Ethics

  I felt that this weeks readings were really interesting. Ethics is a super cool topic that I love talking about. What's right? What's wrong? It is very fun to talk about, because there is no real right answer. Every answer can be refuted and debated, making the topic rather subjective.

Out of the three types of ethics, Duty-based, virtue and consequentialist, I feel as though I use the consequentialist style of ethical decisions when I make my life decisions. I am definitely one who tends to think about the consequences of my actions, whether they be good or bad. As a normal human, I always try and benefit myself in every way, so I would say that each decision I make is always trying to be beneficial to myself. I don't intend that to come off as selfish or greedy, but if it is looked at in a biological approach then it makes quiet some sense. As humans, we want what is best for us, because best tends to lead to survival, so basing trying to make my decisions so that I can get the best out of a situation really just comes back to our basic human instinct of wanting the best. I guess that Ethical Egoism or the Social Contract Theory would be similar to what I'm saying. Every action we make is intended to benefit ourself. The only part of that theory that I disagree with is the fact that it means that any action you do is right because it is in the intent of making you happy. Killing a person is a great example to disprove that theory. Sure, killing a person might make a person happy, but it clearly does not make the victim happy, because they're dead. When your quest for the best interferes with the happiness of others, then that is when it becomes wrong. Also, it tends to justify selfishness which is not something that is right.

  Constantly being selfish will lead one to an unhappy life, which contradicts what the whole point of consequentialism. My goal when making my decisions is to bring the most happiness to me, and while I may receive short term happiness from being selfish, in the end I will just be alone and unhappy which is not my goal.

  The second ethics theory that I would relate to would be the Virtue Ethics. This one seems to be societies general view as to what is ethical. The way I think of it is that these are your manners. What your parents teach you and how you are raised based on society. People who's parents did not teach them socially acceptable manners are seen as bad influences and are frowned upon by society. But the question with that is what manners or virtues are right and which are wrong or is it just which ones are socially acceptable? One person can think that having elbows on the table is a trait of a bad person, while I think that there is nothing wrong with having ones elbows on the table. Which one of us is right? I think that it really just comes down to what your society accepts. This also makes life interesting because you get learn about the different virtues of different societies.