Three Ethical Theories

Within society, people can believe that they are a good person. They support others with their tasks of personal and professional life and make time to support their own tasks of personal and professional life. Even though people may believe from their own thinking that they are a good person, others may wonder if they really are a good person. By aligning a person’s actions with theories from the three ethical categories of normative, meta, and applied ethics, people can actually find out whether or not they are really a good person. With all this in mind, does my actions validate my belief that I really am a good person when they are aligned against theories from the three categories of ethics?
The Three Categories of Ethics and Associated …show more content…
Using the theory of utilitarianism, I believe that I am a good person since some of the actions that I partake in on regular basis includes volunteering my time and effort through community service. The best example to support this claim can be seen when I proctor and grade amateur radio license exams as a Volunteer Examiner. As a Volunteer Examiner, my time is mostly dedicated towards watching over examinees as they take exams in order to maintain the credibility of the exam, and grading their exams using an answer key to see if they actually passed their exam. As a Volunteer Examiner, I do not get compensated for my time, but the experience of seeing someone smile when they pass their exam is the best thing that any person would want to see in lieu of being compensated (Especially, when I failed the person and then they take the exam again and pass). As stated earlier, the theory of utilitarianism states that a person should align their actions towards the overall benefit of society (“Utilitarianism”, n.d.). My commitment towards volunteering my time as a Volunteer Examiner supports this theory since my actions includes donating my time and effort towards benefiting the common good, rather than personal gain. Because my actions align with the ethical theory of utilitarianism, I can truly say that I am a good …show more content…
The situation involving the Volunteer Examiner Liaison giving me a separate exam correlates to the stipulations set forth in the utilitarianism theory. Remember, the utilitarianism theory states that a person should align their actions towards the overall benefit of society (“Utilitarianism”, n.d.). This theory aligns with my situation since the Volunteer Examiner Liaison’s idea of printing up a new test would be considered fair towards others since other people do not get the same privilege of proctoring and grading exams like I do. Aside from not taking the exam at all, this was the only way to really handle this ethical dilemma at that