Ruggiero Moral Judgments

In the Elements of Moral Philosophy, written by James Rachels, the theory of Social Contract Theory is defined as “the set of rules, governing behaviors, that rational people will accept, on the condition that others accept them as well” (Rachels EMP 85). The author describes that the theory aims to explain the purpose of both morality and government within a society. Rachels states that the “purpose of morality is to make social living possible; the purpose of government is to enforce vital moral rules (Rachels EMP 85). In essence, social contract theory dictates an implicit set of rules by which a specific society is governed. The set of rules lays the framework for what will be considered moral or not within the society. The goal of this essay is to objectively analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the social contract theory, and describe how they impact the world. Ultimately, even though the text provides concerns regarding the disadvantages of the contract, the contract still exists today and thus can be successful despite the author’s criticism.

When people think of Richard Nixon the Watergate scandal may come to mind. Impeachment might also come to mind, but contrary to popular thought he was never truly impeached. Notably, the only impeached presidents are Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Yet, Nixon has a strong public disapprobation. Most of Richard Nixon’s legacy remains surrounded by negativity, but is there anything positive or noteworthy regarding Nixon’s presidency? Due to the Watergate scandal, people tend to overlook many aspects of Richard Nixon, to include, his background, his actual involvement in Watergate, and his legacy.

Richard Nixon, though created a large credibility gap within the US, he accomplished a lot for the country. He served five years in the presidential office as a republican (1969-1974), and he was the only president to resign from office in history. Although through his presidency he had accomplished many things, such as creating revenue sharing, ending the draft, and creating anticrime laws, he still had a rough time rebuilding his reputation after many assumptions of corruption in his office. Though he never admittedly pledged guilty to his crimes of taking government funds for his own personal gain, there was proof that he was. After the Watergate scandal, the American people set their mind to believe what the proof led to, so Nixon’s

In the election of 1972, Nixon won by over sixty percent of the votes and won all states except Massachusetts against George McGovern (“The History Place…”). This is one of the biggest landslides in U.S. Presidential election history. In January 1973, Richard Nixon’s approval rating was sixty-seven percent, which is relatively high compared to current president Barack Obama’s forty-seven percent and many other Presidents before him (“The History Place…”). Therefore, he had a great reputation and was in the highest possible position, the leader of the free world, just like Father Flynn was in his parish. Richard Nixon also had a very positive relationship with members of the White House. For example, members of the White House were caught breaking in and violating the law to get President Nixon re-elected (“The History Place…”). Abuse of power comes from a high reputation that is unquestioned.

Overall I thought Richard Nixon was a good person. He did a lot of things that he

Nixon. It was clearly a ‘painful decision’ for the Tribune's editors, most of whom know the president personally” (1974, May 14). This statement is based on the fact that the Chicago Tribune’s Editorial was calling for the president to leave the office due to the Watergate affair. What was also mentioned was the fact that most if not all of the editors knew the president personally, and it appears that they were all on board to quickly to impeach the president. Dean Burch goes on to report, mostly in Nixon’s defense, that the president faces many decisions every day that affect all the lives in America, and he made the correct decision to open a full investigation into the Watergate scandal. One key question is also brought up: “Did Richard Nixon do wrong?” (1974, May 14). From reading this article it appears that the writer was looking at what the president was thinking and doing as a whole, not just speculate and ridicule him on just one topic. The article also references that “Like all good presidents, he is not perfect” (1974, May 14), by that statement if is clear that there were many other aspects of the situation that was not being recognized by the Chicago Tribune.

“I am not a crook” is one of the most famous quotes from President Richard M. Nixon.  Citizens of the United States of America would hope that their president would never have to defend himself as a crook, but that is just what happened in the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. President Nixon had to defend himself for not being a crook because of the events famously known as the ‘Watergate Scandal’. In 1972, members of Nixon’s re-election committee broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate offices and stole top-secret documents as well as trying to get into their phone system. They eventually were caught and so was President Nixon which led him to his resignation. Even though it was an unfortunate event, there have been positive outcomes because of it. The lasting implications of the Watergate Scandal have been generally positive on society because of the passing of Ethics in Government Act, amending the Freedom of Information Act and 42 states passing election reform laws.

