Father Ryan Teleological Ethics

Sometimes in order to realize something, one must have a concept explained to them by someone with a different thought process than them. Father Michael T. Ryan made a couple of intelligent statements about recent human behaviour that relate to the concepts of teleology, deontology, and various gospel values that would be beneficial for many people to understand. Father Ryan’s statement about the woman with the fine dishes being a ‘means to an end’ is an excellent example of teleological ethics. Those who have fine dishes only use them when company is coming over for a meal, usually on a special occasion like Christmas. This woman, however, would bring the plates out only to clean them, thereby defeating the purpose of owning the plates because she is not using them for their intended use: to serve a meal. His main …show more content…
Father Ryan gives the example about technology being this generation’s means to an end. Cellular phones were designed so that people could be accessed at any time; its purpose was to create more communication between people. In recent years, cellular phones have been improved so that they can be used for much more than just communicating, and a miniscule amount of people prefer to call over sending an instant message. While this still applies as communicating, you do not feel the same connection when texting that you feel when you hear someone speak. People are designed to live in community. You cannot obtain the same feeling of community over text as you can when you talk to someone or meet up with them. In this way, using a device specifically made to call others for games, or using instant messages to communicate quickly instead of enjoying communicating, has not aided human beings in fulfilling their