Ethics

Essay One

Chapter 1 examined various theories of ethics that can be used to guide behavior. Your first essay assignment is to write an essay on your own guiding code of ethics, which of the theories examined in Chapter 1 is closest to your principles and how you would apply your guiding code to one of the following issues:

• Whether, and to what extent we have a duty to help relieve poverty

• Whether drugs should be legalized

• Whether or not the death penalty should be abolished

Essay Question: How would your own code of ethics guide you in dealing with one of the above listed issues.

There are fourparts to this essay:

1) You should have an introductory paragraph stating what your topic is and what you intend to argue.

Example: "In the following essay I will begin by explaining my personal moral code. Next, I will discuss the pros and cons of legalizing drugs [or euthanasia, or helping to relieve poverty] and argue that they should [should not] be legalized because [give brief description of reasons relating to your moral code.] I will conclude with a brief summary of the points of my arguments.

2) State, explain and justify the guide (code of ethics) that you use to make ethical decisions and how, if at all, it is related to any of the moral theories presented in your text.(You may have developed your code simply because it was what you were taught, or because it comes from your religion, but these do not supply philosophical justification. For that you need to appeal to reason alone.)

3) Next, explain the pros and cons of the positions on the topic you have chosen and state your position on the topic and how your code of ethics leads you to that decision.

4) Finally, have a concluding paragraph with an overview of what you have covered in the essay.

You may certainly use aspects of the ethical theories from our readings, but you do not have to do so. You only must determine which of the theories presented most closely aligns with your own code. (If none, you may say so and explain why none of them resemble your personal code).

Do not look to the web for codes of ethics. Besides the real danger of plagiarism involved in doing so, I am not interested in what others use as their codes. I am asking what code you use to make moral decisions.

Please remember that this is a philosophy class and all statements must be supported by "good reasoning."

Avoid the fallacy of appeal to authority. For example, you may be tempted to answer that your code of ethics comes from the Bible or from the law, or from your parents. Of course, there is no problem with that, but that only gives us the source, not a philosophical reason for specific code.

Instead, you could say that you follow the concept of compassion and caring for others or the "Golden Rule." You must then explain why this is a good ethic to follow. We do not actually need to know the source, because that is not what is being discussed. The source could be your parent,religion, your best friend or a law, but just because it comes from these sources does not explain why it is right or a good code to follow. A philosophy answer requires the explanation.