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Morality and ethical decisions
Individualism vs collectivism in society
Categorical imperative 3
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In the essay the “train switch dilemma” a single train car is rushing toward a group of five unknowing workers who cannot hear the train approaching. Another train worker (Alex) who is working at his summer job sees the train headed for the five workers but notices a rail switch which if pulled will divert the train to a different track, however if the rail switch lever is pulled it will kill the lone person working there. The rail switch presents the following moral dilemma: do nothing and five people die, or flip the switch and one person dies. In this essay, I will show why Alex should not pull the rail switch lever; that by doing so would be morally wrong. Making a choice that results in the intentional killing of one person is not the …show more content…
What are Morals? Do they differ from Ethics? What are Ethics? Let us start with Morals; Morality is about making correct choices. Morality is about making good choices or decisions. However, Ethics are different; they are about proper reasoning and conduct. What makes the decision right or a person good? Are we born with morals and ethics or are they taught? I believe that we are taught right from wrong and that our belief systems help define what is right or wrong. My culture is different from someone else’s, so what is morally wrong for me may not be morally wrong for another. For the Train Dilemma I will discuss why I believe it is wrong for Alex to pull the rail switch …show more content…
If an action can pass the Categorical Imperative, then it is a good choice. According to Kant, “The general idea behind the Categorical Imperative is that you should not act on motives that you would not want to be universal law… so in essence, you should not do what you would not want others to do…” (Philosophyfactory par. 4). In other words, would you always choose the greater good over the one (to pull the rail switch lever)? On the other hand, as I am suggesting what Alex should do, (not pull the rail switch lever) choose the value of one over choosing to kill and end a life. The choice that Alex is facing is about the choosing to end a life by pulling the rail switch lever vs doing nothing and allowing fate to play out which in the end would result in the train killing five
However, in order for her thesis to be correct, the Bystander at the Switch case must always be morally permissible. There should be no situation in which it is morally impermissible to kill the one and save the five. If there were such a situation, where both parts of Thomson’s thesis remained true but it would still be morally impermissible to kill the one because of some outside factor, then Thomson’s thesis would no longer be the complete answer.
The ‘Trolley Car Problem’ has sparked heated debates amongst numerous philosophical and jurisprudential minds for centuries. The ‘Trolley Car’ debate challenges one’s pre-conceived conceptions about morals, ethics and the intertwined relationship between law and morality. Many jurisprudential thinkers have thoroughly engaged with this debate and have consequentially put forward various ideologies in an attempt to answer the aforementioned problem. The purpose of this paper is to substantiate why the act of saving the young, innocent girl and resultantly killing the five prisoners is morally permissible. In justifying this choice, this paper will, first, broadly delve into the doctrine of utilitarianism, and more specifically focus on a branch
There has been a huge debate throughout the years of whether humans are ethical by nature or not. Despite Christian Keyser’s research evidence that humans are ethical by nature, the evidence from the Milgram experiment shows that we are not ethical by nature. Humans learn to be ethical through genetic disposition as well as environmental factors such as culture, socialization, and parenting. In order to understand if we are ethical or not, we need to understand the difference between being moral or ethical. Many people believe that being moral and ethical are the same thing, but these two terms are a bit different. “Morality is primarily about making correct choices, while ethics is about proper reasoning” (Philosopher, web). Morality is more
Separating personal morals from ethics is important for a police officer. Personal morals are how an individual decides what is right and wrong based on their own beliefs. Ethics are based on universal ground rules for handling situations. In other words, a police officer must treat everyone the same and follow the ethical guidelines regardless of their personal feelings. It
Ethics are the principles that shape individual lives in modern society. It is a subjective idea that seems to have a standard in society. Ethics and morals are the major factors that guide individuals to make right and wrong choices. Something that is morally right to one person might be the very opposite of what another person would view as right. There are many factors that can trigger a change in an individual’s view of morality.
A study was conducted in which participants were presented with three dilemmas. One dilemma was called the Trolley Dilemma: a trolley is headed toward five people standing on the track. You can switch the trolley to another track killing only one person instead of five. Subjects were asked to decide between right and wrong.
