Purpose of Ethics

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What is the purpose of ethics? What is subjective relativism? What vision of moral life would I adapt to my life? Looking back to when class started in September or when I was picking classes for my senior year, I did not know anything about the topic of ethics or what the topic entailed. After reading the assigned readings from The Source Reader and The Study Guide, I can say I learned a lot in this course. I’ve been able to see where other people develop their views of ethics from the traditions they originate from. Before the class, I thought people made decisions based on their opinions, but I never realized what influenced their decisions. Now, I can define ethics and subjective relativism. I understand the threats subjective relativism poses to the American society and I realized what vision of moral life I will adapt into my life choices or decisions.
Ethics is a human thinking or making a decision between right and wrong. The purpose of ethics involves a human making decisions based on their morals, values, and virtues. Also, humans will base their decision off of their morals and values. Some people base their morals and values off their religion. For example, I’m a Catholic, so I base my decisions off of following God’s foot steps to be a “good Catholic” and The Ten Commandments. I do not agree with any decision that does not follow the values of the Catholic religion because I have grown up in a strict Catholic family. Morals are “the rules and prima facie duties that govern our behavior as persons to be persons.” (Study Guide pg 12) We learn morals at an early age and can range from learning religion, favorite sport teams, and politics. Values are “states of affairs that are desired by and for people and...

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... steal food to please another person’s hunger, I broke the rule “thou shall not steal”. I sacrificed my religion in order to please or better another person. Humans should not go against their beliefs or faith to please others.
Now that our class is over, I understand the purpose of ethics is more than a person’s belief. There are traditions contributing to their thoughts and beliefs. I learned where I developed my beliefs from and which ones I can adopt into my life. I may not adopt the whole idea, but if I adopt part of the utilitarianism view into my own life, I think I can provide pleasure and even more happiness to others.

Works Cited

Newton, L. H. (Eds.) . (2004). Ethics in America Source Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Newton, L. H. (Eds.) . (2004). Ethics in America Study Guide. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

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