Brooke Woerdehoff
Professor Dingel
Intro to Ethics
16 November 2017
Ethics Paper
Ethics is the study of morality. It’s a branch of philosophy that looks to understand how human actions can be judged as right, wrong, good or bad. Why are we the person we are today and what helps guide us in our actions, ethics plays a part in it. There are many moral theories in ethics. I am going to touch on Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics, and Social Contract.
Utilitarianism says that in a scenario, when there is something that makes the most good for the majority of people, then it is moral. It also questions whether something is bad or good. It looks at people's lives and sees what cause people to be happy, and say that those causes are good. …show more content…
I can see where helping the majority of people would be the better outcome, but it also means sacrificing the needs or joy of others. I do not think that one human life is more precious than another. But if there was a scenario like I used for my example of Utilitarianism, then I could agree with saving the lives of the four people over the one other.
In Kantian ethics some actions are forbidden such as lying, murder and stealing. If this action made more happiness than any other action it still would be prohibited. In Kantian Ethics there are two main things we have to evaluate before me make a decision; “(1) Can I rationally will that everyone act as I propose to act? (2) Does my action respect the goals of human beings rather than merely using them for my own purposes?” If the action does not meet those standards then we shouldn't do the action. (Q1)
Immanuel Kant’s way of pursuing ethics is all about how right or wrong an action is rather than being focused on what consequence that action will have or the nature of the person doing that action. He believes that all humans are logical and being rational is the ideal good. Kant’s theory of the Categorical Imperative was one of his biggest contributions in ethics. It says that when you perform an action, you should perform it like that action would become a universal law. …show more content…
You would have to abide by their laws and follow their government.
I agree with the Social contract theory. If a place has a certain set of rules, then you should follow them. Rules help to keep society in order. If we didn’t have rules then society would be a mess and people would be running around stealing things or killing others.
My approach to ethics would mainly be following the rules and government of my country, much like Social Contract theory. I also like to look at the outcome of the situation before I make decisions. If the situation will have a bad outcome, then I wouldn’t choose that one.
I am choosing abortion as my topic to debate about. I chose this topic because I feel as though I know a good amount about this subject and it is a topic that I am very passionate about. We talk about abortion in my religion class alot and I have also been a member of Students for Life at my school for four
Professor Dingel
Intro to Ethics
16 November 2017
Ethics Paper
Ethics is the study of morality. It’s a branch of philosophy that looks to understand how human actions can be judged as right, wrong, good or bad. Why are we the person we are today and what helps guide us in our actions, ethics plays a part in it. There are many moral theories in ethics. I am going to touch on Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics, and Social Contract.
Utilitarianism says that in a scenario, when there is something that makes the most good for the majority of people, then it is moral. It also questions whether something is bad or good. It looks at people's lives and sees what cause people to be happy, and say that those causes are good. …show more content…
I can see where helping the majority of people would be the better outcome, but it also means sacrificing the needs or joy of others. I do not think that one human life is more precious than another. But if there was a scenario like I used for my example of Utilitarianism, then I could agree with saving the lives of the four people over the one other.
In Kantian ethics some actions are forbidden such as lying, murder and stealing. If this action made more happiness than any other action it still would be prohibited. In Kantian Ethics there are two main things we have to evaluate before me make a decision; “(1) Can I rationally will that everyone act as I propose to act? (2) Does my action respect the goals of human beings rather than merely using them for my own purposes?” If the action does not meet those standards then we shouldn't do the action. (Q1)
Immanuel Kant’s way of pursuing ethics is all about how right or wrong an action is rather than being focused on what consequence that action will have or the nature of the person doing that action. He believes that all humans are logical and being rational is the ideal good. Kant’s theory of the Categorical Imperative was one of his biggest contributions in ethics. It says that when you perform an action, you should perform it like that action would become a universal law. …show more content…
You would have to abide by their laws and follow their government.
I agree with the Social contract theory. If a place has a certain set of rules, then you should follow them. Rules help to keep society in order. If we didn’t have rules then society would be a mess and people would be running around stealing things or killing others.
My approach to ethics would mainly be following the rules and government of my country, much like Social Contract theory. I also like to look at the outcome of the situation before I make decisions. If the situation will have a bad outcome, then I wouldn’t choose that one.
I am choosing abortion as my topic to debate about. I chose this topic because I feel as though I know a good amount about this subject and it is a topic that I am very passionate about. We talk about abortion in my religion class alot and I have also been a member of Students for Life at my school for four