Deontology - It is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong. It is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions. It argues that decisions should be made considering the factors of one's duties and other's rights. The Greek deon means an obligation or duty).

Deontology is often associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant believed that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t cheat.” Deontology is simple to apply. It just requires that people follow the rules and do their duty. This approach tends to fit well with our natural intuition about what is or isn’t ethical. Unlike consequentialism, which judges actions by their results, deontology doesn’t require weighing the costs and benefits of a situation. This avoids subjectivity and uncertainty because you only have to follow set rules.

Despite its strengths, rigidly following deontology can produce results that many people find unacceptable. For example, suppose you’re a software engineer and learn that a nuclear missile is about to launch that might start a war. You can hack the network and cancel the launch, but it’s against your professional code of ethics to break into any software system without permission. And, it’s a form of lying and cheating. Deontology advises not to violate this rule. However, in letting the missile launch, thousands of people will die. So, following the rules makes deontology easy to apply. But it also means disregarding the possible consequences of our actions when determining what is right and what is wrong.

Utilitarianism - Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. It is also the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business because of the way in which it accounts for costs and benefits.

Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values such as justice and individual rights. For example, assume a hospital has four people whose lives depend upon receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and a liver. If a healthy person wanders into the hospital, his organs could be harvested to save four lives at the expense of one life. This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest number. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let alone the most ethical one. So, although utilitarianism is arguably the most reason-based approach to determining right and wrong, it has obvious limitations.

Virtue Ethics - It is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks. It is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character. This character-based approach to morality assumes that we acquire virtue through practice. By practicing being honest, brave, just, generous, and so on, a person develops an honorable and moral character. According to Aristotle, by honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice when faced with ethical challenges.

Theory of rights – The Rights Approach focuses on respect for human dignity. This approach holds that our dignity is based on our ability to choose freely how we live our lives, and that we have a moral right to respect for our choices as free, equal, and rational people, and a moral duty to respect others in the same way.

Some of these rights are articulated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights such as life, and freedom, which include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, property ownership, and contractual agreements to name few. Other rights might include the right to privacy, to be informed truthfully on matters that affect our choices, and right to health, that is, to be safe from harm and injury, and similar other rights.

This approach asks us to identify the legitimate rights of ourselves and others, in a given situation, as well as our duties and obligations. Consider how well the moral, legal, and contractual rights of everyone are respected and or protected by the action, and assess how well those affected are treated. As such, the ethical action would be the one we have a moral obligation to perform, that does not infringe on the rights of others.

Casuist Theory – Casuistry, in ethics, is a case-based method of reasoning. It is particularly employed in field specific branches of professional ethics such as business ethics and bioethics.

Casuistry typically uses general principles in reasoning analogically from clear-cut cases, called paradigms, to vexing cases. Similar cases are treated similarly. In this way, casuistry resembles legal reasoning. Casuistry may also use authoritative writings relevant to a particular case.

Practitioners in various fields value casuistry as an orderly, yet flexible way to think about real-life ethical problems. Casuistry can be particularly useful when values or rules conflict. For example, what should be done when a business executive’s duty to meet a client’s expectations collides with a professional duty to protect the public?

Casuistry also helps clarify cases in which novel or complex circumstances make the application of rules unclear. Should email receive the same privacy protection as regular mail? If someone develops an idea while working for one employer, is it ethical to use that idea to help a subsequent employer?

Casuistry seeks both to illuminate the meaning, and moral significance of the details in such cases, and to discern workable solutions. Some practitioners classify casuistry as a subset of applied ethics, or practical ethics. It is considered as the branch of ethics that is concerned with the application of moral norms to practical problems. Others restrict the term applied ethics to deductive reasoning from principles to cases. Accordingly, the philosophers view casuistry as an alternative to applied ethics. make blog tittle and keyword from this article