For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the

Much is said about Ethics and we all agree we have them. But just what is “them?” Lets tackle the business ethics first for it is simple and straight forward. The problem comes when you are asked by your supervisor to do something that you are not sure if it is the right thing to do.

There are two parts to the business ethical question:

What to do when you are asked to do something, would your action be ethical? When you personally have to make decisions: How do you make them ethically?

Following Orders

This part is simple. You must understand your loyalties:

Be loyal to yourself.
Next, be loyal to the company
And finally, be loyal to your supervisor.
Remember the sequence: Yourself, the company and then your supervisor.

Texas Instruments has a simple three-step rule to follow if you question the ethical merits of a directive:

If you know it is wrong, simply don’t do it.
If you are not sure, ask.
Keep asking until you get an answer.

What if you are asked to do the unethical and there is no way out? You should always have “Go to hell money” available to say just that. Go to hell and let the chips fall where they may. Resigning is far superior to lowering your standards.

Making Ethical Decisions

This is a short article I wrote when I was studying ethics. First a brief history, followed by a brief outline of the ethical school I live by (Utilitarian Ethics) and then the “how-to” of making ethical decisions. It is an easy read as Word rates the article as suitable for grade eight readers.

Those who specialize in the study of and write about ethics are called Ethicans. By any definition they are a strange lot. Their main occupation is criticizing other ethicans and every ethical school of thought except the ones they favor.

Ethicans attempt to create an ethical school that applies to every occasion. The search is for a unifying ethical system is much like the search for the unifying theory of physics. It may happen in physics but not in ethics. Ethics is an emotional identity attempting to present itself as a logical and rational discipline. It fails miserably.

In addition, the ethical thinkers are not logical thinkers. They squabble amongst themselves and pass themselves off as great thinkers. If you want to read classical examples of poor writing, corrupt logic and pettiness, read the classical ethical writers. Yet they were brilliant.

For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the U

Following Orders

This part is simple. You must understand your loyalties:

Be loyal to yourself.
Next, be loyal to the company
And finally, be loyal to your supervisor.
Remember the sequence: Yourself, the company and then your supervisor.

Texas Instruments has a simple three-step rule to follow if you question the ethical merits of a directive:

If you know it is wrong, simply don’t do it.
If you are not sure, ask.
Keep asking until you get an answer.

What if you are asked to do the unethical and there is no way out? You should always have “Go to hell money” available to say just that. Go to hell and let the chips fall where they may. Resigning is far superior to lowering your standards.

Making Ethical Decisions

This is a short article I wrote when I was studying ethics. First a brief history, followed by a brief outline of the ethical school I live by (Utilitarian Ethics) and then the “how-to” of making ethical decisions. It is an easy read as Word rates the article as suitable for grade eight readers.

Those who specialize in the study of and write about ethics are called Ethicans. By any definition they are a strange lot. Their main occupation is criticizing other ethicans and every ethical school of thought except the ones they favor.

Ethicans attempt to create an ethical school that applies to every occasion. The search is for a unifying ethical system is much like the search for the unifying theory of physics. It may happen in physics but not in ethics. Ethics is an emotional identity attempting to present itself as a logical and rational discipline. It fails miserably.

In addition, the ethical thinkers are not logical thinkers. They squabble amongst themselves and pass themselves off as great thinkers. If you want to read classical examples of poor writing, corrupt logic and pettiness, read the classical ethical writers. Yet they were brilliant.

For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the

Making Ethical Decisions

This is a short article I wrote when I was studying ethics. First a brief history, followed by a brief outline of the ethical school I live by (Utilitarian Ethics) and then the “how-to” of making ethical decisions. It is an easy read as Word rates the article as suitable for grade eight readers.

Those who specialize in the study of and write about ethics are called Ethicans. By any definition they are a strange lot. Their main occupation is criticizing other ethicans and every ethical school of thought except the ones they favor.

Ethicans attempt to create an ethical school that applies to every occasion. The search is for a unifying ethical system is much like the search for the unifying theory of physics. It may happen in physics but not in ethics. Ethics is an emotional identity attempting to present itself as a logical and rational discipline. It fails miserably.

In addition, the ethical thinkers are not logical thinkers. They squabble amongst themselves and pass themselves off as great thinkers. If you want to read classical examples of poor writing, corrupt logic and pettiness, read the classical ethical writers. Yet they were brilliant.

For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the

Ethicans attempt to create an ethical school that applies to every occasion. The search is for a unifying ethical system is much like the search for the unifying theory of physics. It may happen in physics but not in ethics. Ethics is an emotional identity attempting to present itself as a logical and rational discipline. It fails miserably.

In addition, the ethical thinkers are not logical thinkers. They squabble amongst themselves and pass themselves off as great thinkers. If you want to read classical examples of poor writing, corrupt logic and pettiness, read the classical ethical writers. Yet they were brilliant.

For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the

For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the women’s suffrage movement.

His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the Utilitarian principles. It is a disgraceful example of writing. For example the opening sentence is sixty-two words long. And things only get worse. Word processing grammar checkers get serious indigestion trying to analyze it.

Since 1863 I doubt if a dozen people have read the 24,000 word document from start to finish. I am not one of them. It is a masterpiece of confusion, bad grammar, and poor punctuation while making little sense. The concept is correct, but Mill’s explanation is so inept, it borders on the criminal.

In truth, the concept can be well expressed in less than five hundred words. Throw in a few examples and two thousand words would be about right. Strange, that is about the length of this essay.

I said they were crazy lot. Consider the founder of Utilitarian Ethics, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). He was quite a fellow: he was a child prodigy, reading serious works at age three, playing the violin at age five, and studying French and Latin at age six. He entered Oxford University at age 12, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. Quite a fellow.

In 1771, thirty years before the industrial revolution, Jeremy Betham invented the Panopticon. A Panopticon was to remove all privacy from prisoners by placing them behind a transparent wall encircling a guard tower.

Jeremy was so impressed with his invention he was determined to have a Panopticon as his casket and be place on public display. Certainly and odd request. But there is a difference between being odd and being disgusting.

Ladies, if you are a bit squeamish you may not want to hear this so please close your eyes. In accordance with his wishes, his body was dissected before his friends. His skeleton, fully clothed and provided with a wax head (the original being mummified), is kept in a glass case at University College, which he helped to found. He may be viewed on the Web with the picture updated every fifteen minutes.

His head was embalmed and is kept by the University.

There are about fifteen schools of ethics. Including minor variations there are untold numbers. After reviewing many of the mainstream schools, I can honestly say I have little idea of what they are talking about except for Utilitarian Ethics.

Fool that I am, I delved into Utilitarian Ethics as it made sense to apply it to my life style.

My ethical system is based on Utilitarian Ethics: the doctrine that what is useful is good, and consequently, that the ethical value of conduct is determined by the utility of the result. Loosely put, its proposition is that the s