...far greater emissions on the actual road. This whole situation can be split into two parts: the illegal programing of diesel engines, and the decision of Liang to plead guilty and tell the world of his mistakes. Upon examining the actions of the design team, an ethical analysis can be made with two different ethical theories. The first theory to consider is utilitarian theory, which takes into account consequences of all involved when deciding the morality of the decision. The second theory to relate to this case study is Kantian ethics, otherwise known as duty ethics. Kantian ethics focuses on whether moral decisions are made to fulfill our duty....
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...What does the term ethics mean to you? Do you see a difference between ethics and morality? Explain your answer. When it comes to ethics in business, many companies are famous for their downfall due to poor ethics. A recent example of this is Enron and the accounting fraud that took place. The term ethics can have multiple meanings, and can often be thought of as morality. To me, the definition of ethics is the ability to judge what is right or wrong concerning human behavior. Human behavior includes individuals, and also groups of people or organizations. As described in the textbook, the term ethics and morals can be used interchangeably. However, the definition of morality at least to me, is culturally acceptable practices that have been passed down through the generations. Being that scholars are using the two terms interchangeably as time passes, it is completely understandable as to why this is happening, as the two definitions are very similar in character. Ethics being the judgment of right and wrong versus a passed down culturally acceptable practice is how the two definitions are different. Because of this reason, I feel that the two are not exactly the same and should not be used interchangeably. There are five approaches to ethics and how they are viewed in the world. The first of these approaches is Utilitarianism. This approach is based upon the basis that something should be done with the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Kant’s Categorical Imperative...
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...Immanuel Kant remains one of the most influential modern philosophers in the realm of western philosophy. As a philosopher, Kant’s teachings stretched into the fields of, yet not inclusive to, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. However, it was Kant’s view of ethics that perhaps was paramount; it is as well important to delve further and pinpoint reason and good will as the source of morality in his ethical teachings. It is utterly inconceivable to simplify Kant’s works and theologies into less than 2,000 words; however, I will try. Kant’s philosophical teachings branched into many different disciplines – challenging common notions and making significant impacts as he taught them. However, it is his ethical theory that has been the most...
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...Immanuel Kant adheres to Deontological ethics. His theory offers a view of morality based on the principle of good will and duty. According to him, people can perform good actions solely by good intentions without any considerations to consequences. In addition, one must follow the laws and the categorical imperative in order to act in accordance with and from duty. Several other philosophers such as Hannah Arendt discuss Kant’s moral philosophy. In her case study: “The Accused and Duties of a Law-Abiding Citizen”, Arendt examines how Adolf Eichmann’s actions conformed to Kant’s moral precepts but also how they ran of afoul to his conception of duty. In contrast, John Stuart Mill adopts a teleological view of moral philosophy. He exposes his view of consequentialism and utilitarianism to argue that an action is morally right only to the extent that it maximizes the aggregate happiness of all parties involved regardless of the motive. In the present paper, I will expose Kant’s moral precepts and the importance of duty in his Deontological principles. Then, I will evaluate Arendt’s report on Adolf Eichmann to analyze the ways in which his actions were in accordance to or against Kant’s moral philosophy. I will conclude my discussion with an evaluation of Mill’s approach to morality in order to examine the differences between his teleological philosophy and Kant’s ethical principles. Kant’s moral philosophy is based on the categorical imperative (CI), good will, and duty. According...
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...Kant’s view of Good Will is a useful approach to ethics Kant’s moral philosophy relies on humans acting in accordance with their duty. In order to achieve this Kant argued that the source to all moral behaviours is a Good Will. Kant believed that acting morally is pre-programmed in all of us. He classified this belief with two main distinctions of knowledge, a priori and a posteriori. A priori knowledge is knowledge that comes without experience, for example anything a new born baby does is priori knowledge as they had not previously done this. A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that comes with an observation of the world. An example of this is something that a child at school is taught through the actions of another student, this could be another student playing with a toy in a way that the first child had not previously seen. Kant also discussed analytic truths and synthetic truths, analytic truths are true by definition, for example a bachelor is a man who is unmarried. A synthetic truth relies on testing, for example a statement such as ‘I am a bachelor’. Kant argued that our understanding of morality is based on a priori statement as it innate, but also synthetic truths because they can be either right or wrong depending on the world and are understanding of it. Kant believed that when we are driven to act in a morally right way then we are said to act with a Good Will. He also said that good will is an innate human capacity and the highest type of goodness we can have...
