Question

4. What is the purpose of ethics?

5. What is the difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism?

6. What is the difference between negative rights and positive rights?

Answer 1

4. Purpose of Ethics

1. Ethics lay strategic decision-making
2. They increase employee retention.
3. An ethical business attracts investors
4. Ethics minimizes costs.
5. Ethical practices help in building and maintaining reputation.
6. An ethically oriented company is bound to avoid fines
7. Ethics in business attract more employees.
8. Good Business ethics is the key to enhancing productivity
9. Ethics creates customer loyalty.
10. Ethics encourages teamwork.
11. A business that values ethics attracts more suppliers.
12. Ethics in enhance partnerships.
13. Ethics reduces business risks.
14. It improves a company’s bottom line
15. Ethics increases business profits.
16. Ethics lead to sustainable growth in sales.
17. Good ethics in business boosts the morale of the employees.
18. Ethics helps in building consumer confidence.
19. Ethics enables a company to make good use of limited resources.
20. Ethics in the business allows for healthy competition.
21. Ethics leads to long-term gains.
22. Ethics helps in maintaining quality.
23. Ethics offers extra asset protection.
24. Ethical practices foster community improvement.
25. Good business ethics is an end in itself.
26. Ethics promotes Corporate Governance in an organization.
27. Ethical practices help in setting up internal control systems.
28. Ethics is necessary for equality at workplaces.

5. What is the difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism?

Act utilitarianism regards act as morally permissible if it produces the optimal overall balance of pleasure over pain for everyone affected by the act. Rule utilitarianism regards an act as morally permissible if it is in accordance with a general rule that would produce the optimal balance of pleasure over pain for everyone effected by the rule.
To illustrate the difference consider the following. Suppose you are a prosecuting attorney in the American pre-civil rights south. A white woman is raped by a black man. A riot ensues. Black homes are burned. The black population retorts and burns white homes too. The violence is escalating and seems that it will only get worse. But you have a black man in jail that you can frame for the rape. While you know he is innocent, you also think you can make a solid case against him. If you frame him people will think that justice has been done and the violence will probably stop, or at least diminish.

An act utilitarian would say you should go ahead and frame the innocent black man. Yes, his pain and his family's pain is a negative effect of your action, but it will be greatly outweighed by the pain to the community if you don't frame him and let violence increase. Because the overall balance of pleasure over pain is optimized by the act of framing the innocent black man, go ahead and frame him.

A rule utilitarian would disagree because he would look not at the overall pleasure/pain balance produced by of the specific act of framing the innocent black man. He would look at the overall pleasure/pain balance of having a general rule that it is morally acceptable to punish an innocent person to achieve a greater good. While the specific act of framing the innocent black man might produce a positive balance of pleasure over pain, a general rule to that effect almost certainly would not. Such a rule would cause people to lose faith in the justice system, and the long term effects of that would yield a negative pleasure/pain balance. So it would be wrong to frame the innocent black man.

6. What is the difference between negative rights and positive rights?

A ‘negative’ right is one that forbids an action. The Bill of Rights would be a perfect example.

A ‘positive’ right is one that requires the action of others. Healthcare, housing, heating etc etc.