Question number two Due: March 18th, 2016

Choosing the most sensible classic category would seem like an easy position to take given that we all use some form of a moral code everyday of our lives. However, It isn’t as simple when trying to some up ones choices into one particular moral code.  There are aspects of duty based, Virtue, and consequentialist ethics that seem to often come into play when making morally confusing decision. In many ways you can come to similar conclusion even in using different codes of ethics. For example, if we take the speed limit scenario. One may use virtue ethics to explain that they would not speed because that would not line up with being an individual with temperance. You could also take a categorical imperative approach and come to the same conclusion; only you might say that it was because you wouldn’t want everyone else to speed either.

            I think that my decision-making mostly lines up with virtue ethics. The reasoning for this is because it relies mostly on an individual’s view of what is most virtuous. It allows for you to decide what kind of a person you say you are and to make decisions that work towards that perspective. It also seems to create more of a balance into someone’s moral decisions. Aristotle explains how there is a “Golden mean” which is the balance of all things. This seems to me to be much more fluid and forgiving to everyday human decision making, as well as tending too much greater moral dilemmas. For example, say you are on your daily walk and you approach a homeless man who asks you for money everyday that you pass him. You believe that in order to be virtuous you must be generous. With this in mind you could say that you should give the homeless man all of your money. However, this wouldn’t be practical because then you couldn’t survive and therefore you would not be achieving the Golden Mean. On the other-hand, you could give the homeless man money anytime you have some extra cash on hand instead of going to buy a cup of coffee that day. This may seem like a more balanced way of approaching this scenario. Other moral codes don’t seem to have this same sense of balance to me. Virtue ethics requires you to look inward to what is perceived to be the most virtuous rather than outward. While sometimes yielding the same result, I see it t be much more practical. Other moral codes such as Utilitarianism I see to be equally as morally productive but less practical in practice when making smaller moral choices. To think of whether or not each decision you make is the best decision for the most amount of people would be overwhelming in trying to be the best person you can be.  Perhaps the way that I choose to make my moral decisions is by first using virtue ethics and use Utilitarianism as more of an over arching goal for my morals.