So What?

Throughout the past few weeks, I have learned so many different aspects of normative ethics. This was done by watching a movie, reading a novel, and interpreting several different biblical passages. These different forms of information have allowed me to see many different viewpoints of each type of normative ethics. Personally, it has allowed me to recognize my mental process of making decisions. It also has allowed me to analyze others people ways of making decisions, and how they view that decision as being right. I have continued to recognize that I make my decisions based on duty-based ethics.

Duty-based ethics is basically when you obey all the rules or laws presented to you because you feel that it is your responsibility to do so. These rules or laws that are followed can really be anything. They can be the laws from our government, the Ten Commandments, the rules at a workplace, or even the rules your parents make. For me, I typically follow all the rules presented to me just because that’s what I do. But until this course, I really did not think much about this. Now that I have, I am beginning to understand why I make these decisions, which has allowed me to understand myself better.

One of the aspects of my life that I have analyzed to better understand my decision making is how I grew up. I am the oldest child in my family. I have a younger brother and a younger sister, and I think they are part of the reason that I follow duty based ethics. Growing up, my parents always told me to be an example for them. If I followed the rules that they set for us, then my siblings would also follow because they saw me doing it. I believe that this is partially why I do what’s right. Since I got in the habit of always following the rules, I still do that to this to this day. In this analysis of why I follow duty-based ethics, it can be broken down further into following John Locke’s Right Theory. This theory is about following the rules or laws in order for someone else to benefit from them. In other words, I followed the rules of my household when I was growing up so that my siblings could benefit from seeing the correct decision being made. This theory can also interpreted as by saying that I followed the rules so that my siblings could benefit from my parents not making harsher rules because their original rules were being followed.

I have began to recognize the times that I follow duty-based ethics over the past few weeks as well. For example, at my work I really do not have people coming in an hour or so before I close; therefore, I am the only one there. I could leave a few minutes early, but since I always follow the rules, I do not turn off the lights and leave until 7:00 pm exactly. This example is just one of the many times that I follow duty-based ethics in my day to day life. After learning about the different ways of making decisions, I will hopefully continue to realize how I am using this in my own life and others as well.