I have always thought of my character as being fairly ethical. I was raised with good moral values, and I always treated others with the respect and value that I would want to be treated with. I am a firm believer in karma, you get back what you put out! When reading the book Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions by Arthur R. Holmes, it brought up some thoughts that have never occurred to me. Why do I make the decisions I make? What am I basing my decisions on? What impact do my beliefs have on the decisions I make? Holmes covers a wide range of answers to these questions. Our decisions are made with several different factors, including cultural relativism, ethical egoism, moral knowledge and virtue ethics just to name a few. The ethical …show more content…
I believe if a person calls themself a Christian they should be held to a higher standard of their ethics. As a Christian, you have been called to exemplify God in all that you do, whether that be in ministry, child rearing, or everyday normal life. Just because you are a Christian does not mean that you are not going to mess up. We fail God daily, and those decisions bear consequences just as they do for anyone else. Holmes (2007) states that “consequences play an important part in moral decisions, and not least for the Christian. The problems with basing ethic on consequence alone must not blind us to this fact. Christians should be more concerned with doing good to others and should doubtless make decisions that contribute to God’s purposes in this world” (p. 51). A good example of this would be tithing to the church. A single mom with one income and 3 children, who is a Christian and “follows all the rules” does not tithe because she needs to use every penny she gets to care for the needs of her family. We have been commanded to seek His kingdom first, and our tithes go to the church to help reach others. On a personal level, I understand her resistance to doing this, but we are to put the kingdom of God before our own needs and trust in Him, that He will provide what we need. “Our highest end, as Jesus said, is to love the Lord our God with all our being, and for his …show more content…
A moral agent is a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong” (wikipedia.org). I agree with Holmes (2007) when he says that “moral agency requires more than principled thinking” (p. 125). This is more apparent in the differences between men and women and how they interpret and solve moral problems. There are two different perspectives that can be seen when faced with a moral problem. The first approach sees the problem as an intellectual challenge involving rules and application, while the other perspective sees the problem as a relational issue that needs personal attention. I bet you can discern which perspective is the man’s and which is the woman’s! Neither one is right nor wrong, in fact, both are needed. As Holmes (2007) states, “they are mutually complementary, so it seems that masculine and feminine approaches should be wed” (p. 125). God is both of these, masculine - the justice, and feminine - the love. “All justice and no love is harsh, all love and no justice is chaotic” (class 3- ethics- slide show). We must be willing to use practical principles in our moral decision making, along with love and care to aid in keeping us grounded, not just a decision-making
Ethics is “a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of questions of right and wrong and how we ought to live” (Banks, 2013). Also it involves making moral judgments about what is right and or wrong, good or bad. In the process of everyday life, moral rules are desirable, not because they express absolute truth, but because they are generally reliable guides for normal circumstances. Ethics or moral conduct, are of major importance in the criminal justice field today. If the police force condoned unethical behavior, there would be very little, if any, justice being served. A system of rules and principles helps to guide in making difficult decisions when moral issues arise. Ethics has been shown to be a central component in decisions involving ethical dilemmas. It is “concerned with standards of conduct and with “how I ought to act”, and standards of conduct may vary among different societies” (Banks, 2013). An ethical dilemma arises only when a decision must be made that involves a conflict at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, or societal level or raises issues of moral character. Richard Hare argues that we initially use an intuitive level of moral thinking when we consider ethical dilemma. There are “six steps in analyzing an ethical dilemma and they would be as follow” (NASW, 2014):
How a person makes decisions can be based on multiple different things. A lot can be based on a person’s values and morals. These morals and values can be very different from person to person and culture to culture. Culture is the learned portion of human behavior, it is the basis many values and morals are built on. Just because a person has different ideas from you does not make them wrong. Ethical decisions must be made by looking at and accepting different viewpoints. The Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI) is a tool to help determine how one makes decisions. To begin to understand the ELI, one must understand the four core values of autonomy, sensibility, rationality, and equality. Autonomy is defined by dictionary.com as “the independence
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
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.
There has been a huge debate throughout generations 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 environmental factors such as culture, parenting, and socialization. Many people believe that being moral and ethical are the same thing, but these two terms are very different. “Morality is primarily about making correct choices, while ethics is about proper reasoning” (Philosopher, web). Morality is more about being right or wrong but being ethical is more about understanding the consequences of an action and interpreting the situation.
