ethical philosophy
Use your ethical philosophy to solve the following ethical situation. Explain how your philosophy helped you make your decision.
Should citizens have an ethical obligation to serve their country when it is at war? Under what circumstances, if any, is it ethical for a person to refuse to serve?
A significant number of people believe war is always wrong, and that no circumstances justify one nation’s taking up arms against another. Is this view ethically sound? How about realistically? Please state which side you agree with, and why. Explain and defend your position using your ethical position statement.
In answering, be sure to look at both sides of war: that is, a country defending itself against aggression and of a strong country coming to the aid of a weaker country that has been attacked unjustly. Then, explain how your ethical philosophy affected how you answered this problem.
2 (TCOs 1, 2, 7) Analyze the following ethical situation using YOUR ethical philosophy. Read the situation and then in your answer, explain why this is an ethical situation, what the “issues” are, and how an “ethical” person would resolve them. Explain how YOUR ethical philosophy has helped you reach a conclusion about how to resolve or analyze this situation.
As a result of the economic down-turn starting in 2008, efficiency has become more and more the byword of the successful business person. The axioms of the efficiency expert are: “Eliminate what need not be done; simplify what must be done; combine tasks wherever possible.”
Putting this into practice means, among other things, eliminating people’s jobs. Sometimes it also means making one person do two or three people’s jobs. As company’s gain the upper hand in employment (when the number of employees wanting good jobs is higher than the number of good (i.e. high paying) jobs available), they will more and more expect employees to be willing to work longer hours and to do accomplish more and varied tasks.
1. Under what circumstances is it ethical business practices to ask employees to multi-task or do more than one person’s job?
2. Under what circumstances is it ethical for an employee to refuse to do more work than can be taken on in a conventional 40-45 hours per week?
3. Let’s assume that it is BECAUSE employees are willing to multi-task and do two or three people’s jobs, that others LOSE their jobs. Who is more at fault ethically? The employer who requests the extra work from the remaining employees? Or the employees who are willing to do the extra work, thereby putting the others who aren’t willing out of work?
(
3How do you feel Immanuel Kant would have solved the above ethical situation differently or the same as you did using your philosophy? Please explain the reasons for the similarities or differences. (Points : 40)
(TCOs 1, 2, 4, 9) John and Marsha are both married to other people and the parents of several children, and they are having an adulterous affair. One night, when they are meeting secretly, they witness a murder. They agree that they cannot risk reporting it without exposing their affair. The next day the body is found and within a week a suspect is apprehended and charged with first-degree murder. When John and Marsha see his picture in the newspaper, they realize that he is not the murderer. They meet again, discuss their dilemma, and decide that despite the new, dreadful development, they will not step forward as witnesses.
Tell what ethical philosophy the John and Marsha are using, if any.
Now, use your ethical philosophy statement to analyze the situation. Explain how, using your philosophy, you would have solved this situation either the same way as the characters in the situation did, or differently.
The question surrounds the issue of coming clean about the murderer, not whether you would have engaged in the affair or not. (Thus, you cannot say, “I would never have the affair” as your solution. Pretend you are an advisor to the two of them–not that you are the two of them. What would YOU tell them to do at this point?) Why?
(Points : 30)
Question 5.5. (TCOs 5, 6) You are a new employee in a company which creates computer chips for cellular telephones. Your previous employer created similar chips for PDA’s, and 4 weeks after you are hired you are approached by your new boss in a confidential, private meeting. She explains to you that you were hired because of your work on the PDA chips. She wants to know how much of the technology you are aware of from the prior employer which you could apply to your new project on the phone chip.
As a matter of fact, the technology is very similar, and you know that you could quickly and easily apply what you know from the previous project to this one. However, you feel uneasy about giving out that information from your past job. For one thing, you’re pretty sure it was secret information, although you don’t know for sure. However, your last job ended badly as they laid off 20% of the workforce without warning (including you), simply because the owner of the company decided to downsize sell off part of the company to pay for his daughter’s $200,000 wedding.
Your boss watches you as you are thinking through your decision and says, “You know. If this project goes through successfully, a large raise and promotion will be coming your way.” Will you tell your new employer the technology secret? Why or why not? Explain what ethical analysis you used to come to this conclusion.
(Points : 30)
Question 6.6. (TCOs 6, 8) Analyze your answer above using the Front Page of the Newspaper ethical dilemma resolution model. Show your steps. (Points : 40)