The document discusses the author's ethical theory based on virtue ethics. The author believes virtue ethics is the best approach because it emphasizes one's character as key to ethical thinking. The author analyzes three principles - eudaimonism, ethics of care, and agent-based theories - to explain how we can determine what makes an action moral or immoral. Eudaimonism focuses on virtues and well-being. Ethics of care values marginalized groups' contributions. Agent-based theories consider character traits and judgments of the agent's intentions.

1. Surname 1
Surname 3
My Ethical Theory
Instructor’s Name:
Course Name and Number:
Student’s Name (First and Last):
Institution:
Date Submitted:
MY ETHICAL THEORY
2

2. My Ethical Theory
How we know what makes an action moral or immoral is a
challenging task. Evidently, there is a wide variety of ways that
people take to approach ethics. However, I think the best way to
approach ethics is through the virtue approach. I believe so
because this approach emphasizes one’s character as the key
element in ethical thinking. The personal character is
inseparable with good or bad actions of someone. As seen in the
assigned reading, knowing what makes an action moral or
immoral is not necessarily the intentions or motives of the
action. However, one’s character and motivation have it all. To
explain how we can know what makes an action moral or
immoral one has to focus on understanding the Christianity
morality. To do so, one has to know the key elements of moral
action which include the objective action, subjective intention
and concrete situation in which such an act is done. I will focus
on this three principles eudaimonism, ethics of care and agent-
based theories to explain how we can know what makes an
action moral or immoral.
Eudaimonism is defined as the classical formulation of ethics
virtue.[footnoteRef:1] Eudaimonism holds that the proper goal
of human life is happiness, well-being or a good life. The
advantage part of this goal is that the virtues can be achieved by
lifetime practicing. In other words, one’s everyday activities
that are subject to exercising practical wisdom to resolve
conflict or ethical dilemmas that arise are helpful. However,
this goal has a weakness of being seen as an objective and not
subjective by a well-lived life. This means that the action would
be moral if the objective is good. On the other hand, some
actions would be immoral despite their intentions or reasons
behind the actions. For instance, direct killing and rape are
immoral despite the circumstances behind the actions. It is also
important to note that virtue is habit or quality that allows one
to be successful at their purpose. In general, this goal aspires to
set virtues. [1: Besser, Lorraine L., and Michael Slote,

3. eds. The Routledge companion to virtue ethics.
]
The next evaluating principle is the ethics of care. Ethics of
care is meant to change how we view morality and virtues. This
goal takes in to account the virtues exemplified by the women
such as taking care of others, self-sacrifice, and patience. In
doing so, the marginalized communities in the society are
adequately valued through their contributions. The weakness of
this goal is that the right thing can be put aside to consider the
interests of those close to one. In simple words, one is finding
the balance within and between the values. The idea is that
motivation by good intentions to objectively do good makes an
action moral. The opposite is also true.
In the last principle which is agent-based theories, common-
sense intuitions about character traits are taken into account of
virtues.[footnoteRef:2] The character traits that one can look at
someone and admire include benevolence, compassion, kindness
among others. Worth noting is that the evaluation of actions is
dependent on ethical judgments of the agent’s inner
life.[footnoteRef:3] In other words, the circumstances that are
surrounding the action performed make the act moral or
immoral. Circumstances include time, place and person
involved in the action. More importantly, one cannot do a wrong
action and expect the action to be moral and vice-verse. The
aim of agent-based theories is to help in avoiding a set of vices.
[2: Van Hooft, Stan. Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge,
2014. ] [3: Ibid.
]
Bibliography
Besser, Lorraine L., and Michael Slote, eds. The Routledge
companion to virtue ethics. Routledge, 2015.
Van Hooft, Stan. Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge, 2014.

4. Deliverable 06 – Worksheet
The market research team working on this project creates this
payoff matrix that represents the scaled values that customers
give to the different levels of service and the corresponding
payoffs for the telecom company:
Customer
Telecom Company
Buy
Don’t Buy
Upgrade
(2, 2)
(0, 1)
Don’t Upgrade
(3, 0)
(1, 1)
You recognize that the payoff matrix is not the best way to
analyze this scenario. You will construct a game tree to model
the scenario and perform backwards induction to find the
optimum strategy, explaining all of your reasoning along the
way.
Slide 1
· Explain why a game tree must be used in this scenario instead

5. of a payoff matrix.
· Identify who will go first in the game
Slide 2
· Draw the game tree that represents the scenario using the
payoff matrix given above.
· Identify and explain any non-credible threats.
Slide 3
· Redraw the game tree with any non-credible threats removed.
· Identify and explain where the first step of backwards
induction will occur.
Slide 4
· Using the game tree from slide 3, perform the first step of
backwards induction.
· Explain your reasoning behind the step you took.
Slide 5
· Redraw the game tree after the first step of backwards
induction.
· Identify where the next step of backwards induction occurs.
Slide 6
· Using the game tree from slide 5, perform the next step of
backwards induction.
· Explain your reasoning behind the step you took.
Slide 7
· Redraw the game tree after the step you took in slide 6.
· Identify the optimum strategy of the game.
ETHC 101 Discussion Board “Thread” Grading Rubric
Criteria
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Structure
15 pts.
Advanced
Proficient
Developing

6. Not present
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar
10 pts.
9 or 10 points
Post is written in paragraph form and is devoid of spelling,
punctuation, and grammar errors.
7 or 8 points
Post is not written in paragraph form and/or has occasional
spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.
1 to 6 points
Post is not written in paragraph form and has numerous
spelling, punctuation, and grammar problems.
0 points
Not present
Turabian formatting
5 pts.
5 points
Direct references and/or allusions to outside resources (such as
the textbooks) are present and are cited using footnotes in
current Turabian format.
4 points
Direct references and/or allusions to outside resources (such as
the textbooks) are present but are cited otherwise than using
footnotes in current Turabian format.
1 to 3 points
Direct references and/or allusions to outside resources (such as
the textbooks) are present but the sources are not cited. (Note:
if plagiarism is present, that requires additional corrective
action.)
0 points
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present.
Content
35 pts.
Advanced
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7. Developing
Not present
Word Count
15 pts.
14 or 15 points
Word count is between 500 and 600 words.
11 to 13 points
Word count exceeds 600 words.
1 to 10 points
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0 points
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Style
10 pts.
9 or 10 points
All required components of the prompt are answered in a
manner that is objective, rationally argued, and not overly
emotional; major points are supported by thoughtful reasoning
and good examples.
7 or 8 points
All required components of the prompt are answered in a
manner that aims at objective and dispassionate rationality,
even if it doesn’t perfectly achieve this goal; a sincere attempt
is made to support the major points with thoughtful reasoning
and good examples.
1 to 6 points
Most required components of the prompt are answered in a
manner that is sometimes insufficiently objective,
dispassionate, and/or logical; major points are insufficiently
supported by arguments and/or examples.
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Understanding
10 pts.
9 or 10 points
Post utilizes many of the concepts and technical vocabulary

8. taught in the class in a manner that demonstrates accurate
understanding.
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Post utilizes some of the concepts and technical vocabulary
taught in the class in a manner that demonstrates accurate
understanding.
1 to 5 points
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taught in the class but sometimes in ways that suggest that they
are not correctly understood.
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Post does not utilize the concepts and technical vocabulary
taught in the class.