Ethics Post – Amir Paris-Hasan

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  1. Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?
    1. I believe it’s more important to be a good person as opposed to someone who performs good acts. People with good intentions usually focus more on the long term effect of things, which can sometimes mislead opinions of that person, however disprove people wrong in the end. While people who are doing something good, may only be doing so for personal gains. For instance, one person with $10 in their pocket donates $3 to a homeless person, while another with $200 gives them $5, which do you consider the better person? A good person’s actions may not always be as visible as we wish they would be, but I feel that we eventually realize why did they did certain things. An example of good actions not being as prevalent would be a corporate company initializing a charity campaign in order to avoid governmental taxes, many large companies have been noted doing this for their own gain. Do we value these good actions more than a single person with more heartfelt intentions?
  2. Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions (procedural justice vs. distributive justice)?
    1. I believe that yes, the process by which decisions are made is way more important than the outcomes from the decisions. In October 2015, Alabama shuttered around half of its DMV offices and claimed it was due to budget constraints. This decision came about a year after a law requiring voters to have a new ID to vote was issued. These actions led to affect roughly 20 percent of the Alabama population, disproportionately impacting poor, rural communities consisting of mostly black people, disfranchising black voters. State officials denied these accusations and insist that the decisions were not race-based. However, I strongly believe that the government strategically played their cards with these actions, considering the powerful suppression of black votes they caused during an upcoming election. This example shows that the outcomes are not as important because if the process isn’t done properly, the outcomes could be altered, or unfairly decided upon.
  3.  Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?
    1. This question strikes me every time I hear it. I like to tell myself that I consider all lives to be equal, however, it is not always the case. Although I generally don’t value my life more than others’, I do value some lives more than other. A strong example we can all probably agree on is the life of a family member or loved one, in comparison to a stranger’s and how much more we’d do for the ones we know. I have very humanitarian views on life and I believe we all deserve equal opportunities and rights. Although equality is a strong value I like to uphold myself to. I think it’s hard for everyone to say they’ve never been selfish or committed selfish actions. This even includes doing something recognized as “good” for personal gains. An example of this is someone who only gives to the homeless when others are watching as opposed to when in solitude in order to get that recognition or give a “good person” image. As an Arab-Latino, discrimination and belittling is easy for me to affiliate with. It’s easy for me to understand what it’s like to be looked down on and thought of as less of a human. I like to think of everything that’s happened in my past as a “life lesson” as opposed to a good or bad thing, because in the end, our past is what we make of it and we could either cling onto it, or move on and learn what the next step is in order to move forward.

One thought on “Ethics Post – Amir Paris-Hasan”

  1. Hey Amir! My name is Christianna and I am a sophomore majoring in Elementary Education. Here is the link to my post if you want to check it out!http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/christianna-woodling-module-3/

    Although my opinion differs than yours for the first question I feel that you supported yours really well. Using the money example was really creative and a great way to get your point across. I also really like the way you worded the third question. It sounds bad to come right out and say yes, I value some lives more than others but in reality this is true for most everyone. When saying you value family members more than others this doesn’t sound very selfish, but when it comes to the definition you are putting some lives above others. So is this an example of selfishness or is it something different? Great job!

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