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Utilitarianism as a moral doctrine underpinning ethical values
Utilitarianism as a moral doctrine underpinning ethical values
Utilitarianism as a moral doctrine underpinning ethical values
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“Citizen Four” is an award-winning documentary film directed by Laura Poitras in 2014. This film is about Edward Snowden, who was an American computer professional and former Central Intelligence Agency employee. This film received the US premier on October 2014 at the New York film festival and UK premier at the BFI London film festival. Also, it received the academy award for the best documentary feature at the 2015 Oscars. In this film, Edward Snowden act as a whistleblower against the US government. He found that the US government hacks phone calls, E-mails, text messages, passwords, credit cards, web browsers and digital foot prints of all the people including business organizations and foreign dealing for the security reason after 9/11 …show more content…
The US government’s activity of hacking the citizen’s electronic conversations and electronic transaction is unethical because the US government action violates the theory of justice and virtue ethics, but the US government action ethical because it is obeying the theory of utilitarianism, also Edward Snowden’s activity of copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency without any authorization is unethical because he followed the theory of intuition, but his activity is ethical because it is obeying the virtue …show more content…
Aristotle, who was a Greek philosopher and scientist, talked about certain characteristics of virtue ethics such as being honesty, being kindness and being fairness with others. The virtue ethics says follow your moral characteristics, and it is very important to society. According to virtue ethics, Edward Snowden made honest and fair decision regarding US citizens. He was being honesty and being fairness about local public and let everybody known that every person on risk to use electronic devices and sharing confidential data. After his whistle blowing, all the people got attention of their privacy, and they secured
The method of ethical decision making which was developed by Dr. Cathryn A. Baird presented two components contained in all ethical decisions which are; The Four ethical Lenses and the 4+1 Decision process. The Four Ethical Lenses issue claims that different ethical theories and the means in which we tend to approach the situations which form part of our ethical traditions are looked at in four different perspectives. From each perspective there are different values on which to decide whether the action taken is either ethical or not and each lens also lays emphasis on determining whether the decision made is of ethical requirement. In the 4+1 Decision Process, people who are responsible for making final decisions in an organization do it using four specific decision making steps and eventually will end up with one extra decision which gives a chance to reflect. The 4+1 decision process allows the decision makers to give solutions when faced with complicated ethical issues (John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, 2000).
After September 11th, Americans looked to the government for protection and reassurance. However, they did not expect to find out thirteen years later that the government did this by using technology to spy on Americans, as well as other countries. George W. Bush began the policy shortly after the terrorist attack and Barack Obama continued it. There have been many confrontations over the years about the extent of the N.S.A.’s spying; however, the most recent whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, leaked information that caused much upset throughout America (EFF). It has also brought many people to question: is he a hero or a traitor?
If someone broke the law trying to help the American keep their constitutional rights, would you consider them a hero or a criminal? Well that’s exactly what’s going on today with Edward Snowden. In 2013 Edward Snowden leaked classified information to the American people, information that shined a light on the dark things that the U.S government was doing behind closed doors. He revealed that the U.S government has been going against the constitution and taking away our freedoms. The U.S government has been taking away our freedoms however, Snowden is being called the criminal. Thesis Statement here.
In May of 2013, Edward Snowden met with journalist Glenn Greenwald and controversial documentary film director Laura Poitras to release numerous national security- related documents to them. Snowden, who at the time was a computer professional with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a former contractor with the National Security Agency
It is important to not only know the two sides to the argument of a friend or foe, but to also know the facts as well. My goal in this paper is to present the facts without bias and to adequately portray the two sides of the argument. To give the full picture of Edward Snowden I must start with his role in the government. Edward Snowden never graduated from high school, nor did he graduate from community college (Yann 1). In 2003 he joined the U.S. Army briefly until he was discharged when he broke both his legs in a training accident (BBC 1).
Now, the debate rages on: Is Edward Snowden an American hero or an American villain. The United States government wants to bring treason and espionage against him for leaking some of the most confidential government secrets, but, what most people didn’t know before this whole debacle was that the government was uncontrollably spying on its people using any type of phone, tablet, or computer, Now the government’s response to the outrage of the people would be that they are protecting them from possible terrorists, but some may still ask the question of: Is the government violating my privacy? After gathering all the information, it is up to you to decide: Is Edward Snowden an American hero for exposing to the people of the U.S. the government’s dirty spying secrets or is he an American traitor guilty of espionage and treason?