Throughout the semester, I have read total three philosophical books which helped me to understand little more about what moral judgment is. Some people say it is an instinctual response to a situation, telling us what is right or wrong. Or some people say it is the expression of learned and acquired cultural values. However, this writer personal believes a moral judgment is a subjective, personal or even preferable opinions of a person concerning whether something is right or wrong. And also I was able to learn that each person makes their own moral judgments, and those decisions are valid for that person and therefore nobody’s judgments are better or worse.

When Richard Nixon was elected as president of the United States in 1968, he entered office with high hopes for his term. America was in the midst of a war in Vietnam, and Nixon believed that because of his extensive knowledge of worldwide affairs, he could be the president to bring about positive change and peace in this area. Although Nixon desired to obtain “peace with honor,” his approach to the war in Vietnam and the actions that he took ultimately led to a defeat for the United States and left many devastating legacies.

President Richard Nixon did several things while in office that eventually led to his resignation in 1974. The most significant is that he plotted to wiretap and steal from different offices and other spaces to gather information to help lead to re-election and he also tried to cover up and lie about the scandal when it all unfolded. 1) “Nixon created a special investigative unit known as the “plumbers” to gather information…” (Foner, GML, 1031). These “plumbers” were all former employees for the CIA, which later led the FBI to believe that the break-ins where operated by the CIA. When the scandal broke, the uncovered White House tapes also led to his resignation. 2) He was heard saying on the Smoking Gun tape, “Yeah, when I saw that news summary

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States was an extremely fruitful president. He has a considerable measure of achievements with his organization, for example, building up the Environmental Protection Agency and their main goal was to ensure human and ecological well being. He marked Title IX which was a bill to avoid sexual orientation predisposition in colleges, furthermore opened the entryways for ladies to play university sports.Nixon additionally could decrease sorted out wrongdoing and could consolidate the FBI and Special Task Forces and they could convict 2,500. In any case, nothing will go down in notoriety like how the Watergate outrage did to the Richard Nixon administration.Richard Nixon acclaimed quote "I am not a law breaker" was the main 10 political jokes in American history.Throughout this article, I will discuss what interests you the most about Watergate? What might have happened if Nixon never got gotten with the recordings?

Richard Nixon's presidency is one of the most examined, analyzed and discussed, yet least understood, of all the American administrations in history. While many factors still remain to be discovered, and many mysteries are left to be resolved, we need to do the best that we can to make sense of this secretive president of our past and his era. He is the one American figure about whom very few people don't have strong feelings for. Nixon is loved and hated, honored and mocked . The term 'Watergate', labeled by Congress in 1974, stands for not only the burglary, but also for the numerous instances of officially sanctioned criminal activity and abuses of power as well as the obstruction of justice that preceded the actual break-in.

President Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal is one of the most controversial court cases to this date. He was the first president to ever resign from office and caused the American trust in the government to suffer. Did Richard Nixon really have something to hide? Did the Supreme court make the right decision? Was the case handled in the most sufficient way? Whether one agrees with the outcome of Nixon vs. United States or not, this case left a mark on American history and shouldn't lessen trust in the American Government. The case was treated just as equally as any other case and went through the long Judicial practice as stated in the Constitution.

In Ruggiero’s book, Thinking Critically about Ethical Issues, he explains that there are three basic criteria for making ethical decision and aiding in moral actions. A moral action is, “one that demonstrates respect for persons by honoring the relevant obligations and ideals and by producing favorable consequences.” (Ruggiero, 81) The three basic criteria are obligations, the moral ideals and consequences. Ruggiero believes that when making a decision, one should first understand the details. Second, one needs to understand the obligations, the moral ideal and the consequences of his or her action. We will furthermore go into each criterion

“The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.”