Some people claim that everyone has their own ethics, in other words, ethics is individual. The amazing thing about ethical theory is not that there are so many theories, but that there are actually very few. Most contemporary ethical theory is governed by two basic theories, with five or six additional theories taking up the vast majority of the rest of the discussion. Over the next few pages, I will explain the basics of eight different ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, contractarianism, feminist or care-based ethics, natural law theory, Confucian ethics , intuitionism and the theory of the ideal observer, and virtue. ethics. I'm going to tell you about some of the main proponents of the theory, some of its variations, and give you some examples of how it might be applied in real-world situations. To begin, you need to understand the idea of ​​an ethical theory. An ethical theory is a theory about what makes an action or set of actions morally right or wrong. In ethical theory, we generally look for one or more key principles of right action, which can then be applied in concrete situations. For example, in Plato's book The Republic, Cephalus, an elderly businessman, asserts that "right action consists nothing more and nothing less of telling the truth and repaying whatever we may have received." (I.331a). This is a moral principle that never really develops into ethical theory, as Plato quickly shows that it must be abandoned. He does this by applying moral theory to a concrete situation, which demonstrates that these actions (telling the truth and repaying what one owes) are sometimes good and sometimes bad: Suppose, for example, a friend who lent us a .. .... middle of document......The opposite of integrity might be hypocrisy, where a person's actions do not match their words and beliefs.ConclusionHere you have some- some of the rudiments of today's basic ethical theories. These are of course not the only ethical theories, but I wanted to give you a general overview of some of the most popular or common theories, what they believed, and who believed them. You will probably find that you use some of each of these principles in your decision-making, or that you use one or the other depending on the situation. Works Cited Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, translated and analyzed by HJ Patton [New York: Harper & Row, 1964]. Plato, The Republic, translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford [New York: Oxford University Press]. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971].