Blog Assignment #10

Ethical Decision Making Framework
FOCUS: IDEALS
NAME: Tracy Hundley

STEP ONE: THE DETAILS OF THE CASE

(1) Choose one inquiry, from inquiries 1 - 28 (pages 114 - 117). Indicate which inquiry you chose, and then briefly explain it in your own words: I chose #11 on page 115. The issue of the young boy receiving the expensive gift, then giving it away.

(2) Stakeholders: Name each person, group, organization, etc., that has a stake in this outcome. The eight -year-old boy, his parents and the child he gave the gift to.

(3) Are the details given sufficient? Why or why not? No, we know who, what, when, why, but not where or how

(4) What additional questions does this inquiry raise? What was the gift? Where were they playing? Would the parents be proud of their child or be mad?

STEP TWO: THE RELEVANT CRITERIA

1. Obligations (aka "duties"): Optional this week
2. Moral Ideals (aka "virtues"): See breakdown of ideals below
3. Consequences (aka "outcomes" or "results"): Optional this week

NOTE: Not ALL of the following ideals will apply! Only consider the main ones that you believe apply, in the inquiry you chose. Don't just pick the easy ones to consider, because you didn't take the time to thoroughly read the chapter and learn what each one of these actually means. I will quiz you when we do group work on Thursday.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Prudence:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Justice:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Temperance: The eight-year-old boy uses this virtue by putting his own desires aside for the other child's feelings and not being selfish

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Courage: He also uses this virtue by having the courage to do a good deed despite the fact he may be in trouble with his parents

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Loving Kindness: He uses this virtue by following the Golden Rule-"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Honesty:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Compassion: He uses this virtue by showing concern about the other child's feelings and acting on that emotion to do something to make him feel better.

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Forgiveness:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Repentance:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Reparation:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Gratitude:

* Cardinal Ideal/Virtue of Beneficence: He also uses this virtue by the ideal of doing a "random act of kindness".

* Conflicting ideals--consider the relative importance of each; determine which ideal represents the greater good (or the lesser evil). See pages 110-11 for clarification. I think that they are all equally important to the action of the eight-year-old boy. they all tie in together. It took courage to put his own desires aside as well as compassion to enforce the Golden Rule all to do a random act of kindness. The greater good would be that he did follow the Golden Rule and did the right thing although he may reprimanded by his parents.

STEP THREE: POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION

Alternative #1: I agree with the child's actions, however he could have ignored the other little boy, kept his new toy and not faced any possible discipline from his parents .

Alternative #2: Erase this sentence & insert your own answer

Alternative #3: And so on...

STEP FOUR: THE MOST ETHICAL ACTION

Examine the action taken or proposed and decide whether it achieves the greater good (the most widespread "respect for persons")...if it does not, choose one that will, from your alternatives. Where the choice of actions is such that no good can be achieved, choose the action that will result in the lesser evil.

Tom's action achieves the greater good and should be respected by his friends and most importantly his parents. His selfless act of compassion to feel pity (pg 109) and courage to face the truth (pg 108) by his parents is admirable, especially by a child of his age. As I stated above, he could have ignored the other boy and kept his toy but instead chose to follow the Golden Rule (pg 108) and perform a random act of kindness (pg 110).


SELF EVALUATION

1. In your own words, describe something new that you learned from this week’s assigned reading material and guidance. I learned that the word 'agape' is a Greek word meaning-love of neighbor and that the Golden Rule is found, in some form, in almost every religion. I also leaned the meaning of temperance and reparation.

2. In your own words, describe in detail some insight you gained, about the material, from one of your classmates' blogs this week. Name the blog, and insert answer here.

3. Did you post a thoroughly completed post to your blog on time this week? yes, except for one question

4. Did you ALSO print this out, so you can bring it to class and earn total points? yes

5. Of 25 points total, my efforts this week deserve: I think I deserve most of the 25 points because I read the chapter and answered all of the questions, except one, to the best of my ability.