There
are three types of ethical philosophies that influence the standards in our
lives and the choices we make whether right or wrong. These types of ethical
philosophies include virtue ethics which emphasizes virtues and the moral
character(Andre et al 2012), deontology
which highlights the duties and
rules of human being (Fieser, 2009) and consequentialism which stresses the consequences of an action (Fieser, 2009). This essay will
seek to focus further on one these types of ethical philosophies,
consequentialism.
According
to the consequentialist theory otherwise known as the teleological theory, an
action is morally correct as long as the consequences of that action are more favorable
than unfavorable, this is unlike
deontoligical views that suggest that sometimes it is wrong to choose what is possibly the best outcome
overall.
Consequentialism
can be divided into three categories; ethical egoism which refers to when the
consequences of the action is more positive only to individual performing the
action, ethical altruism where the results of the consequences is more favorable
to everyone except the individual performing the action, and utilitarianism where
the consequences of the action is more beneficial to everyone (Fieser, 2009).
In
order to further understand consequentialism, I will depict a hypothetical situation
and give details on how I would respond to the given situation. Taking the fact
that I live in the country of Jamaica where drug trafficking is common, sometimes
people use this avenue as a way to solve their problems. People usually use
this avenue, as the unemployment rate and cost of living is very high in my
country especially among the youth. The dilemma that I could be faced with is
the fact that my friend Tamra confides in me that she has decided to hide some
drugs, specifically marijuana in two of her friends’ bags who are travelling to
Miami for spring break vacation. If all goes well my friend Tamra will receive
enough money from the drug dealers in order to cover the medical bills of her
brother who is critically ill. The moral decision that I will have to make is
to keep the secret and possibly save the life of Tamra’s brother or inform her
two friends whose luggage contains the drugs, and prevent them from possibly
being caught by the police and face 10-20 years in prison.
Based
on the three categories of consequentialism, I could make varying choices. In
terms of ethical egoism I could choose not to get involve, keep the secret so
that Tamra’s brother life could be saved. Using the option of utilitarianism I
would have to consider the consequences for myself and the parties involved and
then calculate the overall benefit.
However
even though I would really like to keep the secret and save the brother of my
dear friend, I would be unable to keep the secret. Therefore I would choose the
category of ethical altruism which would
be the correct moral choice. The consequence of withholding this information
could risk the two other persons spending many years in prison for a crime they
did not even commit. Therefore, I would inform the two friends of the plot against
and hence prevent them from being prosecuted by the authorities. Here I am able
to the consequentialist theory as I am able to make a moral decision in which
the consequences are more favorable than unfavorable, that is important to save
the lives of Tamra’s friends than to save the life of her brother.
To conclude consequentialism focuses
only on the consequences of the actions and a normative weighting is used in
the determination of the moral right or wrong of any action. In addition this
theory does not focus on whether the actions are innately moral but more so
whether the action produces good and positive consequences. Overall
consequentialism when combined with other theories may help to produce the best
ideologies for given circumstances.
References
2.
Fieser, J.,(2009). Ethics, Duty theories :University of Tennessee, Internet Encyclopedia
of Philosophy. Retrieved fromhttp://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/#SH2b
3.
Fieser, J.,(2009). Ethics, Consequentialist theories: University of Tennessee, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Retrieved fromhttp://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/#SH2b
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