Aristotelian ethics

Process Versus Human Problem Is it possible to achieve ultimate perfection? How can humans become the best versions of themselves? For Enlightenment philosophers like Descartes, empirical thinking was the source of human improvement. For a Romantic poet like Charles Baudelaire, awareness of the nature of humanity was of most importance. In Descartes Discourse on Method and Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poetry, it is clear that both men had differing views on the understanding of self.…

Utilitarianism is considered as one of the most prominent philosophical concepts. This model's core perspective emphasizes that actions are ethically acceptable or unacceptable depending on their consequences. Based on this understanding, it can be argued that utilitarians hold that the goal of morality is to improve life by enhancing some favorable things such as happiness in the world while minimizing undesirable aspects such as grief (Urmson, 33). Consequently, the core objective of this…

our world; however, the duty of prerogative is absolute integrity. Knowledge without character, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, politics without principle, religion without sacrifice, science without humanity, and business without ethics are things that can destroy personality. But, beauty is an enriched concept that life unfolds, throughout O'Donohue work, he explained that beauty is a human calling. Therefore, integrity is a mission; honesty is an inherent beauty, not…

Response Paper “The Debate Over Free Will” In chapter nine of the book Problems from Philosophy by James and Stuart Rachels, the authors discuss the debate over free will. The idea of humans having free will is the main argument in this chapter. The authors noted that the more we learn about the human behavior, the less likely it seems that we are free. Though different groups have the same meaning for free will, the goal of this chapter is to determine if we have free will or not. The…

Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Ideal Team Player”, is a book that places emphasis on the qualities of being a team player. In order to be recognized as a team player, one must possess three essential virtues including humbleness, hunger, and smart. In the beginning, the book includes the fable of a leader, CEO Jeff Shanely, who is in distressed need to save his uncle’s company by cracking the codes of virtues and rebuilding the organizational culture. In the beginning, Lencioni tells how a…

During the late 18th century, Jeremy Bentham conceived the idea that human actions are driven by the amount of pleasure one may feel by completing the action. Known as utilitarianism, it states that pleasure is the main motivational force of all actions. Ideally, a morally good action would yield an optimal amount of pleasure for the most amount of people. Bentham stated that pleasure is a product of good actions, and that the value of an action is based off of how much total pleasure it can…

The Fourth and Fifth of Euthyphro's Definitions to Piety In the fourth definition of Euthyphro in Plato's dialogue of “Euthyphro”, he describes piety is as a “servants show to their master” (Plato 71). meaning the one should follow the god's ways, like in a way in how a priest would follow the words of the gods in what could be good or evil. Furthermore, Euthyphro could be suggesting that attending to gods is piety (good), meaning doing things that would please the gods would be seeing as goods…

In Kantian Ethics, an action is good and moral if done in the maxim (motivating principle) that would be universally accepted and done in the sake of duty alone. While this principle primarily addresses human-human interactions, our duties in human-animal relationships remain unclear. So in considering the question of our duties to animals in his “Duties Towards Animals and Spirits,” Immanuel Kant asserts that the moral obligations we have as human beings to animals are, in fact, obligations to…

Sara Ahmed, the author of The Promise of Happiness, offers a new perspective on happiness. Unlike many others, she does not attempt to define happiness, nor describe the ways to achieve it. Instead, she examines happiness through the lenses of several different moral theories including utilitarianism and deontology. Through this careful examination, she is led to the conclusion that happiness varies from person to person and there is no clear identifiable source that is applicable to everyone.…

Throughout the course of human history, existence really, there is a basic need to stay alive; the stakes of which are endless. Whether it is keeping your children alive or just yourself, the instinct is there to do the best for yourself and not for anyone else. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a prime example of the cruelty of humans for the sake of themselves. The story does not only show human’s basic instincts, but the underlying obedience to do an act of horror despite knowing it is not…