Philosophy Assignment

Answer each of the following questions (at least one paragraph per question), using the ethical dilemma posted below.

Rookie Cop's Dilemma

You are a rookie officer assigned to a training officer for the first six months of your employment. The training officer is a 20-year veteran and is a close friend of the Assistant Chief of Police and the brother-in-law of the Watch Commander. The third day that you are working with him you respond to a burglary call at a local convenience store. It is 2:30 am and the manager has been notified. You are directed to wait 30-35 minutes for his arrival. A short time later you observe your partner remove three crates of beer and two cartons of cigars and place them in the trunk of the police car. When the manager arrives, the two of you depart. What, if anything, should you do?

1) Evaluate your partner's actions from the perspective of Utilitarian Theory. Will you report your partner's actions from the perspective of Utilitarian Theory?

2) What social contracts compel you to report your partner? What social contracts compel you to hold your partner's action in confidence?

3) Evaluate your partner's action from the perspective of African Traditional Religions.

4) Is your partner's action universalizable? Is reporting the partner universalizable?

5) Evaluate the partner's action from the perspective of Hindu Moral Thought.

6) Using the Care Critique, what is the best way to deal with your partner's decision?

7) Is your partner an ethical egoist? Explain your answer.

8) Which Aristotelian virtue would best justify your partner's actions?

9) Was your partner fated to make this choice, or was this choice a matter of free will or determinism?

10) Identify and discuss at least two cultures or subcultures that would sanction your choice to keep your partner's actions in confidence.