Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics

Ethics essay: The similarities and differences between utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics

Utilitarianism is the philosophy that all ethical decisions must strive to do 'the greatest good for the greatest number of people.' In this ethical system, the ethical actor functions as a moral observer, dispassionately making decisions without regard to him or herself or his or her personal investment in the decision. Utilitarianism is a system of consequence-based ethics. It evaluates ethics solely upon the outcomes of decisions, not whether the decisions are keeping with moral laws. Depending on the situation, different ethical actions may be required. "The greatest number" is said to include all who are "affected by the action in question with each to count as one, and no one as more than one" (Kay, 1997, Notes on utilitarianism).

However, an obvious problem with utilitarianism is that defining what the 'greatest good'...
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