He shows that he has developed his own code of conduct (Browne, 1973, p.2). The means that the $50k that would be received is for murder (Matheson, 2009, p.10). Arthur uses the word murder multiple times. There is no doubt in this character’s mind that pushing the button is wrong and it is murder no matter what. Matheson proves through Arthur the when one considers universal morality, not everyone would experience happiness through the use of the box. The person that dies surely would not be happy with death. No even if the person is thousands of miles away living with a disease in the Congo, or a peasant in China. However Arthur counters Norma distance by bringing the possible victims close to home with his questions of what about a baby boy in Pennsylvania or a pretty little girl around the corner (Matheson, 2009, p.10), when one considers the lives of children, most individuals understand children have just began to live and they have their whole lives ahead of them. The pushing of the button would definitely cut their lives short. Matheson gives readers that aha moment, Arthur and Norma did not know each other at all, at least not when it comes to a moral dilemma. Matheson has posted this couple on two different sides of the fence in this
Ethics are the set beliefs and values of an individual which they apply to circumstances relating to morality. To act in an ‘ethical’ manner, an individual must display integrity by doing what they believe to be right.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the moral principles and values that govern our behavior as human beings. It is important in the human experience that we are able to grasp the idea of our own ethical code in order to become the most sensible human beings. But in that process, can ethics be taught to us? Or later in a person’s life, can he or she teach ethics the way they learned it? It is a unique and challenging concept because it is difficult to attempt to answer that question objectively because everybody has his or her own sense of morality. And at the same time, another person could have a completely different set of morals. Depending on the state of the person’s life and how they have morally developed vary from one human
Ethics are moral principles that can be used to help guide peoples decisions. We are all different and therefore our beliefs and opinions differ. There are many ethical theories, and according to Panza and Potthast (n.d.) the following are some that are widely used. Virtue ethics is one theory which states that personality is the most important thing. Living an ethical life, acting right, requires that one develops and demonstrates the quality of courage, compassion, wisdom, and temperance. It also requires that greed, jealousy, and selfishness is avoided. Utilitarianism states that the amount of happiness and suffering created by a person’s actions is what matters the most. As a result, acting rightly includes maximizing the amount of happiness and minimizing the amount of suffering around you. At times you may need to break some of the traditional moral rules to achieve such an outcome. Kantianism is another theory which highlights the principles behind actions rather than an actions results. It states that it requires to be motivated by good principles that treats everyone with respect. If you’re motivated by good principles, you overcome your animal instinct and act ethically. Another ethical theory is the Contract theory, which suggest that ethics should be thought of as terms of agreements between people. It suggests that doing the right thing means obeying agreements set by members rather than those of society. For this theory ethics isn’t necessarily about character, consequences, or principles. The last theory I’m going to mention is Care ethics. Care ethics focuses on ethical attention on relationships before other factors. As a result, acting rightly involves building, strengthening, and maintaining strong relationship...
According to the theory of consequentialism, “an action is morally required just because it produces the best overall results” (Landau, 2015, p.121). In this view, an individual’s action is deemed moral only if it produces the optimific result in any situation. In the article “Framing Effect in the Trolley Problem and Footbridge Dilemma,” the authors introduced the “Footbridge Dilemma”, wherein an individual is given the option to save the lives of five workers by pushing an innocent man towards an incoming trolley (Cao, et. al, 2017, p. 90). In this dilemma, consequentialism suggests that it is moral to push the innocent man and save the workers. Even though pushing the man would kill him, the action would yield the optimific outcome in that
Consequentialism sets out to prove that one’s actions are morally right just because they produce the greatest amount of possibly goodness in the world. Consequentialism has two forms; one being act-utilitarianism, and the second one being rule-utilitarianism. In this paper I will explain the difference between the two forms, and will also apply these two forms to the same given scenario, and describe how the act-utilitarian will select the male patient, while the rule-utilitarian will select the female patient.
Whether to kill one person to save a hundred worthwhile lives is all about looking at the consequences. This can be looked at in three ways, which include the utilitarian, ethical-egoist, and the egoist-altruism view. Ethical egoism theory states that the correct act in any given situation is that which maximizes the self-interest of a person. It is
Moral ethics is the belief that all human beings are born to know right from wrong. We come into this world as good people, but the temptations and challenges in life influence our mind set to as it will. Every person on Earth chooses if they’re to follow through with their life of good or go down the path of bad. “A person’s moral ethics” (unknown.)
When asked what is the definition of ethics, many responded that being moral meant doing the right thing. But how can we justify what is a good action and what is a bad action? All humans were created equal, but our principles, and ways of thinking can be extremely different. Some may say doing the right thing means following your heart, your inner feelings and intuition. But emotions can be misleading. Others say in order to do what is the morally right thing means to follow the law and do what is right by society, to be accepted. But today’s society is judgmental and can be corrupted with numerous opinions due to the diversity of cultures. So what does it mean to be ethical? Being ethical means doing what is right in terms of virtues, fairness, duties, responsibilities, obligations, and moral believes all which derived from cultures and family backgrounds.