Ethical Theories

This essay will be the second of our two shorter formal essays constituting 10% of your final grade, and is due.

            For this essay and for all others throughout the course, you are responsible for following the MLA general essay guidelines, which can be found at the Purdue OWL website:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (Times New Roman 12 pt. font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins, page numbers, first page heading, etc.)

      For this essay, you are expected to develop your responses as clearly as possibly in a 3-4 page essay (at least 3 full pages with proper formatting).  Be sure to eliminate any unnecessary filler, and directly respond to the questions.

      (For a lesson regarding eliminating filler and unnecessary repetition and concision errors – please see Paul Robert’s “How To Say Nothing In 500 Words” in our course content section.  Also be sure to avoid unnecessary introductions – I don’t want any unnecessary introductory or historical information about the background of the subjects or your experience with the subjects.  Please just directly respond to the questions presented below and be sure to fully develop your responses with analytical thought, support, and evidence.)

You should submit all essays by the due date to the Learn assignment page, and should attach your file with a saved file title that consists of your first initial and last name, followed by an underscore and the title of your essay.  Example: Bdewey_Socratic.docx (please use your own name and not mine).  If you have difficulties via Learn, please submit your essay to

If you do not have Microsoft Word, you can still save your file as a Word document through Google Docs.  Simply setup a gmail account and open a new google document (there are numerous tutorials about this on the web with simple instructions), and under the File tab on the left hand side of your Google doc, download it is a Word document once finished, and submit this file through Learn or e-mail. 

 Assignment questions:

Much of the 2nd half of the semester has been spent examining utilitarianism, Kant’s deontological ethics, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics. If forced to choose one of these 3 ethical theories as “best”, which would you select and why?  Be sure to summarize all 3 ethical theories, and respond to at least 2 clear challenges (covered in our text) against your chosen ethical theory, in defense of and explanation of your “best” choice.