Ethical Decisions
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In life, some people find it very difficult to make a choice. When its time to make a decision, most people tend to over think how the choice which they are about to make might benefit or harm them. Most individuals often tend not to think about the long term consequences of their decision making. Often, people think about how it affects them in the present. When people make choices, they fail to think about whom it affects and how their choice affects them, whether negative or positive. More so, we do not even think is it an ethical decision, we do not think about if our decisions affect our morals. We do not use our morals in decision making. Morals are a persons standards of behavior or a belief concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do. But in some cases people might consider their decision ethical in light of understanding philosophers like John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, and Carol Gilligan and their theories.
In the past, I had difficulty making a decision. On my first birthday on a college campus, I became somewhat home sick. A friend of mine went out of her way to try her best to make my birthday the best birthday that it could possibly be away from family. So we had as “big” of a celebration as we were able to on campus without breaking any rules. My friend set up a small get together and brought me a few gifts. Although the gift was a small bracelet, it was expensive and meant a lot to me. In that persons eyes, I did not show them the gratitude that they expected, and she took it to offense, which resulted in her retrieval of the bracelet. After my friend took back the gift, I felt a sense of emotional disturbance; a sort of sadness and anger. I spent a long period of time contemplating and I realized I had to make a decision. I had three choices for her upcoming birthday; I would buy her a gift and let her keep it, buy a gift and take it back, or not by her a gift at all. It was a hard choice for me to make. I really had to think about how the choice might affect me but one thing I forgot to think about was whether or not it was ethical.
I did some logical reasoning in my head. The equations I came up with were if I get her a gift than we would be friends for a good while. On the other hand, if I did not get her a gift, she would be upset with me and no longer want to be my friend, but if I get her a gift and take it back it would have the same outcome as not getting her a gift. After a few days of deep thinking, I came up with a decision and “solved” the equation. I chose to not get my friend a gift but to acknowledge her birthday and tell her thank you for the gift that she got me. I told her she could keep the gift as her own. I found that decision very ethical and it followed my morals because to me I did the right thing and I made everyone happy in a way. Some people, as early philosophers, might disagree and some might agree with what I call ethical because of their philosophies.
John Stuart Mill begins his philosophy, Utilitarianism, by first stating the common notion that desire happiness and act in accordance with that desire. Mill defines happiness as pleasure, but makes a difference between the quantity and quality of pleasure. Utilitarianism states that pleasing the mass will create a greater happiness unlike minimizing the pain of the few, which is not so important. To make things simpler, Utilitarianism means that the more people they make happy the better. If your choice does not make a large amount of people happy, than in Mills eyes your choice is unethical. My choice follows Utilitarianism because it makes both parties happy, which is causing greater happiness and minimizes pain and suffering. Therefore, through Mills philosophy it would be an ethical decision.
Another philosopher with a theory on ethical decisions is Immanuel Kant. Kant is very different; he does not believe that ethics is about happiness. He thinks that unethical things make us quite happy. Immanuel Kants Philosophy is Kantianism. Kantianism says that people should never use each other as a means to an end. It is unethical to use another for your own personal gain. Kants theory comes into play and forces people to think about the morals they possess. In the reading Kant stated that “without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find interest, they find a pleasure in spreading joy and can take delight in the satisfaction of other so far as it is their own work.”
Kant also says that acting unethically means making you the exception to a rule. For example, if youre saying because someone got you a gift you dont have to give them a gift because you dont want to, you cannot be the only one that the rule affects. It has to be an all-around rule for everyone for it to be ethical; this is what he calls categorical imperative. Based on what Ive read Kant would agree with the choice I made because it is not a rule just for me, everyone else can do as I did I am not the only exception. He would agree because if anyone else can decide to not give someone a gift, its not a general rule individually set for me.
Another philosopher with theories as to what is ethical is Carol Gilligan. In her book Gilligan argues that a female approach on decision making is just simply different from that of a male. She proves this by citing studies on females childhood experiences and “construction of self she identifies care and relationship as central to their moral concerns.” (First-Year Reader page 305). It goes on to say “while both genders articulated both perspectives girls were more likely to focus on the issue of care” (FYR page 305). This is where the topic of the Ethics of Care comes into place. The Ethics of Care has two main points to decision making. The two main points are communication,