Affirmative Action: Utilitarianism And Virtue Of Ethics

564 Words3 Pages
Affirmative Action is a policy that looks at a person’s race, religion, or gender to make sure they are given a fair opportunity to gain employment or admission to institutions, or business where they are underrepresented (Jonsson, 2002). Throughout this paper there will be a discussion of the ethical ramifications of affirmative action. Two ethical theories that will be discussed in depth are utilitarianism and virtue of ethics. Also there will be a discussion of ethical egoism with regard to how it relates to affirmative action. Affirmative Action is a policy that came to the center of attention in the 1960s. It was a way in which to ensure that every ethnic group had a chance to progress within society. Initially affirmative action was really used to enforce the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 which was an act to help stop discrimination (Price, 2015).…show more content…
The utilitarianism theory is theory of normative ethics that basically says the best thing that can be done morally is to increase the well-being of people (Wilkins, & Wenger, 2014). Some of the ways that affirmative action does this is by increasing diversity. A big part of affirmative action is to make sure those organizations, and business cannot discriminate against people based on the following: race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation (Price, 2015). Affirmative Action not only protects a person’s right to work anywhere, but it also protects the right to attend school in places that may have been previously closed to them. There is also a clause to protect from hatred. The way that affirmative action helps protect against hatred is by making laws that impose strict punishment on those that physically or mentally hurt people because of their race, or gender. All of these things help to increase the well-being of
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