Critical Thinking Analysis

Chapter 6 really gets your attention, right in the begining. I had never heard of the “footbridge dilemma” and I am still at a loss for what I would do in this instance. This question posed, illustrated the two different philosophical approaches. The first is described as the “utilitarian approach” which the authors quote “doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” The second is “deontological approach” which is making the decision “based upon adherence to rules and duties.” The question further illustrates how emotions play a role in the decision making. Chapter 6 is about motivational and emotional influences on decision making. We have internal conflicts with decision making, described as what we want to do and what we think we should do. The “multiple-selves” theory is used to describe this internal conflict. The wanting immediate happiness and the other for greater future benefits. Another reason for this internal conflict is that our brain has two different systems for processing decisions. System one, which is more automatic thought and system two the deliberate thought. System two consists more of the emotional thought process while system one is more rational. Several examples are provided, the one that stood out the …show more content…
There is “exponential discounting” and “hyperbolic discounting”, exponential discounting is discounting a future period of time, such as 1 year by a percentage. “Hyperbolic discounting’’ deals more self control issues, such as procrastinating or addiction. There was a great example to illustrate “hyperbolic discounting”; many people are of the belief that we should try to be good to the environment and not destroy it for our future generations. Yet on a daily basis we make decisions that do not support this belief. For example, many of us will buy bottles of water, instead of using a reusable bottle for their