26 Jul 2022

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What Makes Ethics and Values Stand Out for an Individual?

Format: APA

Academic level: College

Paper type: Personal Reflection

Words: 1371

Pages: 5

Downloads: 0

Ethics and values are considered the most significant usual standout for an individual since they are responsible for fundamentally characterizing what we accept and what we are. Numerous components are responsible for deciding our ethics and qualities. Religion, society, in addition to several different elements, has the ability to influence our convictions. More often, ethics and qualities can sometimes conflict with various individuals, particularly those who are holding different beliefs and perspectives. However, I have straightforward qualities and ethics since I can never rely on my instinct only when settling on a particular choice. Besides, I would be forced to ask myself specific questions. They are such as does my choice assent to my qualities besides being legitimate or not? Could my choice have significant advantages to the general public? Would my conflict be capable of enlightening my guardians concerning my particular choice? I also have the willingness to give up something to benefit both me and the whole society. It means that I would keep on thinking and asking truly as well as fundamentally until I get my answers. 

Three different noteworthy impacts are applying to my ethics, including my culture, family, as well as my inward reflection. My family significantly impacts my ethics. Irrespective of the fact that the families I come from are not capable of choosing my ethics, they have opted towards ingraining a substantial feeling of bad and good in me because I was a tyke. What is being acted by my guardians usually applies a considerable impact on me. For instance, my father is rigorous, thus making it impossible in enduring any of my bamboozling activities, including the tricking in the examinations. He exceptionally taught me that tricking in examinations would lose the capacity to test my insight in addition to losing the notoriety of my school and my instructors. 

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Additionally, my ethical behavior can well be illustrated by the kind of life I am living, since such an experience has a significant impact on my values and ethics more than I can ever imagine, with the fact that it encompasses me. American reared and American conceived; these are the roots of my ethical behavior and are responsible for supporting the traditions and convention of our country ( Campbell & Kean, 2016). Therefore, I acknowledge that this has a significant hindrance in my personal life. For example, within the American convention, we have the obligation of respecting dutiful devotion, dependability, as well as exemplary nature as our inspirations. I continuously remain quiet concerning mentioning that I should be faithful to my confidence, being decent to people I do not care for, determining more opportunities of staying with my family members, and seeking equity. However, I do always feel that my ethical beliefs have never undergone any significant changes since I still hold firmly to our cultural and ethical practices and beliefs. 

From a personal perspective, I know that I am characterized by a Utilitarian ethical perspective since I always asses an action based on its outcomes or consequences, such as the net costs and benefits to every stakeholder on a personal level. This ethical perspective has always helped me in striving towards achieving the highest good for the maximum number while also creating the smallest amount of harm or even preventing the highest suffering amount within my life. Therefore, for any provided set of options, I always consider viewing the most ethical alternative with the capability of producing the best balance of benefits over harm for most stakeholders. As observed by Mandal, Ponnambath and Parija (2016), the Utilitarian approach allows an individual in quantifying outcomes in such terms as suffering and contentment, monetary loss or gain, an individual’s preferences relative value, in addition to the long-term and short-term effects of a given action. 

Additionally, through the Utilitarian ethical approach, I have always believed that the responsibility of morality is for making life better by escalating the number of good things, such as happiness and pleasure, in addition to decreasing the number of bad things, including unhappiness and pain. It is because those who apply the Utilitarian model are notable for rejecting moral systems or codes consisting of taboos or commands based on traditions, customs, or even orders given by supernatural beings or leaders ( Kahane, Everett, Earp, Farias & Savulescu, 2015). Instead, the Utilitarian approach often perceives that what makes a morality justifiable or correct are the positive contributions it provides to human beings. However, it is imperative to understand that there is always a contradiction between rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism. It is because rule utilitarian always adopts two perspectives stressing on the importance of moral rules, while act utilitarian believes that we should be performing an action capable of creating the highest net utility whenever we are in the process of deciding what to do. 

