Definition
Ethics concerns not what we do, but what we oughtto do, whereas theories can be identified as formal (and ideally coherent and justified) statements that explain a certain matter. Ethical theories are thus formal statements about what we ought to do, when faced with an ethical dilemma. Is it, for example, wrong to tell a lie, even if we thereby avoid making somebody sad? Or what if we, by harming one individual, can avoid ten people being harmed; should we in such cases choose the lesser evil? In trying to answer such questions, it becomes clear that one of the central issues in ethics is whether we should focus on the consequences or the nature of actions. In the following, we will present four of the most influential approaches to ethics, namely, the teleological...
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Frederiksen, C.S., Nielsen, M.E.J. (2013). Ethical Theories. In: Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_613
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