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...Seminar Two: Short Paper B Macland Baker College Introduction: The Problem We are given two problems for ethical consideration. The problems are similar in some respects, but different in one primary detail. The problems are called The Trolley Problem 1 and The Trolley Problem 2. Both problems have a runaway trolley that will kill five people on the track ahead if it continues on its course uninterrupted. The first problem has a switch that will turn the trolley off the track with the five people on it and turn it onto a track where there is one person on it. By hitting the switch you will save the five people, but the trolley will kill the one person. Do you hit the switch to save the five, or let the trolley go and save the one? I would hit the switch and save the five. I felt that if I was put in the position of having to choose to save one or save five, I would choose to save five. To not act at all, to me, is still acting because your inaction still kills one person. It is better to kill five people over killing one person? Definitely not. Although I don’t advocate that killing one person is justified. My choice is simply made because I was given the option of saving one or saving five. My option was not killing one or killing five. Mentally, this changes the scenario. It makes me feel less personally responsible for the deaths. In the second problem there is no switch. The problem is made more personal by the presence of an individual. You are standing on a bridge...
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...Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics defined a virtuous act to be an act that satisfied three conditions. He further elaborated on it using his function argument to emphasize that acting virtuously according to reason fulfilled our function and brought us pleasure. This claim seems to be in tension with Kant’s view that a dutiful action is motivated by the reason for your action, maxims, undertaken out of reverence to the moral law. Although dutiful actions conform to ‘the good will’, they may conflict with happiness. I will argue through Aristotle’s function argument, Kant’s definition of a good will and the parallels of their requirements for moral acts that although their claims about the nature of virtuous and dutiful action seem to be in tension with each other, they both agree the source of virtuous and dutiful actions is reason....
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...moral program for my personal and professional lives. Whether it is applying the ethical principles of Aristotle, Kant and Mill, or combating moral illiteracy within my department, I plan to use my newfound information to its greatest potential. Therefore, this article first elucidates on the moral program that I would implement in my professional life as a nurse. Consequently, the second part is on a program fitted for my personal life as a single mother to a four-year-old child. Out of all the philosophers that we studied during the course, Aristotle's virtue ethics is the most suitable theory for my profession. According to Solomon (1992), Aristotle believed that “virtuous acts required conscious choice and moral purpose or motivation” (Solomon, 1992, p. 321). In this regard, this is the most crucial aspect that I must exemplify in my professional life as a nurse. Furthermore, the six dimensions of virtue ethics are community, excellence, role identity, holism, integrity and judgment are crucial for an exemplary career as a...
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...order to use one of these methods you have to understand these theories and their purposes. Immanuel Kant was a dominant philosopher of his time (1724-1804), the theory of Kant is the most difficult to understand but when understood is a simple approach. Kant argues that “the moral worth of an action is to be judged not by its consequences but by the nature of the maxim or principal that motivated the action”(Cahn pg. 98). The only actions that are correct are the ones that can serve as universal laws. People should act only on principles or maxims that can be universalized without contradiction. Another theory that is the theory of a leading English philosopher known as John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), his theory differentiates between Kant’s in that his concentrates on the consequences of an action rather than the motive for an action. Mill’s theory is known as utilitarianism, this view is grounded off that principle that morality is to act as so to produce as much happiness as possible, each person counting equally. Mill’s view of happiness is defined as pleasure with the absence of pain. The theory of Aristotle, student of Plato...
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...Business ethics and deontology Adelphia Communications Company was a family business company and later incorporated by the founders’ sons. It was ranked sixth of the largest cable selling company in the U.S. Its revenue exceeded $ 2.9 billion annually with its offices located in 32 states having subscribers exceeding five million (Barlaup, 2009). However, in 2002 a financial analyst realized that some funds were missing in the books of the company leading to investigations. Later, the SEC announced that the Adelphia Company had fraudulently and systematically excluded billions of dollars of liabilities from its financial statements by removing the entries from its book. The founders’ family (Riga’s family) cooperated with the company’s executives to consume the funds in their personal needs. Additionally, they also lied to their investors that the company was growing at a very high rate misleading them. The extent to which the company was looted and an ostentatious amount of money and time stolen from investors by Riga’s and their coconspirators made this scandal the most unbelievable case ever seen in SEC. Moreover, business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical and moral principles or ethical problems that arise in business organizations. It is relevant to the conduct of entire organizations and individuals and smears to all aspects of business ethics. The scandal surrounding Adelphia Corporation and the founder’s family is riddled with what one would...
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...That is, our feelings of nature are properly designed and therefore ought to be heeded. Kant’s belief of ethics might be seen as an over-arching design and order of nature. The third illustration considers the issue of developing one’s talents. Nature endows us with aptitudes that are intended for a given purpose, which Kant implies, are valid in an appropriate system of nature. Like the antecedent moralists, Kant appeals to the teleology of nature. Initially, in the first section of Groundwork Kant seems to echo Aristotle, but then takes great care to refute Aristotle’s expositions of virtues. As Kant moves to a discussion of the second and fourth illustrations which concern duties to others, his analogy with nature prevails. Kant draws again...
