Prima Facie Duty

This essay is broken into two sections, defining Ross’s theory of right conduct with regards to his seven prima facie duties and explaining the situation of this particular case, in order to conclude what the individual should do.
In order to understand the theory of right conduct in the philosopher’s view of W. D. Ross, one must know that he is a moral pluralist. There is no one single moral standard that can explain right and wrong, instead Ross believes that there are a variety of principles to rationalize right conduct. A prima facie duty is a binding obligation, which is a morally favored action that an individual is to perform, unless another duty outweighs the original duty; granted both of these tasks are to occur simultaneously, otherwise

The prima facie duty of fidelity applies to Carlos because he has a responsibility to keep his promise to support his family. A marriage is a commitment between two individuals to love and to care for each other in sickness and in health; Carlos vowed to support his wife and subsequently, his children too. He has been given this job opportunity that will pay the bills and help his family financially and economically. The second prima facie duty that relates to the case of Carlos is self-improvement, in both aspects of virtue and knowledge. Carlos has an obligation to himself to advance his moral integrity and expertise. This employment position provides Carlos with the ability to further enhance his experience and understanding. However, this job opposes Carlos’s belief and virtue on chemical and biological warfare. The two characteristics of the prima facie duty of self-improvement are tearing in different directions; Carlos should accept the job to increase his development of knowledge, although if he were to make this decision it would go against his moral virtue. Hence, his other option is to decline the job, in order to preserve his integrity. So, Carlos has one prima facie duty of fidelity to keep his promise to provide for his family, which implies that he should take the biologist’s job offer. Alternatively, Carlos has a second prima facie duty of self-improvement that is

Two prima facie duties apply to this case; the first is fidelity, Carlos has a commitment to support his wife and children and this job opportunity will allow for him to provide for his family, both financially and economically. The second is self-improvement; Carlos has an obligation to better himself through aspects of knowledge and virtue. By embracing the biologist’s offer he would uphold his duty of knowledge by acquiring more experience, except this ignores Carlos’s aspect of virtue altogether. If Carlos declines the job proposition he is defending his duty of virtue by supporting his belief that chemical and biological warfare is immoral, which then excludes the characteristic for expanding his knowledge. In the end, the all things considered duty is the prima facie duty of fidelity, which was determined by intuitions of moral judgment that over rid the prima facie duty of self-improvement. Thus, Carlos is responsible for the well-being of his wife and children and should accept the biologist’s job offer, in order to keep his promise to sufficiently support his