Among The Hidden : Ethics And Morality In Among The Hidden

The life of a person may be measured in years, moments, and the number of laughs or cries but what if one were to measure a life on good deeds or on that person’s virtues? The theory and idea of ethics and virtue as conceptualized by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics and as it is expressed in the pages of The Fundamentals of Ethics by Russ Shafer-Landau is a complex and dubious notion. It is one that is easily related to characters in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

In Normative Ethics there are three distinct schools of thought, and each differentiate through moral intentions. Consequentialism relies on the consequences of an action in order to distinguish whether or not something is morally acceptable. Deontology considers the morality of an action by one’s reason for doing a certain deed. Lastly, virtue ethics bases morality off of virtuous character, and how a virtuous person would act given a certain predicament. Ultimately, consequentialism provides the most practical explanation for morality due to the notion of providing the best possible result. Contrarily, deontology and virtue ethics do not always provide an individual with the most sensible course of action, and therefore prove to be

Moral codes are controversial, diverse, and defining. Everyone lives with a standard measure of ethics that tells them right from wrong. In the stories “R.M.S. Titanic”, “Into Thin Air”, “The Dark Side of Everest”, and “Explorers Say There’s Still a lot to Look For”, one or more characters are faced with one decision; save another man and risk their life, or stay safe and leave the others.

In his writing, A Practical Companion to Ethics, Anthony Weston explains people are more judgmental and it causes a lot more problems than solutions. Anthony Weston feels Ethics requires us to be mindful thinkers, because it helps fight unjust prejudgment. I personally feel this could help fix court systems, federal, and state wide corruption. Most importantly being a mindful thinker could help businesses. There are so many reasons that could fall under Anthony’s theory. Getting to know the author and his work. I feel his mindful thinking is to reach out to others and interact with more people in an expressive way. Weston believes this will help our community progress in a positive manner towards others. I think he feels ethics requires us

Warren’s thesis is that fetuses are not persons and since only persons have full moral rights and person-like beings have a right to life in particular, fetuses do not have a right to life. She argues that fetuses are not persons because they lack the basic qualifying traits of personhood or moral humanity. She also believes that the rights of actual persons will always override the rights of potential persons and that there should be no restrictions on when an abortion must occur by. Her argument is a direct response to Noonan’s thesis which is that fetuses are humans and therefore have human rights.

During times of crisis, we as American citizens, may be unlikely to consider the issues with being supervised by the government (Orwell). After all, it’s for the greater good, and for the sake of national security from terrorist threats. It’s not quite that simple. If we are to abandon our rights for the sake of safety in our country we would have little to no privacy. Based on how much the internet, text messages, and other monitorable services are used in daily life. People shouldn’t be so quick to give up their privacy rights in the name of national security.

With new technology rolling out onto the market seemingly everyday, the privacy of many is disappearing and has even become nonexistent. With many scandals over the past few years, government agencies have been accused of using these new communication resources as means to keep a watchful eye over their citizens. This is the very topic discussed by Peter Singer in his essay “Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets”. Singer discusses the benefits and pitfalls that have come from these communication innovations, going in depth on the tactics and resources used by civilians as well as governments to keep track of each other. Singer presents strong premises that argue for the conservation of the individual privacy rights while also arguing for governments to become more transparent, creating an overall controversial element to his essay, as he is only half invested in transparency as a whole between civilians and the body that governs them, that comes off as somewhat unconvincing as the two arguments contradict each other.

An adult patient is a member of a religion that does not believe in receiving blood. The patient receives a colostomy and begins hemorrhaging. He is unable to voice his objections. You know of this patient’s strong beliefs and that he does not want to receive blood. On the admission sheet, the area for religion is blank. He has no family. The nurses and doctors want to give blood and you do not want him to die.

Ethics is the study of how humans are in relationships with themselves and others (2012). Strong ethics comes from building community, respecting others, serving others, showing justice, and manifesting honesty (2016). With the ethical lens inventory, I believe in looking at relationships and life through a blend of responsibilities, rights and results. These ethical lenses are why I like to use my personal reasoning skills and intuition to balance between living into my flexible principles and determining the greatest good for individuals. My ethical perspective is based off personal experiences, thought and my community, per Catharyn Baird in Everyday Ethics (2012), they are my beliefs and how I choose to see situations. In the end, this

Gensler, Harry. "Chapter 17 Cultural Relativism." The Fundamentals of Ethics. By Russ Shafer-Landau. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. 183-91. Print.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. If a religious group were to believe that the first-born male of every family must be sacrificed, all parents in the group would consider themselves ethically obligated to kill their first-born male. Their religious beliefs would lead them to unethical behavior and lessen their capacity to appreciate the cruel nature of thei acts. We must turn the ethical principles to protect ourselves from intolerant and oppressive religious practices. (Paul,

believe their child's life may have meaning or purpose they do not yet understand. They believe they

“On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”, an essay written by Mary Anne Warren, defend abortion in any stage of a woman’s pregnancy (pg 468). Warren argues that the potential to become a human being is not the same as being human and deserving the same right to life (pg. 468-472). This essay asserts that in order to be human, one must possess five particular traits (pg. 470). These trait are consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, the ability to communicate, and awareness of oneself (pg. 470). Warren claims that since a fetus has not yet acquired all of the traits, then that fetus is not human and therefore does not have the right to life (pg. 470).

“Brad is a production engineer at a bicycle company and part of his job includes inspecting broken bikes and drafting the design repairs for their repair” (Bartlett). Brad is considering replacing a broken brake cable with a more durable material, even though the customer did not request it in their order and specifically requested that “No aesthetic changes be made to the bike” (Bartlett). Brad’s manager suggests that his considered actions would go against the company’s policy of “The customer is always right.” Should Brad disobey the manager and the customer to possibly lose his job or go along with

There are a variety of different ethical systems that have developed of the course of millennia. However, even though the subject has been covered so thoroughly, it is still heavily debated. The varieties of ethical systems that are in existence look at various ethical problems from different perspectives and can be applied differently in different circumstances. Because of the subjective aspects to applying ethics, they can be as much an art as they are a science. Ethics are something that must be practiced and really cannot be perfected. In this way, studying ethics is a continual process that does not really stop. This paper will argue that ethics are the most important subject that an individual can pursue.