Christina Hartman

I thought that ³The Utilitarian Perspective² was interesting because the principle states ³Of any two actions, the most ethical one will produce the greatest balance of benefits over harms,² when that is not always true (although that is the way things would be in a perfect world). For instance, if you¹ve been cheating on your wife and you want a divorce, the ethical thing to do would be to tell her the entire truth, but overall it would hurt her way more to know the truth than if you had covered it up with a white lie.

On The Virtue Approach, how does one adopt a virtue? The reading states that ³virtues are like habits; that is, once acquired, they become characteristic of a person². Is that to say that by practicing good virtues they will become habitual? I¹ve always felt that a virtue was something you are born with, something you naturally are inclined to do, not something you can strive towards.

The guide to Ethical Problem Solving at the end of the article is very good, I think, because it breaks down the process to reaching a conclusion that will be best overall into five simple steps. Can all problems be solved that easily though? Just to find out I think I will keep this guide around for a while and the next time I have a moral dilemma, I will consult the list.

I noticed that one of the common replies to the question ³what does ethics mean to you,² was ³doing what the law requires,² but what happens to you if you are forced to be unethical because of what the law dictates? What did people do in Germany when they didn¹t want to follow the Nazis? If they were forced to, how did they live with themselves?

I really liked this piece because it was easy to read, I didn¹t have to pull out a dictionary to get through it, but it was also thought provoking and useful. In the future I might think back to this piece when trying to decide what the ethical thing to do would be.

This piece definitely fits under the ³Ethics and Social Responsibility² goal because it is all about ethics! I thought this was an interesting article to read, especially becuase it tied in with my research paper, which dealt with how people turned into killing machines during genocides. If I could change one thing about this piece, I would try to make it longer. As you can tell from the length of my reflections, I have a hard time making things as long as they should be. This is one of my shortest Dialogue Journal Responses, and that is really too bad because it was one of the more interesting articles.

People interested in reading this piece would include people who have to (or want to!) learn about genocides, or people who are interested in learning about human nature. The article I am responding to could also be applied to Stanely Milgram¹s study, and people who are interested in that might like to read about ethics.

Raymond Burnhart "What is Ethics?" http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html 3/15/05