To what extent should ethical considerations influence our decision making process?
On Compassion
A Hanging
Lies We Tell Kids
Reference at least one of these pieces.
or
Write about a time when you were faced with an ethical dilemma/decision and what factors you considered when making that decision. What were the consequences?
Ethics are the "moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior." They are the set of fundamental principles that define the actions and conduct of humans, or more specifically what they do or how they act. Personally, I think that people's ethics have everything to do with influence. As young children, people looked up to role models. Maybe a president, astronaut, or firefighter, but it was most likely their parents. They are the people that care for you and provide you with the necessities to thrive in the adult world. If they are bad people, the child will most likely grow up with less hope and live a life of hatred towards society. (although this is not always the case) If a child parents are kind and compassionate, their child will grow up to be the same. What I'm trying to say is that ethics and morals are usually passed down through families. So how to they intertwine with the world?
ReplyDeleteMy ethical dilemma has to deal with cheating. At the beginning of our sophomore year, we were assigned a huge filming project by Mr. Cerroni in our computer applications class. The objective was to create a movie that showed the parallelism between our world and technology, kind of like the Matrix. We were given one fourth of the school year to complete this project, which even included a lot of time in class. Our group got down to business right off the bat. People were being assigned work and ideas were spinning off of everyone's heads, but there was just one problem. Someone (Not mentioning any names) decided that they were going to sit back and let the team finished their portion of the work for them. Not only did he/she not participate, but he/she was playing games on the iPad instead. So, I ended up doing their work for them. Countless hours of work and dedication were put into the movie and it turned out to be fantastic. The storyline was clear and the script was awesome and well thought out. We showed it to the class, and it ended up up getting a solid 8 of 10 in my opinion. (There is only so much work you can do on a high school filming project) After all of the short movies were displayed, a response sheet was handed back. On of the questions was, "Rate everyone's participation on the project." Now this person was a good friend of mine, so did I want to rat them out or let them take a lot of credit for the work I did?
My final thought was, what's more important, a steady friendship or a grade? In the end I let the person take credit. Today, regret my decision. I think that it would have been a better life lesson if I would have told the truth because my friend needs to learn that hard work is required to succeed in life. That was just one of the many times I was challenged with an ethical dilemma, and I realize that they will keep returning no matter what I do in life.
Charlie,
DeleteYour blog is very good. Your personal experience with the ethical dilemma of cheating is very good. I think a lot of people in our school face this problem and it needs to be solved. Good job.
Charlie,
DeleteThe Computer Apps II example was great, people should be called out when they don't contribute equally. Our class did not do that project but we did heavily focus on ethics surrounding technology and its users. Good blog.
Charlie,
DeleteYour blog was very good. I think your example is one that all of us have been through. That made your blog great, that it was so relatable. Good job
Charles,
DeleteYour blog was good. You have an example that I think everyone has faced in their lives. This made your blog more relatable than everyone else's. Great job.
Charlie,
DeleteI think that this is probably the best example you could have used. This happens all of the time. If people would turn their classmates in for not helping, then people would start to help so that they would not get in trouble. Instead, it is a vicious cycle of people not doing their work. I enjoyed reading your blog.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere is a certain extent to which ethical considerations influence our decision making process. Being true to your ethics is a part of life that many people take seriously. Each culture and nation has their own set of standards that they live by and these are considered their "ethics". What are ethics? Ethics, or a moral philosophy, is stated as the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. People are true of their beliefs. People stick up for their beliefs in this world. I know I do. The idea of ethics is that there is no single set of ethical principles which apply universally. Rather, we make up ethical principles to suit our own self. If we are ethical, were doing what society accepts. To find out what is ethical, we would have to find out what society accepts by observance. Everyone has a set of certain standards to their own self, not just in a society. When dealing with these standards in a wrong way it creates a certain extent to when to make a certain decision in the process. We all have something moral to our own self. If someone wanted to go against our morality when creating something, or doing something we would consider fighting against it. Our morals are something completely defended by ourselves. When someone goes against our morals, there is no stopping them. These are the things we put true to our hearts and minds. These are the things that make us, us. In a piece written by George Orwell "A Hanging" Orwell contributes his own ethical beliefs into the reading. Orwell states, "All the organs of his body were working bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live." With this quote, Orwell showed that it was unethical to destroy a life. This is what Orwell's moral, ethic standards where; not to destroy a life. This is what Orwell believes, and these are his "ethics". He stood up for them. We as a society need to stick up for our ethical beliefs, just like Orwell did. When making a decision, always put your ethical perspectives into place. If you do not, unethical practices can made which can alter the whole world.
