Ethics: The Five Basic Principles Essay Example

Human beings ought to have an effective relationship with each other as guided by the five principles of ethics that are essential to morality. These fundamentals of ethical behaviors can be applied everywhere as they enable the manifestation of individual freedom and ways in them which are suitable in all situations pertaining to personal, social and cultural aspects. There is the need to have the unity in diversity concepts which is insisted by the ideal universal moral system (Broad, 2014). From this concept, there are many other individual moral systems that can be effectively formulated successfully without serious conflict. The basic principles in ethics are five which include the fairness and justice principle, principle of rightness or goodness, principle of individual freedom, the principle of life value and even principle of honesty and telling the truth (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2014). These five ethical principles are categorized into distinct groups in regards to how are applied in the appropriate circumstances. For instance, the first four fundamental principles are regarded as providers of unity despite not being absolutes, and their violation must be accompanied by a careful and well-documented justification. The fifth principle of ethics provides the aspect of diversity. The key function of this ethical principle is to enable the encouragement and allowance carrying out of the other four principles as it is sought by all human beings (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). Basically, wherever the five principles are adhered to regardless of people being consequentialist or non-consequentialist, being religious or even nonreligious while at the same time ensuring that any exception is justified fully with any rule or act in the way the ethical aspects are approached then the pursuance of personal lives will be enabled without any hindrance and within the limitations of the given five principles.

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The application of these basic five principles can be in literally anything, but there is a particular ay on how they are applied under a certain circumstance in the United States. It is normally very morally and ethically right for people to revere life and accept death (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2014). This is the basic concept behind the principle of valuing life which means that life is sacred and people ought to respect it and death as well. In the United States people follow this ethical principle where the majority accepts that life exists because they exist, but some do not accept death. Anyone must ensure that they speak the truth as it stands without deviation of any honesty talk to please anybody. When someone is brought to a court of law in the United States, they are required to take an oath that whatever they will speak is completely honest and real. This is the basic understanding of the principle of being honest and telling the truth which advocates for meaningful communication.

Everybody is entitled to do what they think is morally right without being compelled by anyone or anything. It is what the principle of individual freedom advocates by enabling individuals to be moral within the available frameworks. The people in the United States have the freedom to think and do what they think is right without causing harm to others. The ultimate goal of any moral system is to expect human beings ensure they cause no damage, promote goodness and prevent badness from happening. In the United States, this is the common ground upon which the application of the goodness and rightness principle functions. It is expected of everybody to do what they do within the confines of the ethics of morals to anybody by doing what is acceptable and not causing any bad from happening unless otherwise. That is what defines how people create relationships with others by being good and advocating for the goodness to prevail. When trying to be distributive, human beings ought to ensure that they treat others fairly and in a more justly manner. In the United States, this principle is defined as fairness and justice and being distributive means spreading the goodness to all people regardless of age, race, and gender. Everybody deserves to be treated fairly and even in the court of law, the dissemination of justice should not be influenced by anything else other than the truth as it is deemed.

Conclusion

Each of the above discussed five basic principles of ethics is applicable in a given situation within the cause of living. They provide a guide on how well we create strong relationships with other people in our societies. In the United States, there are people of almost every race and kind; hence the five principles of ethics give a framework of how they live amongst each other. However, ethical relations are not limited to these five basic principles. There is another principle which is being followed in the United States which is commonly referred to as the Humanitarian Ethics (Slim, 2015). This principle has a unique way of approaching the concept of morality and establishment of a moral system in that there is a combination of the act-rule and the consequentialist-nonconsequentialist deontological mixture. People have to show their willingness to help others without looking after the rewards, and that has been a common practice amongst the people in the United States.

References

Broad, C. D. (2014). Five types of ethical theory. Routledge.

Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.

Slim, H. (2015). Humanitarian ethics: A guide to the morality of aid in war and disaster. Oxford University Press.

Thiroux, J. P., & Krasemann, K. W. (2014). Setting Up a Moral System: Basic Assumptions and Basic Principles. In Ethics: Theory and Practice (11th Edition) (p. 178). Pearson.