Briefly Describe the Classes of Teleological Theories That Have Been

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The Answer is We consider four groups of teleological theories of ethical behaviour.ETHICAL EGOISM This class of teleological theories is based on a belief that people should act in a way that maximises the 'good' of the person making the decision.The effect of that behaviour on other people is of much less importance.For example,ethical egoists would not stop to help the victim of a road accident if it would make them late for an appointment.They are not concerned with rules or accepted behaviour; they behave in a way that is in their own interest.One theory in the ethical egoist group is hedonism.Ethical behaviour for a hedonist would be that which gratiﬁes a desire for pleasure and minimises pain.Even within hedonism,there are several theories.For example,there is the Cyrenaic school founded by Aristippus (435-356 BCE),which advocated immediate pleasure as the chief goal of life.Ethical behaviour according to advocates of this school means enjoying every momentary pleasure,lest the opportunity be lost forever.Epicurus (347-270 BCE)founded a less extreme school of thought.The Epicureans suggested that some pleasures should be forgone because they may have longer-term undesirable consequences.They had a longer-term perspective of consequences than the Cyrenaic school.Epictetus (50-120),on the other hand,argued that life's greatest goods were contentment,tranquillity,serenity and composure.Ethical behaviour for Epictetus avoided conﬂict,anger and concern.Probably the most relevant ethical egoist theory for this discussion is the more modern utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).Utilitarianism deﬁnes 'good' as 'utility',which is any source of pleasure,happiness,beneﬁt,good or advantage,or any means of prevention of pain,evil and unhappiness.These sources of good can be summed to give a measure of utility.Utility could be increased by adding to any component or reduced by deducting from any component.For example,the utility arising from theft would be increased by the money obtained,but reduced by the unhappiness caused by being dishonest.Bentham devised the hedonistic calculus,which provided characteristics of pleasure that could be measured so that a person could rank competing pleasures and choose the one that promised the greatest utility.Bentham also suggested four sanctions that would prevent a person from exceeding the bounds of propriety in seeking pleasure: • the physical sanction - a glutton may suffer pain and nausea; • the political sanction - a thief may be gaoled; • the popular sanction - a liar may be ostracised by society; and • the religious sanction - a sinner may be punished by God in this world or the next.Bentham argued that,when individuals seek to maximise their own utility,the community's utility is also maximised.The community's utility is simply the sum of the utilities of the teleological theories Ethical theories that focus on the consequences of decisions and behaviour of individual members of the community.Adding to the utility of an individual adds the same amount to the utility of the community.Bentham's utilitarian theory became a basic premise for classical economics.It should be noted,however,that Bentham's utilitarianism was a normative theory,whereas classical economics assumed that it described the actual behaviour of individuals who acted to maximise utility.Adam Smith (1723-1790)also advocated the pursuit of maximum self-interest.He believed that such a policy pursued by individuals would lead to the maximisation of society's interests.He argued that,in pursuing self-interest,an individual's behaviour was guided by an 'invisible hand' that ensured compatibility between the interests of the individual and those of society.The invisible hand restrained the individual from behaviour that would damage the interests of society.Restricted egoism is a mutation of ethical egoism.It suggests that the behaviour of individuals seeking to maximise their self-interest should be constrained by the law and the conventions of competition and fair play.Restricted egoism would not allow breaking the law or the violation of accepted codes of behaviour in pursuing self-interest.The best-known contemporary advocate of restricted egoism in business is probably Milton Friedman,who wrote: there is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its proﬁts so long as it stays within the rules of the game,which is to say,engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.ETHICAL ELITISM This group of teleological theories proposes that society is stratified and that ethical behaviour should maximise the interests of only the top stratum,or the elite.Thus,sending thousands of soldiers to their deaths in a battle would be ethical behaviour if it improved the general's reputation.The dismissal of a 'mere' accounts clerk to protect the reputation of the chief accountant would be regarded as ethical behaviour by a society that subscribed to ethical elitism.ETHICAL PAROCHIALISM This teleological theory assumes that ethical behaviour should protect the interests of the individual's 'in-group'.The in-group could be the individual's family,friends,professional associates,religion,gender or cultural group.Ethical parochialism would regard lying to protect a family member as ethical behaviour.Similarly,preferring as employees' former students from the employer's old school would be ethical to those who believe in ethical parochialism.It has been suggested that some professional codes of ethics are based on an implicit assumption of ethical parochialism.For example,a code of ethics may be designed primarily to protect the members of the profession from competition and may be much less concerned with obligations to those outside the profession.ETHICAL UNIVERSALISM The fourth type of teleological theory suggests that ethical behaviour should be concerned with the good of all humankind and that individuals are all of equal value.Any behaviour that pursues the interests of an individual or a particular group of individuals at the expense of others would be unethical.The best-known example of an ethical universal theory is the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).Mill modiﬁed Bentham's theory by making ethical behaviour that which provided the greatest good to the greatest number.Mill's greatest happiness principle meant that an individual should act not to maximise personal utility,but to maximise the utility of the community as a whole.In its extreme form,ethical universalism would accept an individual being killed to save the lives of many others.Although the individual who was killed suffered a considerable loss of utility,the increase in the utility of those who survived more than compensated for that loss.Mill's greatest happiness principle has been used in the political sphere to justify policies such as progressive taxation rates and means-tested social security payments.Mill suggested that people should stop acting as individuals attempting to maximise personal utility and form collectives with collective interests.When this happens,individuals are more likely to view a collective's interests as their own.Mill's utilitarianism is probably regarded as the most acceptable of the teleological theories.It replaces blatant self-interest with a fairer system more attuned to community standards.It seems fair to suggest,however,that those who choose unethical behaviour are implicitly adopting either an ethical egoist or an ethical parochialist philosophy.As we see later,these particular normative ethical theories are not accepted by the general community.

Briefly Describe the Classes of Teleological Theories That Have Been

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