Status Competition Ethical Analysis

In order to answer the following question, “Is status competition ethical?” we must first ask: What is status? Whats is Competition? How do these combine to create status competition? How do we determine what is ethical and what is unethical? What makes one action more ethically sound than another? Aristotle believed that status competition was unethical and was not beneficial to a society. The people in status seeking societies would face deficiency and excess of certain virtues, according to Aristotle 's virtues. Aristotle believed that one must follow the mean. Pleasure and pain felt at the fortune of others is associated with the status competition that Aristotle felt was unethical. A deficiency of pleasure and pain felt at the fortune …show more content…
Using the State of Nature, Hobbes says humans are wired to obtain the highest amount of pleasure possible while keeping their pain level at the bare minimum. Human have an infinite number of desires. This is due to their overwhelming need to have more pleasure than pain. With the constant need for more pleasure and less pain, people have an infinite amount of desires. While some individuals may be superior in one aspect, someone else will be superior in another aspects. All of those people being superior in their own ways cancel each other out or at least make them neutral to each other. Hobbes suspects that no one person will ever become so powerful that all humans become their slave. According to Hobbes, all human beings are essentially equal; with only a few minor differences. Because they are all similar, they seek to have the same things. These desires that are alike can cause conflict once resources that are desired by multiple people are used up; resources on the earth are finite, unlike our desires. Hobbes ethical claim is gaining more resources for yourself is okay, even if you are taking them from someone else; which goes along with the state of nature. Since everyone is near equal, they cancel themselves out. No one will ever gain a large surplus more than someone else. In this state of nature, no one is safe. There is a constant threat of your belongings being taken due to the excessive …show more content…
He believes that status competition is unethical. The way the Jones acted in trying to sell their products and better their community would not be unethical in Aristotle 's eyes because they were trying to influence and make their community better. They were acting as emulators for their community. There is a specific process to emulation. There is the person doing the emulation and the person being emulated. The person being emulated, the Jones in this case, is the model for the person who is doing the emulation. The first person will judge the model to see if they are similar. Humans do not judge and compare themselves to people who they do not find themselves to be similar to. We can not emulate people who are not similar to us. Objects that one typically desire from someone who they deem similar are wealth, abundance, and certain characteristics and virtues. Emulation is the pain felt by the person doing the emulation as they see someone else who is similar to them having what they desire. The person tries to rid the pain by obtaining what they desire that they see the model have. The thought process is: I am similar so I deserve to have and therefore I will seek to have. When the one doing the emulation has obtained what the model has, the model now has a new incentive to obtain something that the other person does not have, therefore, starting the cycle all over again. When the market cycle ended