Prima Facie Duty

John was leaving dinner with his friends and encountered a beggar that asked for 20 dollars to buy food. John thought about it and did not give the beggar the money because he did not want to hate himself if the beggar did not use it for food. John had the decision to give the beggar 20 dollars or not and he decided not to give the beggar the money. In the end he decided not to give the money because he wanted to improve not harm. First the essay will discuss the concepts in John decision making. Second the essay will discuss how the concepts relate to each other. Finally the essay will conclude. Now the concepts in John decision making will be listed and the first concept will be discussed.

The concepts that reflect in John decision making are the difference between prima facie duty vs actual duty, reciprocity, beneficence, hypothetical imperative,teleological ethics, hierarchy of value,and nonmaleficence. The meaning of Prima facie duty is the duty at first glance or on the surface. The meaning of actual duty is the duty that comes after further thinking or reflecting. John prima facie duty is seen when he said “At first I thought that if I was that desperate, I would want someone to help me out so I had the responsibility to do the same.” So his first glance at the situation was to

give the beggar the money. The his actual duty was seen when John said “But then I thought for a second at; at the end of the day, I want his life to improve”. Thinking and reflecting more on the situation John did not give the beggar the money because the beggar might of used it on drugs and not food like he said. The next concept that will be discussed is reciprocity.
Reciprocity means an individual makes an ethical decision based on a duty to treat others the way they would like to be treated. It is seen when John said “ At first I thought that if I was that desperate, I would want someone to help me out.” Reciprocity was seen when John at first because if he was homeless and wanted money for food he would ask. He would like someone to do the same for him if he was in that situation. Reciprocity and prima facie duty relate because the first glance at the situation was to give the beggar the money. If it was John in the situation he would like the same done for him. The next concept that will be discussed is beneficence and nonmaleficence.
Beneficence means the duty to improve the conditions of others or promote the benefit of others.

It was seen in the scenario when John said “ I want to improve, I want what to do what is best for him.” John wanted to improve the beggars lifestyle not harm it. What if the beggar did not use the money for food and something that will harm him. This connects with the concept nonmaleficence means the duty not to injury others. It is seen when John says “I would hate myself if what I did contributed to his harm.” John did not want to contribute in the damage that the beggar was already doing to himself and make it worse. The next concept that will be discussed is hypothetical

imperative.
Hypothetical imperative is the personal desire that you have. This concept was seen when John said “ I was tempted to give him the money so that I would feel good about myself.” John wanted to feel good about to himself so he wanted to give the beggar the money. Then he said “ I could not live with that possibility ;instead of feeling good about myself.” So later he thought about it and he would feel bad if he gave the beggar the money to feel better about himself. The next concept that will be talked about is teleological ethics.
Teleological Ethics means an individual makes an ethical decision to bring about the greater good for positive end result for others, self, or society. It was seen when John said “ At the end of the day I want to bring the good outcome for him or for me.” John at the end of the day wanted to know that he helped bring the better outcome for the man. Also that he brought about the better outcome for himself also. This relates to hypothetical imperative because he has the personal desire to bring the greater good to the beggar by not giving him the money. Also he has the personal desire to bring the greater good to himself by improve the man lifestyle not harming it.
Hierarchy of value is the ranking of values from most important to least important. Values are ideas, possession, relationships, and ideals in which we invest time, energy, emotions, or other resources. It is seen when John says “Then I asked myself this question, am I doing this for him or for me.” So all together you John has to rank the values that are more important to him. I John had to rank the between should I give the beggar the money, he does not buy food but drugs, and then John has that on his contentions and feels bad about it. Then not giving the beggar the money, not maybe feeding his addiction and feel better about himself. So John thought that it was more important not to give the money to the beggar.
All together prima facie duty and reciprocity is seen in John’s first though on the situation of helping the beggar and giving him the money. Beneficence and nonmaleficence surrounds John decision on not wanting to harm the beggar's life more but improve it. Hypothetical imperative and teleological ethics relate in the situation because John has the personal desire to help the man and make himself feel better at the end of the day. To conclude, John faces a choice giving the beggar the money or not. In the end he chooses his actual duty which was to not give the beggar the money, which was motivated by him feeling better at the end of the day.