ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the established ethical theories of deontology, teleology, consequentialism, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. It shows how different ethical theories have different starting points and focuses on alternative aspects of moral behaviour. The chapter discusses the two key theorists, Kant and Aristotle, the former constructing a theory of deontology around extrinsic notions like duties and obligations, and the latter around intrinsic human characters and traits and explains how these lend themselves to following a path that leads to self-fulfilment and happiness. The chapter also explores how Habermas (1996) develops discourse ethics in the Kantian tradition, feminists develop the ethics of care in the tradition of virtue ethics, and Bauman takes a different tack from Kant in his postmodern ethics of responsibility that follows in the phenomenological tradition whereby ethics, or the desire to behave morally, flows from the call of the other.
