English Project

Ethical Considerations

Based on your reading of Chapter 6 and on the below definitions of Kant's Categorical Imperative, Utilitarianism, and Ethical Relativism, interpret the film North Country. You will want to focus on one of the workplace scenarios depicted in the film. Length: 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced.

1. Kant's Categorical Imperative:

The most fundamental of all the liberal principles handed down to us from the Enlightenment and the very cornerstone of our civilization is the "categorical imperative" of Immanuel Kant: namely, that one cannot act on that maxim which one cannot will to be universal. In other words, if it's OK for me to do it, it has to be OK for everybody to do it. If it's not OK for everybody to do it, then it's not OK for me to do it either. This principle is so deeply ingrained in us, along with the contempt we feel for what we call " hypocrisy" when people violate it, that we take it for granted.

2. Utilitarianism:

A doctrine that "the useful is the good," and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences. Specifically - a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

3. Ethical Relativism:

In ethics,the belief that nothing is objectively right or wrong and that the definition of right or wrong depends on the prevailing view of a particular individual, culture, or historical period.