Question 1: Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)

I believe that it is more important to possess action ethics. Virtue and action ethics go hand in hand though as the notes said. You really possess both of these if you have one of them. Overall, I say that it is more important to perform good acts. This shows others what your thought process is and how you are morally. For example, if I saw a poster for a lost dog, I would immediately start to make phone calls or go out and help find the dog. This shows others that I know what is right and that in certain situations, it is morally right to lend a hand. By performing good acts, I am improving how I look to others while also making myself feel better. Actions truly show what people are like and you can learn a lot about someone by seeing how they act in certain situations. Sometimes people misuse tasks that help others in order to make themselves look better. This isn’t always the case though. For example, my grandfather flew in three wars. During World War Two, his officer asked for volunteers for a mission that they basically described as a suicide mission. My grandfather at the time wasn’t married and immediately stepped forward, knowing that most of his comrades had families at home. With his leadership, other men stepped up to go with him. By performing actions like this, true ethics are shown of a person and rub off on others. Action ethics help show what is right and wrong. Someone can possess virtue ethics but not always act out on them.

Question 3: Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions (procedural justice vs. distributive justice)?

The decision making process is more important than the outcomes of decisions. As the reading said, procedural justice is all about how decisions are made and who they will affect down the line. Major decisions need to be planned out before. The outcomes can be unexpected, but without planning anything, you are just going in blind. Distributive justice tries to balance the good and bad of the situations outcomes and these can’t always be measured. Going back to the story with my grandpa in the war, he knew that he may not return from the mission, but he sat down with his crew and supervisors to design a plan that gave them the best chance to survive. Decisions had to be made about where they would land, how they would fly into the area, and how they would rescue the hostages that they needed to get. Without any planning, my grandfather would not be alive today. They already knew the possible outcomes of the situation and that didn’t matter to them. The future is always up in the air, so if people didn’t make decisions to try and better the situation in the future, they would never know what could have been. Procedural justice helps people make the right choices for them when they need them instead of taking into account many outcomes that most likely won’t happen to them.

Question 6: Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?

I know that my life is just as important as every one else on this planet. This idea mostly comes from my faith and family. I am no more special than anyone else on Earth. For me, I believe that I lean more towards altruism. I have always been the guy that puts others needs in front of mine. It is all about how I was raised. We always learned that family and friends came first and I have had those ethics pounded into me since day one. There are certain situations where I can be selfish, but they are when I really want to get ahead, like in sports. Sometimes during hockey practices or tryouts, I would try to matchup against a kid that I knew was not as good as me so I stood out more. But then there have been other times where I had to give up my own stuff to help others. In high school, I missed a couple hockey games in order to travel to a poorer part of my county in order to help pack food and other items and deliver baskets to people who needed help. I try as hard as I can to stay away from being selfish and making sure that others are happy when they are around me.

Jason (J.R.) Brown

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