(Note: Original post to what people were responding to)

Module 2 is an overview of moral theory. Your question is this: which theory do you think provides the most insight, utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue theory? Why?

Respond to Krystle's post (minimum of 150 words),

In my personal opinion, I think that Utilitarianism gives the most insight. Utilitarianism basically is placing the idea of right and on the consequences of choosing one policy over another. The reason I think that this gives the most insight is because it is not just bases on the interests of a sole person but the interests of others as well. The virtue theory does not give much insight because it is basically a theory basically decriminalizing the actual consequences off of whether or not the person had good or bad intentions. In my eyes this would be more of a judgement rather than a theory which makes no sense. Another reason I think utilitarianism has the most insight because it is more so about maximizing the good in a situation and making the most good out of something for the most amount of people rather than focusing on the bad aspects. I would say that this is also the down side of Utilitarianism because the theory itself is so focused on the good like said above that it leaves no room to criminalize the intent for the bad. There has to be a point where you limit the good intent and for there to be consequences even though the intent may have been good.

Respond to Cassandra (minimum of 150 words),

In my opinion, virtue theory is most insightful. Virtue theory is defined in our text on page 136, as a theory of morality that makes virtue the central concern. To me this means you live to be a “good” person or have virtuous character rather than relate a principle to a circumstance. With the virtue theory we are not blindly following laws. Individuals would rather be living to be “good” instead of deciding per situation, “is this action good or bad?” Eudaimonia, the greatest form of happiness, is a desire of all humans. We want to be happy, the meaning of happiness would vary but the road to this achievement would be directed by living with a virtuous disposition. Aristotle’s notion of the Golden Mean would maintain the balance and moderation of our actions. Moral obligation through our virtues would be the driving force to our actions. We can all agree that such actions like lying is wrong, the virtue theory would maintain that there is no acceptable medium for lying because it would not reflect a virtuous character. Virtue theory is also the difference between duty and compassion. Page 138 gives the scenario of a person caring for their sick mother out of responsibility versus out of love, sympathy, and loyalty. The character of the person is displayed because of moral virtue instead of obligation.