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

I personally believe that it is more important to perform good acts. Although many may claim that it is more important to be a good person I believe that actions speak louder than words. Someone can claim to be a good person but how is that truly proven? Being a good person is proven through the good actions and deeds you perform. I believe that action ethics is the key to being a good person. By performing acts of kindness or helpfulness you are becoming and maintaining being a good person. For example, is someone a good person because they feel bad for a homeless man sleeping on the street but do nothing about it? Or are they a good person when they help the man up, take them to get something to eat, and then help them to improve themselves and their lives. I have a hard time with people that claim to be good people but their actions prove otherwise. Action ethics is what a person should do in a particular situation, a good person has the ethics to think and perform the actions that will benefit others or the environment.

Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans (speciesism)?

Personally I have a great love for animals and find their lives to matter just as much as a human life. But in reading this module I was made to think do I truly believe that? I eat meat from animals and yet humans don’t eat other humans (gross). So this question is hard for me to form a full response because I can not fully say I believe the earlier statement. I feel as though there are many screwed up people on this earth that find pleasure or entertainment out of the torture or abuse of animals, and that sickens me. Lives are lives no matter if they are human or non-human. They are breathing living beings and whose to say that a human life matter more or holds more value than an animal life? They also live on this planet, they aid to the planet and environment just as humans do. I believe that the pleasure and pain of non-humans matter and should be taken into account when individuals make decisions that will affect those non-humans. For example, a dog deserves to live out a happy life and not be thrown into a situation in which they are in harm or not being cared for properly. We have child services that acts on behalf of humans but when it comes to animals more often than not animals are over looked in painful situations.

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

I believe that my life is of the same value as all others. When considering this topic I take into consideration, why should one person’s life ever matter more or less than another? If you think about it humans are all composed of the same chemical compounds so does that make us any different? No, if we are composed of the same make ups then why should anyone be considered less. I realize that many people consider their lives to matter more than say a criminal, drug addict, or maybe terrorist but in their own ways and situations their lives matter to the people surrounding them and there would be an absence when they are gone. Taking into consideration, I lost someone very close to me recently, of course this was heartbreaking to me and I would do anything to get them back but I realize that although they meant the world to me, others have lost someone that meant the same to them. Lives are equal whether it’s me, you, or some random person off the street their lives are no more or less important then my own.