Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts?
Initially when I looked at this question I thought “well of course it’s more important to be a good person”. The more I thought about it though, the more I began to think that its not as obvious as I had previously thought. I definitely think that both, being a good person and performing good acts, are important but in the end I think that performing good acts is the more ethical choice. I am justifying my choice in two ways. the first is, if you perform good acts then a greater number of people can benefit from these acts and therefore have a better impact. Secondly if you are performing good acts then there is a good chance that you are also being a good person and you can have the best of both worlds. of course there is the possibility that you are not a good person and you are just performing good acts but I have never encountered a person of that kind. So in the end I feel that it is more ethical to be a person that performs good acts.
Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions?
I had some trouble deciding what side I am on when it comes to this question. I do believe that it is very important that matters be handled correctly and in a procedural manner. this procedural approach to crime is what keeps our society from crumbling into anarchy. Unfortunately there are flaws to this approach and it sometimes leads to bad individuals not serving time for crimes they may have committed and therefore leaving potential dangers in society. When things of this nature occur it is easy to think “well why doesn’t someone just do something about it instead of the police being held back by procedural constraints. This also presents some issues for society. When it is cool to see someone act as a Batman type hero and take justice into their own hands, what they are doing, most of the time, is illegal. Sometimes these vigilante acts can escalate and then that person is just as bad as the criminals they were trying to stop. So I will be on the side of procedural justice, because I think it has more good aspects to it than bad and in the end helps society more.
Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans?
Unlike the other two questions that I answered for this module, I had no problem deciding where I stand on this question. In the history of this planet we are pretty new to the club. In my opinion it is crazy to think that this world is here to serve humans and that’s it. The ecosystem matters for their own sake because they re animals, just like us humans, who are trying to live their lives. If we as humans think that the ecosystem is just for us to use then we will undoubtedly run this planet dry of resources and sooner then later there will be no ecosystem for anyone to live in. So in the end I definitely think that the ecosystem does matter for its own sake and it is definitely more important than just the impact that it has on humans.
2 thoughts on “Module 3 – Ryan Daley”
Hi Ryan, my name is Devin and here is a link to my blog: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/module-3-ethics-15/
I also had a hard time trying to answer question 2. I can see it from both sides that yes sometimes the outcome matters more than the process, like trials in court for instance. Most trials people just want to know the outcome and that’s the only thing that’s important. But then there are times where the process on how they arrived at that decision matters more. Your blog was very interesting to read.
Hi Ryan! My name is Haley Overton and here is the link to my blog http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/learning-activity-3-2/. When reading your response to question number 1 I totally agreed with your initial thought about of course it’s more important to be a good person. However, I agree that once I started thinking about my answer changed. I was really interested to read all of your responses. Thank you!
Hi Ryan, my name is Devin and here is a link to my blog: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/module-3-ethics-15/
I also had a hard time trying to answer question 2. I can see it from both sides that yes sometimes the outcome matters more than the process, like trials in court for instance. Most trials people just want to know the outcome and that’s the only thing that’s important. But then there are times where the process on how they arrived at that decision matters more. Your blog was very interesting to read.
Hi Ryan! My name is Haley Overton and here is the link to my blog http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/03/learning-activity-3-2/. When reading your response to question number 1 I totally agreed with your initial thought about of course it’s more important to be a good person. However, I agree that once I started thinking about my answer changed. I was really interested to read all of your responses. Thank you!