Chapter 9 Discussion - Essay Example

Morality decision should always be propelled by the search for truth and righteousness. I think that the three moral ideals that can best help in making a moral decision are – Honesty, Justice and Courage. One needs honesty to see the truth or to bear the truth in mind, but they need courage to speak it out or to support it or face it and justice is the moral ideal that will always support the truth and will take not sides or never be partial to anything. Thus Honesty, Justice and Courage are the three moral ideals without which a truth-seeking decision can never be made and they support each other in creatign the perfect balance.

Moral decisions are always required to cater to moral skepticism that haunts all of us in our modern life and moral ideals are virtues that can help us overcome the universal dilemma of right and wrong. However, the issues of right and wrong may not always hold true in different situations. Nevertheless, the moral ideals of honesty, justice and courage are the trinity that can help moral decision-making even when the end or means seem clouded with thoughts of right and wrong. Say for instance, whatever be the situation a person having courage to face the truth can be honest to himself or herself about the true thoughts that are there in his or her mind or he/she can face the truth about the situation honestly with the courage to face it all.

Justice can objectively help the person to come to a fair decision where the sense of honesty will always help the person to take the side of truth and not give in to any temptations that are wrong or whatever stands to be wrong in a certain situation. The main aim is not to get blinded by passion or personal vengeance or subjective beliefs. Whatever be the situation an honest person will always know what is right or wrong – to support the right side requires the moral ideal of courage and to take a step towards the right decision making takes more than courage – it takes the sense of Justice and impartial and objective decision-making to see the truth and justify it.

Without a sense of Justice, which helps to evaluate situation, its merits and demerits, one can fall prey to rash decision-making or one can take up arms against a situation through the sheer impulse of courage, once they know that they are right. However, honesty alone cannot help in objective decision-making that also requires prudence and steeling the will to face the truth, as it may not always be pleasant. Justice is the cornerstone of law and it always imbues in us a kind of righteousness and temperance to seek the truth with measured steps and not to overstep the boundaries of empathy and subjective choices.

It is an impartial duty that helps to impart clarity to a decision where decision is reached only after weighing the truth against the falsities. Justice when combined with honesty and courage helps to uncover the truth easily and stand by it. Gratitude, compassion, forgiveness may help to make a moral citizen who will abide by the law and be a responsible social being but when it comes to decision-making the moral ideals of Gratitude, compassion or forgiveness will not be quite so effective as they may underestimate or oversimplify a situation and may not judge it with the clarity that justice imparts.

Compassion and gratitude are always inclined towards the subjective and blinds the inner eye from objective decision-making and is driven by partiality. Repentance, reparation, temperance and beneficence are always inclined towards the goodwill of others or oneself. Temperance merely helps to create a balanced self – but without the moral ideal of Justice a balanced decision-making self is not cultivated. Repentance and reparation always seeks to replace wrong with right – therefore without a wrong happening in the first place there will be no question of replacing it with a right!

It is more a moral ideal that is practiced after a moral ideal is breached. Beneficence is philanthropic is nature and seeks to be good always even in the face of a crisis or evil – it exists before forgiveness and from it emerges the sense of forgiveness, which again cannot emerge before a wrong is committed. Thus, Honesty, Courage and Justice are the three moral ideals that can stand on its own and that can be applied to any situation independently to achieve morally upright results and that will always follow the path of the right, good and God.