Most arguments for promoting diversity in the workplace are based on economics.

Question

Most arguments for promoting diversity in the workplace are based on economics. It is good business. In the textbook, the chapter by McNett explores another way of defending the need for diversity at work. Starting on page 263, three categories of ethical theories are discussed: deontology, teleotology, and caring. After Exhibit 5-1 you will find an explanation of each. (See Doc Sharing for help locating a page in the textbook.) Choose one of the three ethical theories and describe it. Make sure your post contains no more than 20% quoted material.

Explanation / Answer

Deontology (or Deontological Ethics) is an approach toEthics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness ofactions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions (Consequentialism) or to the character and habits of the actor (Virtue Ethics).

Thus, to a Deontologist, whether a situation is good or bad depends on whether the action that brought it about was right or wrong. What makes a choice "right" is its conformity with a moral norm: Right takes priority over Good. Forexample, if someone proposed to kill everyone currently living on land that could not support agriculture in order to bring about a world without starvation, a Deontologist would argue that this world without starvation was a bad state of affairs because of the way in which it was brought about. AConsequentialist would (or could) argue that the final state of affairs justified the drastic action. A Virtue Ethicist would concern himself with neither, but would look at whether the perpetrator acted in accordance with worthy virtues.

Deontology may sometimes be consistent with Moral Absolutism (the belief that some actions are wrong no matter what consequences follow from them), but not necessarily. For instance, Immanuel Kant famously argued that it is always wrong to lie, even if a murderer is asking for the location of a potential victim. But others, such as W.D. Ross (1877 - 1971), hold that the consequences of an action such as lying may sometimes make lying the right thing to do (Moral Relativism).

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