Egoism and Metaethical Subjectivism - Case Study Example

Interpretation of the Selected Fables Critical Self-Reflection Fable: Volunteer Agency Ethical Perspective: Egoism and Subjectivism Fable Character: Deidre “EGOISM is acting in one’s own best interest, which sees as moral justification reciprocal self-interest, self-protection, self-aggrandizement, self-welfare and so on. ‘What is in it for me?’” (Rabaté, 2001 pp: 123) “Subjectivism is the belief that reality is not a firm absolute, but a fluid, plastic, indeterminate realm which can be altered, in whole or in part, by the consciousness of the perceiver that is, by his feelings, wishes or whims. (Rabaté, 2001 b: 233) It is the doctrine which holds that man an entity of a specific nature, dealing with a universe of a specific nature can, somehow, live, act and achieve his goals apart from and/or in contradiction to the facts of reality, that is apart from and/or in contradiction to his own nature and the nature of the universe. (This is the “mixed,” moderate or middle-of-the-road version of subjectivism. Pure or “extreme” subjectivism does not recognize the concept of identity, i.e., the fact that man or the universe or anything possesses a specific nature.)” (Rabaté, 2001 pp: 233) It is known always the human nature that self-interests succeeded in motivating them, any act, no matter of any type, good or bad, is often done as a result of the human selfish desire. It is the truth about the human nature. And this is the egoism. Whereas subjectivism states that the every act is based on the feelings, no definition of good and bad. There isn’t anything forbidden or allowed in the subjectivism. (Double 2006 pp: 112) Volunteer agencies can be seen in the ethical perspective of egoism and subjectivism. Though they act and volunteer their egoism insists them to do such work, as it could give them some satisfaction, reputation or whatever is the personal desire of it. And subjectivism in the volunteer agencies implies that they feel for others and do the social work or educational work, regard less of what the people call it. (Double 2006 pp: 124) Taking the scenario of Diedre, she is working in the volunteer agency as a volunteer. Her job is to guide others in different commands. she collects the volunteers to join the community. As far as the egoism is concerned, it is in her interest, as more people will be occupied his community, the reputation of the community and therefore, of her, will be raised. Her ego for reputation makes her praise the agency and work whole heartedly for it. But the subjectivism of Deidre implies that of she was only selfish and wants to work for her own interest, she could go to any other field. But according to her “volunteer agency is doing the best” so she is right at her own, and her feelings for working as a volunteer arise from this subjectivism. So as far as her feelings for volunteer agency are good, the work she is doing is good and nothing is wrong there. (Double 2006 pp: 128) Fable: Farm advisor Ethical Perspective: Deontology Fable Character: Anatoly “Deontological methods of ethics are generally opposed to consequentialist methods in so far as they insist that the moral value of an action is wholly independent from the consequences of an action. Rather than focusing on consequences, deontological methods emphasize duty as the basis of moral value. In this way, deontological theories emphasize a principle of right action, or the right, over the good. “ (Darwall 2002 pp: 145) The deontology completely rejects the idea that good or bad actions are determined by the circumstances and states that all good or bad actions are independent of the consequences. According to deontology, moral status would be determined by something intrinsic hat would act itself. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals have done the most important work in constructing a deontological approach. According to him the unconditionally good is only the good will. (Darwall 2002 pp: 210) Farm advisor can be studied with the ethical perspective of Deontology. A farm advisor take cares of the gardens, the materials used in it, development and protection of the states land. All these responsibilities tie to the farm advisor. He is the legal authority for all actions about the farm. As it is the human nature that a person becomes greedy at times, this can happen to farm adviser as well. In such situations deontology helps make person out of this condition. (Rasmussen 2005 pp: 110) Considering the fable character, Anatoly, a farm advisor, his responsibly is to develop and maintain the states work. His organization has the mandate from a land grant institution, and they develop and protect their resources, land and the people. Anatoly worked very hard for his job. He is a loyal person to his organization. But the higher authorities seldom admit his hard work. This puts him into a disappointed position. Anatoly starts thinking that why is he doing all that effort for them when they even do not praise him or recognize his efforts. He decided to change his behavior for the firm, as start working as the other employees do that is without paying full efforts and loyalty. But suddenly a thought strike him, it was his deontology that made him stuck. He stood still for a while and thought that its one’s own perception whatever he does. Good acts are always rewarded as good and bad for bad. If someone is misbehaving it is his nature, the others will do whatever is their own nature, so if the organization has done unethical, with me, it is their fault and not mine, so I should not do the same mistake because my moral is not that low. So he made a decision in a while that he is contented with his own approach of doing good to others, no matter what others do. So it’s concluded that deontology statement, the actions totally depend on someone’s own intrinsic will and not at all on the circumstances. (Rasmussen 2005 pp: 345 Fable: Gravy Train