- Question 1-Variation: Is it more important to be a good person, perform good acts or both? I think it is most important to be both a good person and perform good acts. These two things go hand in hand. It is true that you can be a bad person and do good things, or you can be a good person and do bad things, but it is most important to be both. First of all, a good person has a natural tendency to do good things. A bad person, however, will most likely do something good for an anthropocentric reason. In other words a bad person is usually selfish. Being a good person doesn’t mean you always do good things. Temptation can lead to lying or utilizing loopholes to gain something without getting in trouble. Of course there is a whole separate question as to whether all bad acts are truly bad. It is my belief that if you are a good person and do good things then you will have the largest possible impact. Demonstrating good values like honesty can lead to others having a desire to also be honest. Performing good actions can also have the same ripple effect on others. But the true combination of both being a good person and doing good things will lead to real change that effects many other people. In this case two positive aspects of a person can effectively make a positive impact. If you compare this to the other scenarios where a bad person does good things or vice versa then you can clearly see that being both a good person and performing good acts is the most important thing.
- Question 4- Ecosystems matter for their own sake. Nature was here before humans were. We live in a world conquered by humans because humans have one of the most complex thinking and decision making mechanisms out of all life. However, humans cannot survive without the environment around them. If there were no trees, no animals and no fresh air, humans would not be able to live as they do today. I do have more of an ecocentric approach to this subject. I’m not saying the impact ecosystems have on humans is to be ignored, but we cannot be selfish as the “dominant” organisms and destroy all of the world around us. Sustainability of ecosystems is about being able to maintain the needs of humans and the needs of the natural environment in the world without hurting one or the other. However, we should not approach sustainability as a way to ensure the sustainability in favor of humans. The environment should be regarded mutually if not more so than the sustainability of humans. This doesn’t mean that I think humans are less important than the environment, but I do think the focus is too heavily, and selfishly, directed towards humans. There needs to be a balance and before that balance can occur we have to focus more on ecosystems for their own sake more than for humans sake.
- Question 6- To be honest this is the hardest question on this list for me. It is hard to give a definite answer, but I would have to say that others lives matter more to me than my own. In the readings it did say that generally people put their friends and family’s lives before their own. I would have to agree with that and take it further. Although I do not serve in the military, I would say that I would give my life for this country if it came to it. If I were to be drafted or in a state where I had to try to defend my home land from invading enemies I would gladly make that sacrifice. It may sound untrue, but I truly value the experience other people get out of life than I do. Everyone has a family, friends and hopefully a drive to live life to the fullest, and I would feel guilty if I didn’t offer my life so that they could return home to that at the end of the day. If today someone walking across campus stepped out in front of a bus for some reason, I would push them out of the way to make sure they were able to continue with their life. This is just in my blood I guess. I don’t know why I feel this way. Maybe this is selfish of me though in its own way. Putting others lives before mine is natural to me, but I don’t tend to think about what this would do to the people in my life. Sacrificing myself would surely cause misery and pain for my loved ones, but I would hope they would find comfort in knowing I sacrificed myself because I put other lives before my own. There are certain circumstances where I feel as if I would not put my life before others, but it is a very specific circumstance. For example, if it was a choice between mine or the life of a terrorist, child abuser, or a murderer I would not have the same feeling. I do not hold the lives of someone who hurts people above my own. Of course it is extremely difficult to tell if anyone you walk by in a single day is guilty of those offenses, but if I knew I know that immediately their life is not worth as much as mine. I still hold true though that overall the lives of others are more important than my own even if the reasons for this are both altruistic and selfish at the same time.
3 thoughts on “Module 3: Ethics Views”
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Hi Ala532:
I have to say the you did an outstanding job on your blog. I agree that a person can be good and do good thing and a good person might do bad things, I think a lot of our behavior stems from childhood and nature and nurture experiences. If you have a few minutes here is a link to m blog.
https://sites.psu.edu/geog30/wp-admin/post.php?post=43375&action=edit
Hello! I have to say, I really liked how you explained and went through your thinking for all of these questions.
In the answer for the second question that you chose, I appreciated your thought process and logic. Honestly if we think about it, the ecosystem was here long before we as humans were and it will be here long after. I also agree that the ecosystem can do without us, whereas we, in fact cannot do without it.
I also liked your thoughts on the last question that you chose to answer. Although I wouldn’t necessarily view myself as being worth less than other people (I chose the same in my response), I would definitely put others ahead of myself in dangerous situations, for example. I don’t believe that that has to mean that I myself am worth less than those people, but instead that I simply care about others to a great degree.
Here is a link to my blog to see my views on the topics: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/module-3-ethics-perspectives-sara-getson/ )
Hi my name is Andrea. I noticed we answered the same exact questions I like what you said in question one and appreciate the use of vocab there, I didn’t really think of how being a bad person makes you selfish but it definitely makes sense. I feel like we agree on everything said in question four, I actually feel like it’s very similar to what I said and again has a good use of our vocabulary for this week. I think your answer to number six was the unpopular opinion but it does make sense and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on that… it’s actually making me reconsider what I wrote because I didn’t specifically think about my family and friends like in the reading, I just kind of thought of people I didn’t know worldwide.
If you want to check out what I said about the same three questions then here is the link to my blog for module 3:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/my-ethical-views/