Kant's Theory Deontology In The Film Erin Brockovich

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In the movie, Erin Brockovich, Erin is portrayed as a determined, self-sacrificing, compassion and empathy character. Throughout the movie Erin does what she feels is her duty to get what hundreds of people deserve while sacrificing time away from her children.
Erin Brockovich is a single mother of three kids that finds herself having a hard time getting a job. After Erin was involved in a car accident, which she wasn’t at fault, she begs her attorney, Ed Masry, to hire her at his law firm company. While working for Ed Masry, Erin came upon some medical records placed into a pro-bono real estate file that caught her eye. After getting permission to do further investigating in this case, Erin begins to find this case very suspicious. A Pacific
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Deontology is the normative theory that morality ought to be focused on duties and adherence to rules and imperatives. Deontological ethics focus on duties and obligation: things we ought to do regardless of the consequences. From the day when Erin came across those medical records in the real estate files, she never once gave up on that case. After she got permission to do further investigation, she knew something needed to be done when she started to find out what was happening at PG&E. She worked every day for hours on end away from her children talking to residents of Hinkley and getting their stories and all the information she needed to make her case strong. She showed so much compassion towards this case by learning all the victims’ name, memorized all their phone numbers, and knew every single detail of the complaints story involved in this case. Erin felt that it was her duty to get to the bottom of this case and do what is right for all the residents who lived in Hinkley. She wasn’t going to give up until she felt the people who lived in Hinkley got what they …show more content…
Utilitarianism is the normative theory that we ought to maximize the happiness and minimize the unhappiness of as many people as possible, which is also known as “the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Throughout the movie Erin spent so much time away from her family dealing with work that she was hurting her family by not being there when they needed her the most. She missed out on helping her kids with homework, making them dinner at night, and hearing her youngest daughter’s first word. Even though it was putting a lot of stress on her kids and George being away from home all the time, Erin was just trying to do everything in her power to help make the hundreds of Hinkley’s residents

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