key concept is that the right action is the one that produces the greatest happiness (utility) for the greatest number. It requires enumerate numbers of alternatives and putting number of happiness on to them, and compare, however, this might become extremely hard in a lot of cases.
Social Contract Theory
Social Contract Theory is introduced by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Morality and political rules are based on an implicit social agreement among rational individuals to ensure cooperation and fairness. And laws are often established based the basic social agreements and contract, so this can be translated to following the law in some cases.