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

I have always believed that it is more important to perform good acts instead of just being a good person. I have always believed in the phrase that “Actions speak louder than words”. This phrase explains that actions are the most powerful thing in the world. I think people will always say that they are a good person or that they wanted to do the right thing, but it doesn’t always happen. I think this is the reason why actions are so much more important. I also believe that a truly good person will perform good acts. This topic reminds me of a quote from one of the batman movies, “It’s not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines”. Although this quote is from a superhero movie, I think it is an excellent example on this topic. This quote shows that at the end of the day it’s the actions that we perform that define us. It is for these reasons that I think it is more important to perform good acts and I cannot think of any circumstances where this would change.

Do the ends justify the means (ends ethics vs. means ethics)?

I believe that the ends do justify the means. The reasoning behind this decision is that most of the times the pros (the ends) and cons (the means) of a decision are weighed out before the decision is actually made. An example of this can be shown in the food industries. The ends of this industry is to supply food for thousands of different people across the world. This is obviously a very important task for human life and survival. However, the means can show plenty of ethically wrong decisions. There are videos of animal cruelty to chickens in some poultry factories. These videos are still something many people are willing to look past because the importance of putting food onto the table outweigh the cruelty in these factories. The other side of this decision is that when the ends do not justify the means the decision is usually not made. For example, population control may help the environment in areas such as overpopulation and pollution. However, there has never been a decision made to limit the population in the U.S., because it has been decided that the ends do not justify the means in this circumstance.

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

I believe that the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions. The reason that I believe procedural justice is more important is because the future is unknown. Some decisions have all of the right intentions, but it does not always go according to the plan. One example of this could be considered communism. Communism was created with the intentions of spreading the wealth of a country, so that everyone could enjoy life and live together. However, the actual outcome of this system was totally different. I am not saying that communism is the right decision, but Karl Marx, the creator communism, came up with the idea with good intentions. He wanted to help countries, but he did not account for the greed in some people. Another reason for which the process is more important than the outcomes is because humans have always learned from their mistakes. The failures like communism in Russia have allowed humans to learn from the mistake, so that we do not make the same mistake in the future. These failures allow us to learn from and change the decision making process to avoid negative outcomes in the future.