n, 1997).
Deontology is a system of ethics based on the tenets that (1) a set of moral rules exists which humans must follow, and (2) the principles underlying these moral rules are unchanging. Deontology is a difficult ethical system to employ because different people may adhere to different sets of moral rules (Thompson & Thompson, 1997).
The ethical system of natural law holds that actions are ethically correct when they are in accord with the end purpose of human nature and human goals (Thompson & Thompson, 1997). Thus, the do good and avoid evil maxim of natural law ethics encompasses the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. Even within the system of natural law ethics, however, conflicts may arise in decision-making because a theist will conceive human nature and human goals in one way, while a non-theist may conceive of those concepts in a quite different way (Sims, 1994).
In the contemporary period, utilitarianism and deontology tend to command the greatest level of attention in ethical considerations involving the business and the economy. In quite general terms, utilitarian philosophy evaluates the acceptability of actions in the context of their outcomes. Thus, an evaluation of an outcome ù a consequence ù as good would confer an evaluation of acceptability on an action, and vice versa (Goldstein & Rubin, 1996).
Almost all actions, however, result in both good and bad outcomes, a phenomenon that tends to complicate utilitarian evaluations. Utilitarian philosophy attempts to solve this dilemma through the criterion of the greatest good to the greatest number. This approach tends to attempt to reduce a philosophical question to a type of accounting exercise. In just such a way, the United States justified the use of nuclear weapons against the civilian population of Japan in the Second World War. The justification was that the tens of thousands of civilian deaths caused by the nuclear w...