ReplyDeleteAllie,
DeleteWe both made very similar points in our blogs, we even used the same quote from a hanging. You did a great job defining ethics and stating your opinion on it, and I also thought it was great that you pointed out society's effect on an individual's ethical principles. Good blog.
Allie,
DeleteI like how you defined ethics and I also agree with your principles on it. I really liked your quote and thought it made your argument stronger. Good blog!
Allie,
DeleteYou had a great introduction to your response. You clearly defined ethics and demonstrated why people think differently than others. Like Mackenzie said, your quote really added onto your piece. Great job answering the question, and even a better overall blog.
Allie,
DeleteWe each chose different blogs to do this week, but I really enjoyed reading your take on it. You had a very powerful opening. You also made your opinion clear. Overall, your blog was very effective and enjoyable to read. Good job!
There are ethics surrounding every aspect of society, and these ethics are what guide us in decision making. Ethics can surround something as small as stealing a piece of gum from your friend or as large as putting someone to death for a crime. Ethics are extremely important for decision making, although, the decision maker must be able to understand what is ethical and unethical for a good decision to be made.
ReplyDeleteSo, what is ethical and what is unethical? Certain things are obvious, for example, it would be highly unethical to kill or torture a person. It is not as easy to determine if other instances are ethical or not, so how do people know right from wrong? If children are taught right from wrong they will most likely make the ethical decision, but if someone was not taught well, they need to ask themselves, "is this right?", "how does this effect others?", and "how will this effect myself?" Simple questions like these can help us make the right decision.
In "A Hanging" George Orwell describes the execution of a prisoner in detail. The march to the gallows and the moments leading up to the drop of the platform are discussed in clear detail. Orwell states that he begins to question if the killing of a prisoner is ethical or not. He realizes, "I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man," and "I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live." This is when Orwell begins to consider ethics and makes the decision that killing the prisoner is wrong. Although it does not explain what the prisoner has done and that Orwell can not control his fate, he still would stop the execution if he had the power too.
If people could understand ethics and apply them to their lives, the world would be a much better place, people would not commit crime or wrong others because they would know why it is not wrong. Some people do not know right from wrong because of lack of guidance, others do not care, but if people understand, they could change and those who are unwilling to change will stick out and either be shamed for their unethical actions, or be jailed because they broke ethics established by the law.
John,
DeleteYour blog is very good. You and I, as you stated, have very similar ideas, including the quote! Your rhetorical questions you mentioned made me think more on the topic. It made me think of things I didn't before. You do an excellent job explaining what ethics truly are. Good job.
In today's present day it is so easy for all of us to say that it is wrong to kill and that it is unethical, but we are not naive enough to say that there wasn't a time in our world that it was always the majority of the world that did executions. Executions still occur today in certain places in the world. When does our moral instincts kick in to change executions? Even when they occurred people did not kill other people for the sport; they killed them because of crimes that were believed to be committed. My question is that when did the executions begin to be seen as a bad form of punishment. In Orwell's piece you can tell the narrator began to think that it was wrong, he began to see the person as a person and not just someone getting killed; the man was not dying and he was leaving people behind like his dog. "It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned - reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone - one mind less, one world less." The true sorrow of what was going to occur finally started to set in and then man felt sympathy for the man getting executed. Somewhere along the lines of this piece the narrator saw the man for a Irving human being who was not dying as he was walking, he would have lived many years. When this man realized this should his ethics have kicked in and told him that it was wrong? Could he have done something to stop it? Would it truly have altered the events of that day?
