'Why Study Ethics?\r'

'http://faculty. polytechnic. org/gfeldmeth/4. ruggiero1. pdf Ruggiero 1 Why Study Ethics? If we ease up jurisprudences and religion, wherefore do we lease ethics? Ethics is the take on of expert and scathe. Every hotshot makes decisions each twenty-four hour period that be essentially survivals. For somewhat, choices are considered strictly personal and no genius else’s business: Should I have a strip of bacon with my eggs? But for some, until now that primary choice has ethical ramifications: Should I eat message? Is it any(prenominal)one else’s concern that I eat meat?Other choices confront us as the day progresses: Should I call in sick? Should I obey the speed laws as I causal agency to work? Should I answer a plugger’s question honestly or equivocation and potentially hurt her feelings? Should I be folding to my spouse? How does one find answers to these questions? For some, laws and religion bring shell the bacon the answers. But for most, those devil sources are insufficient. Ethical Relativism In the past for most great deal and even for legion(predicate) people today, an objective moral standard that is grooming on all people for all clock exists.While in that location might be disagreement on what the standard was, most acknowledged that there was a â€Å" repair” choice. But in the last half-century, there has been considerable erosion in the idea that a standard exists or is even needed. For many, decisions approximately what is effective and impairment are drop off personal and alto inviteher relegateive: what is right for me may non be right for you. This is known as ethical relativism. It asserts that whatsoever an un unite deems virtuously acceptable is acceptable for that person. To opine that is often considered unacceptably intolerant.As relativism or situation ethics, as it was called by some, grew in the 1960s, some critics warned that an attitude of complete toleration would make it difficult, if non impossible to reasonably discuss ethical issues. If no one skyline is better than a nonher, how can one pick up civilise from uncivilized behavior, or slap-up and evil. If ethical choices are essentially the same as aesthetic or taste choices, and then pursuing one choice of action is essentially no different that preferring a work of art or an author or a singing group.It is all just a matter of taste and your taste is as good as mine. One result of the growth of relativism is the falter of many to pass judgment on an individual or a deed. If the choice is between one-man rule (â€Å"that is absolutely wrong” or relativism (â€Å"in some examples, for some individuals, that action may be wrong’), many opt for relativism as it seems to a greater extent tolerant, more reasonable, less black-and-white. Many civilizations in the past sound human sacrifice in religious rituals. Is it right to judge that practice as wrong? later( prenominal) all, freedom of religion is a pillar of American beliefs. Should I judge another culture’s practices even if I find it abhorrent? To get up a modern example, some cultures allow wedlock of young womans as young as 12 old age old or a husband to have multiple wives. Are those issues that should be left up to a nation or people-group to decide or are there universal principles that apply? To get even more relevant to students living in American society, is it ok to download copyrighted harmony or movies?How about copying and pasting a split from an Internet source such as Wikipedia into a paper? If I want to do that, isn’t it my choice? Who are you to say it’s wrong? Ethics and Laws One might wonder why we need ethics if we have laws? If we have a comprehensive intend of laws that are consistently enforced, isn’t that enough? Of course, we need to ask who makes 1 Ruggiero 1 the laws and how do they decide whether a behavior is criminal. rent familiar harassment.Because a legislator or even a number of them might say â€Å"I would never commit such an act” would not be enough reason to conclude that a law should be passed preventing others from committing that act. From the perspective of an ethical relativist, no one has the right to criticize another’s actions. The and defensible reason for a law against sexual harassment is that the act is wrong, not just for me entirely for everyone. And sexual harassment was clearly wrong massive before it was made illegal. So laws are not possible without ethics.For a law to be passed, a person or a group of people have to make a decision about right and wrong. That has been the case from the start of human society, whether laws were impelled by kings, religious leaders, or elected legislators. It does not mean that every law is morally right but every law starts with a construct of right and wrong. In fact, laws change over times. raw(a) circumstances hei ghten so that laws must be revised to fit them. New technologies developed the need for new laws. In addition, attitudes change over time.Women were not take into accountted to vote in national elections until 1920. The 18th Amendment legalized restraint in 1919. The 21st Amendment repealed it in 1933. Ethics and religious belief Just as laws arise from ethics, ethics arise from religion. ghostly thinkers have always spoken to the greater society on issues of moral concern. Sometimes they have assumed that their position is the only acceptable one, which hinders watchword and debate. Faith does not usually provide everyday ground to discuss ethical issues in a dispassionate or even-handed way.Many religious thinkers are absolutists and patch to an outside authority, God or the Bible or the Koran for their authority. Of course, to say the Bible says something suggests that it is a simple book easy for everyone to interpret. In fact, it is complex and subject to many different interpretations. This is why it is important to distinguish between religious ethics and religious beliefs. Religious ethics examines moral situations from a perspective, a set of principles. It is a starting point, not a specify â€Å"right or wrong” point. Inquiries 1.Canada’s organisation proposed that color photographs of diseased hearts and cancerous lungs and lips be printed on the front and back panels of every rent of cigarettes sold in that country. Canada’s tobacco patience claimed the practice was illegal. What is the ethical issue in this case? 2. When a Michigan man was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, his gondola was impounded by the law of nature. His wife, who co-owned the vehicle, claimed that the government’s action was untoward because it punished her as well as her husband, even though she had no knowledge or fraction of his crime.Is her argument morally correct? 3. The National collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) all ows colleges and universities to make millions of dollars each social class from the sale of tickets and television rights to games. Yet the NCAA does not permit student athletes to be paid. Is the NCAA’s position morally justifiable? 2 Ruggiero 1 4. A married couple, both drug addicts, is unable to care for their babe daughter. The court takes her from them and places her in a boost home for a number of years and she comes to view her foster parents as her real parents.When she is nine years old, her inbred parents, now in drug recovery, ask the courts to glide by custody to them. The case is decided in their upgrade and the girl is returned to them, against her will. Does ethics support the court’s decision? 5. A Milpitas, California, boy raped and then killed his girlfriend and dumped her body in a lovers driveway gully. Over the next few days, the killer boasted to his superior school friends and the word quickly spread that the girl was on the spur of the moment and that her body was in the gully. Carload after carload of high school students visited the gully to see the body.Some students prodded it with sticks or kicked it; one girl ripped a decal from the dead girls jeans. Only one boy reported the put to death to the high school principal, and even after the police investigation was well under way, only two students would identify the killer or volunteer any information. Since failure to report a body or to volunteer to testify is not a crime, the students could not be charged legally. But was the behavior of any of the students morally acceptable? Why or why not? Based on Thinking critically About Moral Issues by Vincent Ruggiero 3\r\n'