Act utilitarianism is a theory in ethics defined by a person’s deed being right morally if the act only gives the best and expected results in a certain situation. In contrast, virtue ethics that Aristotle developed based on character is achieved through practice. In as much as the two ethics are broadly in use by humanity at all times, they all have both advantages and disadvantages where utilitarianism has the advantage of being simple. The ability to consider behavior as morally acceptable through giving the best outcome is more practical and enforces the ability to watch on behavior. In addition, it promotes and creates happiness in society during interaction with society. This is majorly considered because it builds a community to harness and unity. Having to do good to be considered morally stable assists in building self-good and reputation of how other people view us and our open behaviors.
There are noted disadvantages with the use of utilitarianism as a theory of ethics. The theory greatly neglects and ignores the happiness of individual because everyone is on the run to be accepted morally to the society and tend to make individuals do what tends to make them happy (Mulgan, 2019). Virtue ethics is known to base its focus on the character alone, making it suitable for use, especially where it involves many people. For this reason, it helps avoid conflicts between one another because it tends to enhance the learning of behavior through practice. However, learning character through practice is the best method to define and describe the nature of life. In life, every moment is good for learning, and learning improves personal and community character. Therefore, it is best to build character and enhance essential character development that enables people to interact without much conflict. It has an advantage because it gives a chance for people to learn new characters that they would wish to have through good practice until it becomes part of them.
However, virtue is a theory that is less practical due to its complexity. It entails seeing and trying to manage to control and tame a character effectively. It, therefore, cannot apply well where interaction has been done for a short period (Mulgan, 2019). Virtue ethics also fails to give a clear measure of action’s nature. Most of the time, the action is related to having undergone a learning process to achieve the desired outcome. The best theory to use concerning the context is act utilitarianism. Because it gives a chance for an individual to be accountable and responsible for their characters at all times, it is best if it can be deployed and embraced. However, to achieve outstanding results in character, it is possible to combine the two theories by first implementing the approach of virtue and later analyzing the outcome based on utilitarianism.
Whereas virtue ethics is concerned with the character of the individual doing an act, utilitarianism is a moral argument that assumes that an activity is ethical if it is beneficial to the majority. Act utilitarian’s think that anytime we make a decision, we should choose the action that will result in the highest net utility. According to them, the utility principle, which states that do whatever produces the best overall results, should be implemented on a case-by-case basis. Doing charitable work tomorrow would create more overall joy and happiness than television viewing all day. Virtue ethics is person-centered rather than action-centered, focusing on the virtue or moral excellence doing the activity rather than ethical responsibilities and norms or the consequences of specific actions.
Reference
Mulgan, T. (2019). Utilitarianism. Cambridge University Press. Web.