ReplyDeleteMakenzie,
DeleteI think you brought some good points forward in this blog. I think killing animals brings up many ethical questions. Good blog.
Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog this week. The part where you reasoned about life and death was great because the examples of tissues and nails growing, bowels digesting, etc. really gave a good perspective on the living person. You clearly answered the prompt in your response. Great job!
In this past hunting season I came across an ethical dilemma. When I shot my deer I grazed its neck, but enough to drop the deer. The ethics that were taught to me were that no animal, or even a human should suffer when it is going to die. I then wanted to take its life quickly and painlessly. Well this didn't happen when I shot at the head I hit right below the brain and it only made things worse. Now I came across an even bigger dilemma let the animal die in time and suffering or take its life for certain. I then slit the throat of the deer and felt better because it was no longer suffering.
ReplyDeleteI consider this a ethical dilemma because it relates to people killing animals and what is the best way to do so. For a dog many take them to the vet to have put down or some take the lives of the dog on there own. It's all what you have been taught by the peers around you. Whether you should leave it in gods hands to kill an animal or take your own way of doing it.
Doug,
DeleteYour blog is a tad brutal, but honest. You took your situation selflessly and seriously. It is short, but you get your point across. Overall, it was a good blog.
The story is only so long Morgan !
DeleteDoug,
DeleteYour blog is excellent example of an ethical dilemma. To let the animal suffer or kill it mercifully. Great blog!
Doug,
DeleteYou did an unbelievable job painting a picture in the minds of your audience. Your blog this week was loaded with pathos that probably made many people think about what they would do in that kind of situation. I enjoyed reading your blog.
Ethical questions, or difficult questions are actually a part of our every day lives, but the reigning ethical I have had to answer in my life has been; "what am I going to do with the rest of my life?". I have had many different answers in the few short years I have pondered this topic. Every little girl grows up thinking that she will be a princess or ballerina someday, until the realities of life hit her in the face. When my childhood dreams were crushed, I started asking my mom what careers made the most money. She mentioned nutrition, and for like five years after that I was set on being a nutritionist. I then realized that I need to pick a career that I enjoy which can also help support my family. I wanted to follow in my mom's footsteps, and do something pertaining the medical field. To narrow it down, I started thinking of what fields I could maybe go into. I soon learned that I enjoyed pimples and gross skin issues, so I thought I could maybe be a dermatologist. My dreams were crushed yet again when I saw the statistics and how difficult the schooling was. Knowing myself is important because it is better for me to know now that this program is not meant for me, rather than being seven years into school and realizing this may not be for me either. As I was creeping into my high school grades, I knew I needed to be more serious about this topic. Since I was little, I always had interior design in the back of my head. I never put actual thought into it because I honestly did not think it was possible for me to do that. Now that I continue to learn more about myself, I become more serious about my love for home decor and designing. As of now, I plan on majoring in interior design, and possibly minoring in business. After undergraduate school, I hope to earn my realtor's license. When I have enough experience, I hope to move back to my home, Elk County, and start my own interior design and real estate business. Sometimes I question myself on whether I am actually making a wise choice, but when I watch HGTV on some of the things I could be doing in the future, I know I am heading down the right path.
ReplyDeleteMorgan this is a good blog and I like how you talk about your childhood up until now. It shows this truly has been a dilemma ! Overal, it was a good blog.