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
... individuals, but just as means to an end. Utilitarianism on the other hand state surveillance is ethical since the protection of citizens outweigh that of privacy. From the natural law, social contract standpoint mass surveillance is unethical and a violation of our social contract especially the right to privacy. Relativism have an effect on property crime, but not on incidences of violence. While others are of the view that surveillance does have befits, the unrestrained use of state surveillance has lead to the suppression press freedom. Ethical relativism if there is not a terrorist attack or the rule fails to prevent an attack, then the rule leads to a lot of negative results as the privacy of the citizens of the United States have been violated for no gain in protection. And determining which of these cases will occur in the future is difficult to determine.
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
Virtue ethics is a theory about finding our highest good and doing so will develop a vigorous character within each person. Character is important because it shows that a person has certain beliefs and desires in doing the right thing and when the right thing is accomplished, happiness follows (Hartman, 2006). Virtue ethics derives from Aristotle and he concludes that by doing virtuous acts all through life happiness and respectable character will develop (Morrison & Furlong, 2013). Finding the highest good within oneself brings happiness and great character to that individual.
Secondly, the possibility of the right to lie is refuted on the basis of virtue ethics, which maintains that lying is morally wrong though the argument or claim is less strict as compared to Kant’s statement. Virtue ethics generally provides a different approach to ethics by focusing on character development of individuals. As a result, virtue ethicists tend to look at what people should be with regards to their character rather than determining the right or wrong of a behavior simply on the basis of reason and desired and undesired behavior (Mazur par, 5). In this case, virtues are desirable characteristics of individuals that make them act in a specific way. According to virtue ethicists, being virtuous is regarded as being ethical because it is a reflection of the individual traits of fairness and striving towards accomplishment of human potential.
Many people have always wondered what the word ethics mean. To me ethics is the feeling of right and wrong. Many people have their own way of defining ethics and but this is what ethics mean to me. Ethics to other people might mean following the laws and some may say ethics is determined by what society is believed is right and wrong. For example Edward Snowden, a 30 year old man was born in North Carolina in 1983 (Edward snowden.biography, 2013, para. 1). Edward Snowden was a security guard that worked for the National Security Agency (NSA), after three months Edward Snowden started to collect NSA files and fled to Hong Kong and leaked the files. China started to print out report of the files that Edward Snowden has leaked to China about the NSA spying on U.S citizens. The reason that Edward Snowden left the United States (U.S) and leaked the NSA files is because he believed that what he had done was ethically correct and did not want people’s rights to be taken away.
The concept of virtue ethics was first developed by Aristotle in 'nichomachean ethics '. He believed that the point of ethics is to become good, and virtue ethics highlights this well. It is an agent centred idea of morality and focuses on how a person can develop virtues and what sort of person you should be, rather than how you should act in order to be good. An alternative name for it is aretaic ethics, which comes from the Greek arete meaning any kind of excellence.
It is reasonable to argue that, governmental institutions or people with authority are subject to withhold a great deal of information from society. Many may argue that secrets are kept to ensure the safety of the nation. Thus, upholding the governmental duty of protecting the nation against possible threats. On the other hand, many believe that secrets may exist which violate our constitutional rights. Over the last year, Edward Snowden, has made headline news for leaking sensitive governmental information to the press. Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old high school drop-out, who was a tech specialist for the National Security Association. Snowden had discovered and later exposed the NSA for monitoring the nations e-mails, phone calls, and internet searches. As the allegations spread like wild fire, Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia for one year. Snowden had a valid and justifiable reason to expose the NSA to the world because they were in violation of our fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures. The government called him a traitor, while others viewed him as a hero for exposing the government. Edward Snowden is a whistle blower because he felt that it is up to society to decide if governmental practices are just or unjust. Snowden does “express the highest respect for the law”, and he wanted to protect the right of privacy for American citizens.
Ethical theories are a way of finding solutions to ethical dilemmas using moral reasoning or moral character. The overall classification of ethical theories involves finding a resolution to ethical problems that are not necessarily answered by laws or principles already in place but that achieve justice and allow for individual rights. There are many different ethical theories and each takes a different approach as to the process in which they find a resolution. Ethical actions are those that increase prosperity, but ethics in business is not only focused on actions, it can also involve consequences of actions and a person’s own moral character.