Blog Post- Ethical Philosophies
By: Oddessey McDonald
Six principal ethical philosophies can and should be used to analyze a situation. They are the categorical imperative, utilitarianism, hedonism, the golden mean, the golden rule, and the veil of ignorance. These ethical philosophies are so important because they are seen in your everyday life. No matter what situation you are going through, one of these ethical philosophies will be present. This is our way of living and thinking. It’s so important that you know all six of them because the knowledge will help you grow as a person and you will see things from all points of view.
Categorical imperative- It is a rule of conduct that states that it is unconditional or absolute. The validity or claim doesn’t depend on anything.
Utilitarianism- (normative ethics) It is right to be happy and promote happiness. It is wrong to cause pain or cause unhappiness.
Hedonism- Hedonism comes from the ancient word “pleasure”. Psychological or motivational hedonism claims that only pleasure or pain motivates us. Those two emotions gets a reaction out of you. Ethical hedonism claims that only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth.
The golden mean- It is the desirable middle between two extremes. One of the extremes are excess and the other extreme is deficiency.
The golden rule- It is the rule that everyone should be treated with love and respect. Like the law of attraction, what you put out in the universe is what will come back to you.
The veil of ignorance- The decisions about social justice would be made in a fairly matter. If a person who must decide on society’s rules and economic structures without knowing what position he or she will get in that society.
I would say the ethical philosophies that I closely identify with would have to be the golden rule. The golden rule is all about putting out what you want to be brought back to you. I am the kind of person that I go around being friendly with everyone. I show respect to complete strangers. If someone does something mean to me, I still show them love because that is the type of person I am. I want to receive all of my blessings that life has to offer me. I want to walk in a room and people show me respect and have love for me. You can’t expect to go around treating people unfair, being mean to everybody you come in contact with and just having negative energy that could ruin someone’s mood. Bad things will always happen to you and you will never have any good luck. That’s why I make sure I follow the golden rule with every situation that comes across in my life.