DeleteEveryone in their lives with face hard times and ethical dilemmas. Often you are faced with questions, these questions can be different and also life changing. A little over a year ago I faced an ethical dilemma that would change my life forever. My father had been having these stomach pains and he just let them go, he thought it was just a stomach flu. One day I came home from school and my mother told me he had been rushed to the hospital up in DuBois by an ambulance, I was in shock. From there he was life flighted from DuBois to Pittsburgh, there he had gotten the news, he had pancreatic cancer. Then question that both me, my mom, and dad had to face was do we get treatment. His odds were incredibly low, and in the end he didn't want to be miserable everyday and go through the pain of chemo. So we chose to go through with hospice and savour the time we had with him. It was one of the hardest and probably will be the hardest thing I will go through in my life. On October 14, 2014 he finally passed away. Ethical dilemmas happen everyday and though choices will have to be made. But, after you make that choice you have stick with it, and tough it out. All you can do is hope you made the right discion.
ReplyDeleteZac,
DeleteFirst, I am so sorry about your dad. I am so happy you chose to write about your experience in your blog. I have noticed we have all gotten really close to each other this year, and it shows in our blogs, especially this one. Beautiful blog, Zac.
So, the link for compassion is not working but I’m still going to talk about compassion because it is a very prevalent topic for today. Of course, I will tie in politics, so Eeeks do not read this.
ReplyDeleteI went to San Francisco when I was in seventh grade, this was really the first time I ever noticed poor/homeless people on the streets. I noticed their signs, “I need food.” or “I need money.” I wanted to give them money, but learned it was better to give materialistic items. As a seventh grader I really could not comprehend how someone could spend money on say, drugs, if they have no home or food. That ethically did not make sense to me, and it still doesn’t. So, one night we went to dinner, and the gentleman we were with had the servers collect all the food that went un-eaten. This gentleman took all this food and on our way back gave the food to homeless people on the street. This man’s ethics told him to help someone who less fortunate than him, in a way that he knew was “safe”.
So how do you provide for the less fortune? We are human beings, so we have compassion, like we have ethics and morals. We were taught compassion since birth, learning and growing from experiences. Because every person’s ethics and morals are different, so is their compassion. Ask yourself the question, how much compassion do you have for people less fortunate than you are? Think about that question before you continue reading.
I have strong views against Bernie Sander’s plan for the socialist America. I plan to attend a four-year college, possibly continuing for a master’s degree. Like any college graduate, I will be broke, but some how I will overcome that, getting my first real job and all that other fun stuff. I will have bills, taxes, etc. to pay. If Bernie Sanders becomes president a large majority of our income will go towards taxes. Example, some of my tax money will go to the less fortunate in America. Compassion. How can you not give aid to those who need it, but how can you give your hard earned money to people who have not worked their butt off like you have in their life? This is where my ethics and morals struggle.
I want to be like the gentleman who gave the left over food to the homeless on the streets of San Francisco, full of compassion for those less fortunate than him. But I wish those receiving money from the government realized how much others are sacrificing for them. I hope they have compassion for the situation I will be in once I graduate college. I also hope Bernie Sanders does not win.
Everyday, people are faced with ethical dilemmas that require lots of thought to overcome. Only in the end will a person figure out if you made the correct decision. In order to do the right thing, it is best to come up with a decision before one is faced with the situation. It is more difficult to come up with the right thing to do when someone has to come up with an answer quickly. Hunting is a prime example of an ethical dilemma. In Pennsylvania alone, over 300,000 deer are shot during a period of about two months. Many of those deer were harvested in Elk County. In North Central Pennsylvania, one of the most popular ways to pass time is to drive down to camp and go hunting. Usually there are lots of people at each camp that hunt in groups. When someone tags out they are suppose to be finished hunting, but it is easy to continue on and fill other people's tags or just shoot more deer for additional meat. This can throw of the game commission's grasp on the deer population and lead to inconsistent populations of deer in the areas that they are taken from.This is an ethical dilemma because it is easy to get away with shooting more deer than you are suppose to, but it is illegal. Some people may not be able to shoot deer because the people at hunting camps cleaned out all the deer the previous year without tagging them. The loss of deer in that area is unable to accounted for. Ethical dilemmas are present in everything we do even though some are more obvious than others. With deer populations dwindling, this is a dilemma that should be taken into serious consideration the next time you go hunting.
ReplyDelete