Utilitarian and Deontological Approach

Requirement

Discuss about Should the toymaker adopt Nathan’s Ad campaign?.

Solution

REVIEW

A.    There are certain ethical issues that are also called dilemmas related to business practices, which create a situation in which a choice has to be made between two different options (or maybe more). These options, however, fail to resolve the situation in an ethically acceptable manner. In these circumstances, a person always has societal as well as personal ethical guidelines that might provide him a satisfactory outcome. In this regard, any business is not immune to the ethical challenges within the organization. The different ethical issues that are mostly associated with the business organizations are – lack of integrity, organizational relationship problems, conflicts of interest and misleading advertising ("Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy", n.d.).  Therefore, it is always expected from the business that they behave in such a manner that add value to the business but without inappropriate consequences for any other group or individual. We can find many examples of ethical mistakes in which the decision-makers pursued those practices that benefited them at the cost of society. The recession due to 2008 economic collapse and Enron Scandal are the shining examples of individuals who chose personal rewards at the expense of the interest of society at large.

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B.    In relation to the issue in question, a struggling toymaker approached Nathan Fielder in order to seek help. Nathan in turn did help him with a strange advertising campaign. In that ad campaign, Nathan addresses children as babies and seems to suggest that nobody would respect their age unless they buy a ball called “Doink-It”. As strange as the ad campaign itself looks, it is just another way of telling kids that they need that product (Doink-It) if they want to be cool or popular. 
The complexity that arises in building a strong ethical environment in an organization is because of the fact that there are many schools of ethical thoughts. There are different schools of thought that could be of immense help for the businesses to frame future strategic decisions so that the ethical behavior is followed. These ethical perspectives are – utilitarian, deontological and virtuous. Let us use these perspectives in this issue that we are dealing with.

  • 1)    Utilitarian Approach: It is perhaps the most simple and seemingly the most ideal perspective as far as ethical behavior is concerned. The first question of that is being asked by a utilitarian individual is – what would be the ideal outcome for the maximum number of the people regarding a particular issue? So, according to utilitarian principle of ethics, the actions are morally right if and only if they maximize the greater good ("An Explanation of Moral Theories & Traditions", 2016). 

  • 2)    Deontological Approach: It was first propounded by Emanuel Kant whose central theme is duty. That is, certain actions are to be carried out on the basis of one’s duties and obligations. So, these actions are intrinsically right or wrong, irrespective of the consequences that follow these actions. In other words, some actions cannot be justified on the basis of their consequences even if they bring benefit for an individual.

  • 3)    Virtue Ethics: The virtue ethics was popularized by Greek philosopher Aristotle. According to this theory, the ethics are all about agents not actions or consequences. So, this theory essentially proposes that an ethical life is the one that possesses right character traits (virtues) that in turn produce an appropriate moral character. Unlike deontology, which focuses on moral rules, virtue ethics focuses on developing good habits of character. In other words, virtue ethics suggests to inculcate virtuous traits and dispositions to act in a certain way so that bad character traits could be avoided ("Virtue Ethics", 2012).

So, the ethical dilemma that is present in the issue at hand can be best resolved by utilitarian approach. Referring to the ad campaign of Nathan Fielder that he produced for the struggling toymaker, he once revealed that his approach is all about making an impactful satirical statement against those business practices that represent the culture of corruption running in the corporate world of today. The fact that people also highly impressed with his innovative approach to make satirical advertising punch lines. Therefore, we can conclude that the consequences of his actions have made people think out of the box and in this way a significant number of people get benefitted with that.

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C.    The fatal flaw to the utilitarian approach is that it seems to be impractical as it is simply unrealistic to calculate and measure all the possible outcomes of every act. Moreover, it may stop one’s ability to bring about the best consequences, particularly in the situations where a quick response is extremely vital. Also, in contrast to the deontological ethics, where Immanuel Kant suggested that “act so that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in that of another, always as an end and never merely as a means.” it is, therefore, very important that the basis of our moral needs is a standard set of rationality. This standard set of rationality form the strong foundations of categorical imperative. This profound rationality includes all of our duties. Deontology further goes on to state that respect for one another and proper behavior serve as a groundwork for all ethical reasoning (Moreland, 2016). Furthermore, as per the virtue ethics, we can approach the perfect implementation of any particular act as well as behavior through our rational minds. This principle is important in that it discards the justification of the principle of ends justifying the means. It essentially means that a particular act should be performed because it is desirable in itself and not for the sake for anything else.
Therefore, the ad campaigns produced by Nathan Fielder should have a sense of morality and duty and obligation associated with them. He should have been acted in such a manner that should have virtuous traits and dispositions.

D.    According to deontological ethics, the moral basis of our actions is only and only determined by their rightness or wrongness. It effectively means that it is categorically wrong if we lie in any circumstances, no matter what the consequences would be. But the fallacy of this philosophical argument will be apparent by a simple example, if someone wants to kill an innocent person and he is asking the whereabouts of that innocent person. If we know what he is asking then, clearly lying would be the best thing that do to protect the person. But at this moment, according to Kant’s deontological theory, we would be required to tell the truth (Whetstone, 2001).  Does this seem reasonable to anyone? 
Furthermore, the difficulty with the virtue ethics is just to figure out what would be the characteristics that are counted as virtues. However, different cultures can have different definitions of virtues. In another example, courage is often regarded as a virtue. But some crimes as serious as bank robbery certainly require a level of courage in order to carry out the robbing of bank. However, we generally agree that robbing is morally wrong.

References

  • An Explanation of Moral Theories & Traditions. (2016). Seven Pillars Institute. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from http://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/morality-101/moral-traditions

  • Moreland, J. (2016). Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism Vs. Deontological Ethics - Christian Research Institute. Christian Research Institute. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from http://www.equip.org/article/ethics-theories-utilitarianism-vs-deontological-ethics/

  • Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Iep.utm.edu. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/

  • Virtue Ethics. (2012). Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/

  • Whetstone, J. T. (2001). How virtue fits within business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 33(2),     101-114.

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