Looking at the Exxon Mobil case study on the link below, do you think that a Utilitarian and a Deontologist would necessarily evaluate the ethics of the situation differently?
Deontological ethics refers to an ethics system that judges whether an act is wrong or right focusing on the moral code. The effects of such actions is often not taken into account. While utilitarian ethics refer to the course of action taken into account by the most favorable outcome. Thus, a Deontologist would evaluate the ethics of Exxon Mobil case differently, because Equatorial Guinea’s president T. Nguema and his family that benefits from the project and not the citizens who are expected to benefit (Velasquez & Velazquez, 2002).
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The Deontologist’s theory states that an immoral act would result in something good, however, in the case of Equatorial Guinea the president acts immorally good and leads to something bad to the citizens, which is remaining poor. Utilitarian, on the other hand, would evaluate the Exxon Mobil case differently because utilitarianism theory states that something is ethical or moral only when it leads to the highest amount of good for a considerable number of people (Velasquez & Velazquez, 2002). The Exxon Mobile case is different as the project benefits only a few, the president and his family.
Do you think that the oil companies' actions could be justified under any of the theories of justice discussed in the chapter?
No, none of the theories of justice justifies the actions of the Oil Company because all the activities were not justifiable, and none of them, despite being immoral, they did no good to the citizens or the public. For example, Mill’s theory of justice ascribes that actions are right in proportions as they are likely to promote happiness. Rawls’s Justice as Fairness attributes that the legal system, political constitution, the economy, and family as well are the society’s basic structure, and they all need to be balanced. Lastly, the third theory of justice is Nozick’s libertarianism, which states that humans are born having individual rights (Turner, 2014). Further contends that these rights are paramount and no need for any system to achieve moral equilibrium, as noted in the situation of Exxon Mobil and Equatorial Guinea president.
References
Turner, B. S. (2014). Three theories of justice: preliminary reflections. The Spirit of Luc Boltanski. Essays on the ‘Pragmatic Sociology of Critique , 29-48.
Velasquez, M. G., & Velazquez, M. (2002). Business ethics: Concepts and cases (Vol. 111). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
