Philip Wheelwright The Meaning Of Ethics Essay

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Living in Another’s Dream
Gig, edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter, is a book with a collection of interviews of people describing what their job is like. One of the interviews deals with a film development assistant, Jerrold Thomas. This interview in particular raises questions which leads readers to ask why he stays at his current job and what opportunities are in the future for him. He hopes to become something bigger in the film industry and even went to film school, but is now stuck as an assistant. It is surprising to see him working for someone who treats him so badly, but yet still not leave. “The Meaning of Ethics” by Philip Wheelwright is an essay that explains seven different phases used in a moral deliberation. Each of them have their own purpose and help us make ethical decisions. Wheelwright’s assertion that an ethical person has to rationalize the consequences and imagine themselves into a predicted situation helps explain why Thomas continues working as a film development assistant even if he is being treated unfairly and is hoping opportunities for him arise.
In “The Meaning of Ethics”, Wheelwright shows us different characteristic phases that can be perceived in a moral deliberation. There are many solutions to a problem but Wheelwright believes one should follow these phases. In Phase ii: Rational elaboration of consequence, Wheelwright says, “As this step involves predictions about a hypothetical future, the conclusions can have, at most, a high degree of probability, never certainty. The degree of probability is heightened accordingly as there is found some precedent in past experience for each proposed choices” (265). In other words, Wheelwright wants us to explore our options in every pos...

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...ly, but he doesn’t want to admit the truth to himself and that is what is keeping his hopes up. Thomas knows that without Brads help, it will be much more difficult to become a producer, but he shouldn’t wait for something that has a chance of never happening.
These phases may change people’s perspectives on how they will approach certain situations. It would help if everyone could apply these phases in their daily lives because it would eliminate tough situations where there is no time to think. Wheelwright gives his readers a better understanding of what an ethical person should think like. In Gig, Thomas uses two out of wheelwright’s phases, but even then he still wasn’t satisfied with the result. It all depends if these phases are applied in our lives correctly. They may not work one hundred percent correctly, but they will help make our lives a little easier.

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