Virtue Ethics

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When we discuss morality we know that it is a code of values that seem to guide our choices and actions. Choices and actions play a significant role in determining the purpose and course of a person’s life. In the case of “Jim and the Indians”, Jim faces a terrible dilemma to which any solution is morbid. On one hand, Jim can choose to ignore the captain’s suggestion and let the whole group of Indians be executed. Alternatively, he may decide upon sacrificing one Indian for the sake of saving the rest. Both options involve taking of person’s life. Regarding what should Jim do in this circumstance, there are two approaches according for Jim’s dilemma that should be examined. By looking into the Deontological moral theory and the moral theory of Consequentialism we can see what determines an action that is morally required.

Consequentialism tells us not to look at the act, but to look at the outcome. The one thing that Jim should consider is how many lives are saved. To kill one of the Indians in order to save nineteen or to not kill and all 20 will die. Jim would Compare and weigh both outcomes. Therefore, Jim as a consequentialist chooses the better outcome and kills one in order to save the other nineteen Indians. Who does the act is morally irrelevant, when the outcome is for the good of the whole. This is what matters as the greatest happiness principle like John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) who gives importance to the consequences of the act for the good of the whole. The outcome is what matters and not the process that gave rise to the outcome. Therefore, a consequentialist sacrifices his morality in order to save 19 lives. In this case, Jim has to choose who of the Indians to kill in order to save the rest of the nineteen India...

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...to save 19 lives or not kill at all by letting the sheriff kill, both cases are down to the person in this situation to weigh their decision. Moreover, whatever one decides to do in this case is down to their personal values. If a person feels moral justification for their act, then they would act on that principle. Every aspect has this main feature; a person has to live with their decision. Therefore, the value that one puts on their morality is more important than the act or the consequences.

Works Cited

Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics (London: Penguin Books, 1976), pp. 123-4.
Davis, N., ‘Contemporary Deontology’, in Singer, P. (ed), A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, 1991.
J.J.C Smart & Bernard Williams, Utilitarianism: for and against, Cambridge, CUP, 1973. pp.98-99.
Kant in William Frankena, Ethics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Parentice-Hall,1973)2nd edition.

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