ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two different theories that provide standards for moral reasoning, ones that offer relatively clear decision procedures. The theories of ethical reasoning are: consequentialist, or value-maximizing; and deontological, or duty-based reasoning. Such ethical theories are attempts to articulate clearly what the standard of measurement should be, why it is the appropriate standard, and how that standard or reasoning process is to be applied in the moral decision-making. Depending on the situation, the risk of significant harm to passengers and crew may greatly increase. Different moral theories, though, have given different answers to the question of who counts as morally important. While egoism may over-emphasize the self-interested aspect of human nature, ethical altruism seems guilty of unrealistically underestimating the strength of individual self-interest. Immanuel Kant observes that—contrary to what classical Utilitarianism may believe—the ordinary moral intuitions tell us that moral evaluation centers on the agent's motives.
