Module 3: Ethics

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  • Is it more important to be a good person or to preform good acts? (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)
    • I believe that it is more important to be a good person than to preform good acts. I have met many people that preform good acts, but are not good people. There are many people out there that try to make themselves seem like good people by doing things like donating to charities and even holding the door open for the person behind them but I believe if they are not good people at heart, these acts mean little to nothing. Of course it is great to donate to charities and that money is not going to change depending on who gives it away but someone who is donating to be able to look better for their own agenda as opposed to someone who is donating because they believe in the cause and want to make the world better, is where the true meaning is. A good person generally does good acts with some exemptions, but generally wants to bring good into the world for the benefit of everyone. A person that only preforms good acts is not looking out for others and only for their own agenda. This is why I believe that it is more important to be a good person than to preform good acts.
  • Do the ends justify  the means? (ends ethics vs. means ethics)
    • I believe that generally, the ends do justify the means. I do believe that it is important to make sure that when making decisions that you have to go through a lot to get to the desired end, exactly what means are to be taken must be put into consideration. There is always that great debate that people are often asked, would you kill a small number of people if you knew that it would save the lives of many others. Like all ethical views, there is no straight forward, correct answer. I personally believe that if I knew that by killing a few people, I would be saving many more then I would. But even taking almost the exact same scenario and changing it to the few people that I would have to kill would be people close to me I would not be able to do it. Even if I knew that I would be killing many other people in making that decision. In the second scenario, my means would be that they were people that I love and care for and could not bring myself to do it. The ends would be the other people dying and to me the ends would justify the means but to others, it might be completely different. 
  • Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans? (speciesism)
    • I believe that the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans. I believe that just because humans have been able to evolve and have the ability to make decisions about other animals, does not mean that we deserve a better quality of life. No animal, human or not, should have to go through pain and suffering and no matter it is a rodent or human, it does not make it better. Animal cruelty has been around forever and it is something that I have never been able to understand. I do not understand why people believe that it is okay to harm animals just because they are not human and can. Testing on dogs and rabbits and even rats seems better than people but in reality they should be held to the same standard. They are unable to defend themselves and unlike humans, they have no input on situations they are put into. Just because humans are lucky enough to be in the power position on the food chain, does not make the lives of all other non-human animals any less important.

4 thoughts on “Module 3: Ethics”

  1. I understand your point about good acts versus good people. The only problem I have with favoring the person over the act is how being a good person impacts anyone else. If a person is trying to portray themselves as a good person and contributes to charity, the person or group receiving the money isn’t in any way less able to use the money because the motivation wasn’t pure. If an EMT saved me from a river or a passerby, I’m still saved. I’m as grateful to the person whose job it is to save me as I am to the person who risked their neck to pull me from the water.

  2. Hi Jacqueline, I’m Syed Amirul and here’s the link to my blog http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/ethics-syed-amirul/

    I’ve read through your answer for the last question and I have to say, I disagree to you to a certain degree. You made an important point saying that non-human animals have no input on situation they are put into. I also share how you feel that testings on animals are cringe-worthy to hear. All lives are important, of course. However it is also important to understand that some creatures in this world serve a purpose to humans, which is to provide us as food. Although given this fact, I still find it hard to see stock animals being treated poorly in terrible conditions. At heart, we all feel sympathy towards living creatures, one way or another.

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