Philosophy And The Human Good - Essay Example

 Philosophy And The Human Good The difficult choice that my friend has made in a particular ethical dilemma was made out of his belief in ethical absolutism and in the philosophy of W. T. Stace, although if he had both been raised as adhering to ethical subjectivism, he would definitely have made the easier choice. My friend Henry, who is actually a year older than me, was once tempted to steal a hardware tool, perhaps a drill, from the store where he was working part time because he badly needed cash for one of his projects at the college. His mother had no money at that time and he was simply depending on a scholarship but he was basically the breadwinner of the family at the same time. His father was in prison and his mother’s salary was not even enough for three younger sisters. I heard that scholarships required him to at least reach the cut off scores for each subject at college, yet he did not know what to do since he had to concentrate on his job at the hardware store too. The project was important to him and I heard he had to spend some money on it but during that time he was totally broke and even had to borrow money from his boss to buy medicine for one of her younger sisters. Now, the problem was that he was left with but two choices: to steal the drill in front of him at the store and sell it for some cash to finance this project or to fail in the subject and risk losing his scholarship. He was thinking that if he stole the drill, the owner would not know anyway since Henry himself prepared the inventory of the items and he promised himself he would save enough money to pay for it later. He was also thinking that if he had stolen and sold the drill, then he would definitely get the money for the project, make it good, and eventually continue with the scholarship. In fact, if he had only followed utilitarian principles, he would simply just have stolen the drill and sold it for there were greater happiness and advantage in such a choice. Nevertheless, after thinking long and hard about the dilemma he was in, he finally decided not to steal the drill. Henry, who unconsciously followed the principle of ethical absolutism, must have believed that “there is but one law, one standard, one morality, for all men” (Chaffee, 2011). This means that deep down Henry believed that just because he was in a difficult situation that endangered his scholarship, it clearly did not make him deserve to be someone special enough to be entitled to a license to steal. Henry knew or at least believed that the law against stealing was a moral law that governed all men no matter what their circumstances were. Just because he was in a difficult situation did not give him the reason to commit a crime. Besides, although the whole world may not know about it, he was worried about two other things. First, Henry was afraid that he might keep doing the same thing and that he might end up stealing anything someday as long as he could justify it – and that he might even commit similar crimes someday. Thus, he and many others who would make the wrong choice would affect the community negatively. Second, Henry was afraid that he might, in fact, get caught and that his boss might either have him arrested or would sack him. Either way, he would lose the job. Ethical absolutism has universal validity and, just like Henry, I believe that this principle applies to all human beings. However, I would not know whether a person that I admire, like my mother, would also employ ethical absolutism in all her moral decisions. I once heard my mother say that she would do anything for her children. It then seemed to me that she would even allow herself to break rules just for her children’s sake, although I have not seen my mother in this moral dilemma yet. Nevertheless, I somehow understood from the example of Henry that those with conscience usually adhere to ethical absolutism. From the example of my mother, I have learned that people who would have such a resolve to defend what is theirs usually base their actions on ethical relativism or ethical egoism. The moral theory of ethical absolutism, as well as the principles laid out by W. T. Stace, can be summed up in this statement of his: "Whatever the true moral code may be, it is always the same for all men in all ages" (Chaffee, 2011). There is absolutely no exception to this rule, even Henry's case. The true moral law does not care about one's external circumstances. Otherwise, it would not be a law any more if it either exempted certain people or if it allowed everyone to do whatever they wanted. Henry was indeed in a very miserable situation at that time that he was confronted with the moral dilemma. He could lose his scholarship or he could lose his job if he got caught stealing. Nevertheless, no matter what situation he was in, the true moral law still considered and will always regard stealing as evil. Another ethical theory, namely ethical subjectivism, with its belief that “the ultimate moral authority is the individual or the ‘subject,’” would have come to a different conclusion if it had been applied to Henry’s case (Chaffee, 2011). If Henry had chosen a decision that could have brought forth his best interests, then he could have adopted ethical subjectivism. He could simply have stolen the drill. After all, his boss was rich and he would not know anyway. Moreover, if he had stolen and sold the drill, it could have financed his project and he could have kept his scholarship. Nevertheless, if the boss would find out about the theft, it would be in his best interests too to have it back and get Henry arrested. The problem with ethical subjectivism is that there would always be the conflict of best interests. The more important question is, "What happened to Henry?" Actually, he was able to keep his scholarship. He asked his teacher to extend the deadline for the project and he was able to muster enough courage and humility to borrow money from the same boss. He would have achieved the same results had he stolen the drill but with ethical absolutism, there was no guilt involved. He even became prouder that he was able to surpass such a temptation and told me that he knew he would not do anything evil even if the same thing happened again. References Chaffee, J. (2011). The Philosopher’s Way: A Text with Readings: Thinking Critically about Profound Ideas. 3rd bed. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall. Read More