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...inevitable death.” -Unknown. Active voluntary euthanasia is described as mercy killing at the patient’s request. Physician-assisted suicide is described as the killing of a person by the person’s own hand with the help of a physician (Lewis 264). Generally, the law forbids active euthanasia and the medical profession is officially opposed to it. In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is legal in only four states- Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont (Lewis 265). Death has become more difficult to define and the conventional notion of death seems to be inadequate. To overcome the traditional drawbacks of the traditional definition of death, alternative definitions have been suggested. According to the whole-brain definition of death, an individual is dead when all brain function permanently stops. The higher brain definition of death says that an individual is dead when higher brain functions—those that give rise to consciousness—permanently stop (Lewis 266-267). I believe when faced with certain undignified death, one should get to choose how they wish to die. For example: Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer and less than six months left to live, who wanted to die on her own terms wrote the following: “When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, ‘I love you; come by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever’s next.’ I will die upstairs in my bedroom with my husband, mother, stepfather, and best...
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...STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS TYPES OF ESSAYS In this chapter we describe different forms and styles of essay writing. These forms and styles are used by a range of authors, including university students and professional essayists. To characterize the peculiar features of the admission essay we would like to make stylistic analyses of an article. App. 1] The beginning of an essay, paragraph 1, is essential to making a good impression. We have elevated the level of diction here and improved the pacing to construct a more fluid beginning, including this sentence: "The injury itself was tendonitis, an elusive malady, not easy to pin down like a simple broken bone." Also, we have introduced a metaphor that will help the reader understand the seriousness of the injury, characterizing the pain as "a knife in my mind, sinking deeper the more I struggled." This will make it that much more impressive when you overcome the arm injury through sheer perseverance later in the essay. In the paragraph 2, a number of overly short sentences here have been combined into longer, more sophisticated phrasings. One example is: "I thought about how many famous soccer players are equally skilled with both feet, and wondered: could I learn to throw left-handed?" These changes help with both word count and readability issues. We have also eliminated or limited repetition by replacing the overused "frustrated" a variety of more illustrative phrasings. Paragraph...
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...The Categorical Imperative Analyzing Immanuel Kant’s Grounding for A Metaphysics of Morals Anders Bordum WP 4/2002 January 2002 MPP Working Paper No. 4/2002 © January 2002 ISBN: 87-91181-06-2 ISSN: 1396-2817 Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy Copenhagen Business School Blaagaardsgade 23B DK-2200 Copenhagen N Denmark Phone: +45 38 15 36 30 Fax: +45 38 15 36 35 E-mail: as.lpf@cbs.dk www.cbs.dk/departments/mpp 2 The Categorical Imperative Analyzing Immanuel Kant's Grounding for a Metaphysics of Morals By Anders Bordum Keywords: Categorical imperative, discourse ethics, duty, ethics, monologic, dialogic, Immanuel Kant, Jürgen Habermas, self-legislation, self-reference. 3 Abstract In this article I first argue that Immanuel Kant’s conception of the categorical imperative is important to his philosophy. I systematically, though indirectly, interconnect the cognitive and moral aspects of his thinking. Second, I present an interpretation of the Kantian ethics, taking as my point of departure, the concept of the categorical imperative. Finally, I show how the categorical imperative is given a dialogical interpretation by Jürgen Habermas in his approach, usually referred to as discourse ethics. I argue that the dialogical approach taken by discourse ethics is more justifiable and therefore more usefuli. I The Synthesis of Rationalism and Empiricism The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is in the main inspired...
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...Amber, Great job on your definition of Kantian Deontologism, and your answer is very easy to understand. Your example is a great way to demonstrate the limitation of Kantian Deontologism because the world we live in is never “right and wrong, cut and dry” which Deontology is based on. Deontology, or duty-based ethics, doesn't deal well with the cases where duties are in conflict. Someone who follows Deontology should do the right thing, even if that produces more harm (or less good) than doing the wrong thing. In fact, Kant himself thought that it would be wrong to tell a lie in order to save a friend from a murderer. http://askaphilosopher.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/utilitarianism-versus-deontology/ Key strength: For Kant, the only thing good in and of itself is a good will. This means that if your intentions are good (you are following the moral law), then you and your actions are good. This is a strength of Kant's position because whether or not you are a good person depends only on what you intend to do, not on what actually comes to be. Under this view, you cannot be blamed for things that you had no intention of doing. Key weakness: Kant's view doesn't allow the consequences of an action to have moral significance. Imagine a situation where a murderer comes to your door and asks if your sister is home. According to Kant, you cannot lie to the murderer and tell him that she is not home. It doesn't matter if bad consequences will happens if you tell the truth. Since...
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