Jennifer Harris
Philosophy of Human Contact 107
Ethical Value System and Theories
Less Moser
December 22, 2008
Ethical Value System and Theories
What are ethics? Ethics is a set of principles and practices that govern good human conduct. Even though I know the dictionary meaning of ethics, what do ethics mean to me? To me, ethics is values that guide me everyday in my choices and actions and determine my purpose and course of my life. There are many people in our society who do things that are ethically right to them based on their culture. There are others who do things ethical things as an individual. Who is right or wrong? There are many theorists who believe that ethics is based on reason and not emotions or vice versa, some theorists who strictly go by the social contract theory, and others who believe whole hearted in virtue ethics. No theorist is wrong or right, but one thing that is correct for all of them as stated by Waller is that “Regardless, all of them give arguments for their views, and those arguments must be critically examined” (Waller, 2008, p. 1).
When I think about ethical issues, such as reason versus emotions, I always lean towards my reasons. Before I lean towards my reason though, I must think about the principle of charity. I have always thought that charity was about giving to someone who was less fortunate than you. In reading chapter 1, I discovered that the principle of charity is being generous toward the position and argument we oppose (Waller, 2008, p. 4). To me, that means listening to other people’s views and trying to understand what they are saying if you have a totally different view of that argument. The principle of charity is important because when you are being considerate toward the position that you oppose, you want to win the victory. You want to state the facts and don't take cheap shots which would be the strawman fallacy (Waller, 2008, p. 4). You would be...