Ethical Perspective: Consequentialism Fable Character: Peter “Consequentialism is deciding on the goal or result of action to determine its moral justification. “My moral action will benefit the majority?” “ (Darwall 2002 pp:123) utilitarianism is the one most familiar kind of consequetialism. So it implies that all acts done by the people should be done considering the fact that they would increase the immense of pleasure among all the people that would be affected by this action, over their pains. Another thought is that it is based on the God’s will or personal feeling of someone or may be the self-evident truths. Previously, instead of consequentialism, the term utilitarianism was commonly used. (Darwall 2002 pp:45) Consequentialism implies that the acts are determined through the consequences of the acts. Some theories of it say that it is the adaptation of the attitude due to which the act was done in the certain way. (Darwall 2002 pp:224) Gravy train is a very good example of studying consequentialism. There are all types of passengers traveling through it.. All the employees are asked to follow the rules and no compensation is given to them in this regard. Peter is an employee with Gravy Train. At the start of the job he had pledged that he will do his job with full honesty and loyalty to the company. Any passenger found without ticket would be taken to the administration and no concessions will be given at his own. He happened to catch a women without ticket, he was about to take action against her that he saw she was pail. She hadn’t eaten anything for many days, she was poor enough and was traveling to meet his son. He remembered his promise but was aware that administration would not let her travel without ticket, and she was not having a single penny. He thought twice and reached the decision that he would not fulfill his promise for this time as it was not in the favor of this poor old lady. He gave her the seat and moved forward. Sometimes committing an act, that is apparently unethical, has more value and regards than that if done, would make harm to others. He could have fulfilled his promise, but it would not provide any benefit to any one, rather it was more painful for that old lady who was now totally depending on peter. So his act of breaking up the promise would not be considered as wrong, but in fact it helped that lady so is admirable. (Mulgan 2001 pp:43) Fable: Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Ethical Perspective: Moral Rationalism Fable Character: Yanita “The term "moral rationalism," in its broadest sense, applies to moral theories that emphasize the use of reason or a rational procedure in moral decision making.” (Robyn 1997 pp: 40) In the history of philosophy, most moral philosophers have believed that, a dominant part has been played through human reasoning. The rational intuition of moral principles results in the making of moral decisions. Many abstract concepts that are found as spirit like nature are perceived by the rational intuition that is the part of rational faculty. The moral principles are perceived with this rational intuition as we believe in the notion of justice and logically retrieve different mathematical rules as 3*3=9. (Robyn 1997 pp: 140) In order to gain the highest moral good we use the reasoning. People always struggle for pleasure, and to determine the best method for achievement is the moral reasoning. For example if happiness is achieved by being good to others, them our reason will reveal to us the methods with which we can be good to others. These moral principles inform us of our greatest moral obligations. It is argued that the moral decisions are extracted and expanded through the basic moral values such as we determine big and complex theories from the small foundation theories. (Robyn 1997 pp: 78) Continuing professional education works on the theme of moral rationalism. More career workers are involved in CPE, more professionalism and practical work is found here. They are educated with the practical knowledge. The moral principles will always help them making out the moral decisions in any stage of the life. The more moral reasoning will be done, the more benefit would be attained for the society. (JSTOR 1930 pp: 89) Yanita is the scenario character here. She had to work in an organization in order to support her family. Her motive is to facilitate her life with ease. So her reasoning tells us That if she will provide ease for others, it will make her ways easy. That is why whenever her colleagues need any kind of moral help Yanita is always there to help them out, it not only provides her contention but really makes her life easy is she is enjoying respect , love and care among her colleagues. Her attitude has created the environment of love throughout in the community and people take their professional education as they are from a family. This obviously has made the ways easy for her, if sometimes she is unable to attend the lecture, her fellows always offer their services and even the educators are always cooperative towards her. Thus it is our own reasoning that will show us the way that how to achieve the moral goals of ours. (JSTOR 1930 pp: 100) Fable: Adult Learning Centre Ethical Perspective: Virtue Ethics and Communitarianism Fable Character: Fatima "With the demise of true socialism as a viable intellectual force, communitarianism is now the most active philosophical opposition to libertarianism. Communitarianism is usually presented in a vague terms, but it is probably best understood as a mild form of collectivism or "democratic socialism." (Keeney 2006 pp:23) “Moral virtues are robust character traits possessed by ideally morally virtuous people. The character traits in question are acquired robust habits of perception, motivation and action: habits of perceiving situations in certain ways, habits of being motivated to act in certain ways, and habits of actually acting in those ways. In this view, to