I adopted this utilitarian perspective since I thought that it was better as compared to the traditional, rule-based moralities. It is because the conventional ethical codes always comprise sets of rules concerning various types of actions. For example, the biblical Ten Commandments focus on types of actions by telling us not to steal, kill, commit adultery, bear false witness, or even covet things belonging to other individuals. Generally, both the philosophical and customary moral codes always seem to consist of absolute rules ( Fleurbaey & Mongin, 2016). Therefore, adopting Act utilitarian approach has always helped me in rejecting rigid ruled-based moralities since they are responsible for identifying the entire classes of actions as wrong or right. Besides, I adopted this Utilitarian approach so that it could assist me in acknowledging that it may be crucial in having moral rules considered as “rules of thumb.” Such laws have always helped me in describing what is generally wrong or right. However, I do not always see the reason for obeying a rule when significant well-being can be achieved successfully through the violation of such a law. 

I also decided to attend teachings on Utilitarianism since I believed it could assist me in illustrating how my parents could utilize it as a universal concept for reducing the amount of their harm while increasing the level of their happiness. My parents never wanted to live in misery all of the time, even if every thought they were having was characterized by pessimism. It implies that this utilitarian ethical perspective always helps in establishing a society that places additional value on actions responsible for bringing happiness ( Campbell & Kean, 2016). As a result, this always helped my parents in creating a place that makes it possible in finding more common ground. It is still a principle applying to all cultures, implying that it can be possible to take a closer step to a world without borders. 

Besides, being taught the Utilitarian approach has always assisted me in reconciling the ethical conflicts that I have ever experienced. It is because the perspective often follows the democratic principles, which I have always applied in reconciling various ethical conflicts in my life. It is because a Utilitarian ethical perspective is the fairest and fastest way of making moral decisions as it allows an individual to consider the views of both sides before making an ethical decision ( Mandal, Ponnambath & Parija, 2016). It means that this ethical perspective has always resulted in my actions creating a distinction between wrong and right through the Utilitarianism principles. 

From a personal perspective, I think that culture has played significant roles when using the Utilitarian framework in my education and upbringing. Like other several aspects of our lives, we usually rely upon our cultural traditions and practices in teaching us moral lessons that we cannot be capable of discovering individually. Therefore, my utilitarian education always considered knowing and understanding my cultural background for providing the best way of applying this ethical perspective to my American culture. Besides, it is imperative to realize that both explicit and implicit social norms help in guiding an individual’s behavior ( Fleurbaey & Mongin, 2016) . From my early development stages and throughout my life, I have learned to adapt my behavior according to the social requirements and expectations of my culture. It is because the moral and social norms have always been part of my cultural lifestyle, which has indicated that a set of core Utilitarian principles are underlying my fundamental ethical judgments. 

In conclusion, I think that the Utilitarian ethical perspective is what has significantly helped me in becoming the person I am today. Today, I am an individual who does not only focus on my family or friends, or even fellow-citizens, but I am also concerned about distant strangers. I would remain with this behavior since this is the same person with the same moral ethics I want to maintain in the future by being concerned about future generations. As a result, this would always allow me to have less suffering while being happier at the same time. Therefore, I would still apply the Utilitarian principles in my life everywhere and at any time. 

References 

Campbell, N., & Kean, A. (2016).  American cultural studies: an introduction to American culture . Routledge. 

Fleurbaey, M., & Mongin, P. (2016). The utilitarian relevance of the aggregation theorem.  American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 8 (3), 289-306. 

Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015). ‘Utilitarian’judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good.  Cognition 134 , 193-209. 

Mandal, J., Ponnambath, D. K., & Parija, S. C. (2016). Utilitarian and deontological ethics in medicine.  Tropical parasitology 6 (1), 5. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 16). What Makes Ethics and Values Stand Out for an Individual?.
https://studybounty.com/what-makes-ethics-and-values-stand-out-for-an-individual-personal-reflection

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