In the short story Good People by David Foster Wallace, Lane Dean and his girlfriend Sheri Fisher are two Christians with a troubling choice ahead of them, and finds himself questioning his own ethics as a Christian. The question on whether or not they should abort their baby is making the main character question everything he has ever known and believed in. While his girlfriend is described as a model Christian and a good hard-working woman, he is described as a man who would be stuck outside of the Dante’s Inferno chased by hornets for all time. He has not the conviction to stand and speak on what he thinks is right or even to decide on what he believes is right in the first place. He is ruled by fear and never stops questioning his own convictions. Not once in the story does the character make a concrete decision and leaves his girlfriend alone in a time of uncertainty. If only for this reason alone his actions are unethical to the standards of what a man in our society should act like. Any action taken out of fear is hardly ever an ethical one. As the narrator explains his
Some of the deficiencies in the way cultural relativism addresses moral problems, according to Holmes; are that they remain impractical, they are subject to change depending on where you live, and that people tolerate the different cultures. As a professional business person, I agree with Holmes analysis. Allowing others perceptions or beliefs to get away with our own personal beliefs would be contradicting ourselves. It is important to stand up for our beliefs, and help educate others on ethical issues. Over time we can make a difference in the world by modeling moral beliefs and ethics.
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...
I strongly believe that some acts are morally right and others morally wrong. Though in society today I find many different people with many different opinions on this some issues. The way someone was raised or the experiences they have faced could be what has molded these beliefs. The differences between right and wrong are not always the same in each person's head and this is where we face controversy. Morals differ from person to person resulting in confrontations dealing with morality issues. Such as euthanasia, human beings should not have to suffer, just as we do not allow animals to suffer. I believe Pro-Choice is morally right. Woman should be given the choice of whether or not she can terminate her pregnancy. On the flip side, I feel cheating is morally wrong, and puts people at an unfair advantage.
and she believes that by following God's moral code she will be right and just.
For many, personal morality is something left unexamined except in difficult situations which runs contrary to Socrates great admonition. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD.” This examination is healthy but a worthy discipline for every human being. My moral philosophy is derived from a creator God revealed through the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible.
Everyday we are tested as individuals to make the right choice. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are directly correlated to our moral decision-making. But morals are somewhat misleading. What might be a wrong decision for one person might be a solution to another. So how do we define morals? Do we follow Gods’ moral rules because to do so would increase out likelihood of obtaining salvation in the afterlife? Or is it simpler than that. Is God going to deny our entrance into heaven because we have run a stop sign here and there? No. I believe our moral values are much simpler than that. I believe that our moral decision-making comes from our upbringing of what is right or wrong. Our parents and the people we surround ourselves with, are, I believe, direct causes of how we make decisions. Having more positive family influences as we grow up to adults will better help us come to make the right decisions in tough situations. In this paper, I will take you through a situation where my morals were tested. It takes place in the northern woods of Vermont in a little town called St. Albans where a young boy transforms into a young man by controlling his emotions and making the right decision.
Ethics plays a key component in our everyday lives; it can be explained as a certain internal distinct perspective of what is right and what is wrong. How does one obtain this distinct between what is right and what is wrong though? In my opinion this starts from a young age, and from reinforcement from those who are raising one and teaching these ideals of what is “right” and what is “wrong”. Borchers’ definition of ethics describes this notion as “the study of right or good conduct as it affects the individual and society” pg.67 Borchers’ goes on to say that is a measure of “ rightness and wrongness, virtue and vice, and obligation in human behavior. Ethics has been linked with persuasion furthermore, persuasions’ outcome is to reach a particular goal which influences an audience on a certain “idea” that the persuader is trying to convey.
Ethics is a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is acceptable for both individuals and society. It is a philosophy that covers a whole range of things that have an importance in everyday situations. Ethics are vital in everyones lives, it includes human values, and how to have a good life, our rights and responsibilities, moral decisions what is right and wrong, good and bad. Moral principles affect how people make decisions and lead their lives (BBC, 2013). There are many different beliefs about were ethics come from. These consist of; God and Religion, human conscience, the example of good human beings and a huge desire for the best for people in each unique situation, and political power (BBC, 2013).
The concept of morality differs for every individual. Morality is one 's concept of right and wrong as defined by the individual 's society, family, religion, ethnicity and even gender. It is also subject to the individual 's interpretation and experience. This lends credence to the idea that no one 's morality is exactly the same. The next logical question to answer would be how does one develop their morality? Developmental behaviorist such as Piaget and Kohlberg developed theories for this moral development and how it progresses from childhood into adulthood (Barsky, 2010). Kohlberg 's theory centers around three levels of growth: preconventional reasoning, conventional reasoning, and postconventional reasoning. The levels progress from