specify a moral virtue is to specify the relevant perceptual, motivational, and behavioral habits.” (Keeney 2006 pp:67) In order to share up the moral, educational, political and educational environment, individuals and organizations come together to form a coalition that is called Communitarian Network. (Keeney 2006 pp:129) Moral virtues are defined as they are cultivated by habits. In order to lead a good life, good character is to be developed. For example to become the most courteous person, one has to be involved into the habit of being courteous. In fact just to tell some one that I m hardworking is not enough, to become a hard working person, it is really needed to work hard. The moral virtues cannot be translated so easily. There is a big list of attitudes and habits that puts forward an attempt to translate moral virtue. That is, generosity, right ambition, righteous indignation, big-heartedness, modesty, patience, temperance, courage, truthfulness, friendliness, wittiness, high-mindedness. (Darwall 2003 pp:98) Communitarianism and moral virtues are tightly bounded to each other. As we often see in the adult learning centers. People have to work in communities so they always need to adapt moral virtues in dealing with each other. One should be open hearted and clear to others for a community to work in all possible ways. Without this the concept of a workgroup or community would be totally spoiled. Fatima is a learner in the adult learning center. She had to discontinue her studies due to some financial crises. But now she has her own job and had joined adult learning center to continue her studies once again. She believes hat courtesy is the best thing that one exhibits. So she always tries to be patient and hospitable to all of her colleagues. She never says,” I m a clear hearted and patient women”, but has proven through her act. As in the earlier days, she was often disgraced by one of her group mates but she never replied rude to her and always tried to clear the misunderstandings between them. That was her positive attitude that her fellow felt guilty at her behavior and changed her attitude within the community. (Darwall 2003 pp:223) It is analyzed that moral virtues would help the Communitarianism work in the best ways. And in order to prove yourself it is needed to be involved in those moral values rather then simply telling others about them. It can create a friendly environment within the workgroups. (Darwall 2003 pp:235) Fable: Senior Policy Analysis Ethical Perspective: Situational Ethics Fable Character: Lucien Situational Ethics refer to the view that ethical judgments are needed to make according to the situation and the circumstances, and the ethical decisions are taken within that context. Thus, it states that no fixed rule is applied for ethical situations as every situation is to be held differently in accordance with its consequences. So with situational ethics, no single ethical rule will be applied to all the dilemmas. But though, situational ethics implies that there are certain ethical rules that are applied as the universal basis. (Fletcher, Childress 1997 pp:98) In the situational ethics, it is not the attempt to apply the moral ethics to the cases with almost same scenarios. In fact, within the context of entire situation, the moral ethics are needed to be analyzed. Some universal rules are used in the analysis but it is taken into account that they are applied only according to the acts within the context of the certain situations. Though, it is suggested by some ethical theorists that not to break the legalistic rules. Situational ethics totally appose it, because it doesn’t allow exceptions and according to situational ethics rules are not important then people. Still, there are some theories who d o not believe in the rules, this is again wrong, law is always needed to prevent the chaotic situations, and to provide a way to choose between two courses of actions. Situational ethics has respect for the laws; laws are followed but only according to the entire scenario. And it allows the free and right choice of law according to situation. (Fletcher, Childress 1997 pp:67) Lucien is a senior policy analyzer. He is a believer of situational ethics. He believes in making policies according to the circumstances. He is optimistic enough for the people. His policies are always people oriented. He does not provide more importance to rules over people. For analyzing every policy he always first studies the entire situation behind that policy and makes the analysis according to it. He never follows the subtle rules for his analysis so there is a full flexibility in his decisions, and that is always in benefit for the people. He uses the predefined rules of his job and organization but applies them only where he finds them applicable. And never strictly put them according to a predefined set of situations. (Peck 1998 pp:309) It is a good approach to follow situational ethics for the sake of humanity. It will save us from harming or punishing the innocent people, as it could be done through the conventional means. (Peck 1998 pp:128) Reference: Rabaté J. M., (2001) , James Joyce and the Politics of Egoism, pp258 Double R.,,(2006) Metaethical Subjectivism, pp129 Peck M. S., (1998), The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety, pp324 Fletcher J. F., James F. (INT) Childress,(1997), Situation Ethics: The New Morality, pp176 Keeney P., (2006), Liberalism, Communitarianism and Education: Reclaiming Liberal Education, pp 158 Darwall S. L.,(2003) Virtue Ethics, pp 261 Brothers R., (1997), Literary Ethics and the Problem of Moral Rationalism in Proust and Sartre JSTOR (1930), Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy, pp129 Darwall S. L., (2002) , Consequentialism, pp302 Mulgan T., (2001), the Demands of Consequentialism, pp 201 Darwall S. L. (2002) , deontology, pp 242 Rasmussen K. L.(2005), Deontology, Responsibility, and Equality, pp 503 Read More