An Ethical Situation...

Ethics are an essential aspect of our everyday lives, but unfortunately their origin and philosophy is commonly looked over. There are multiple situations that can be viewed from different ethical perspectives. For example, you’re placed in a situation where you are at a party with your friends and they all force you to smoke; you know this is wrong in your religion and culture, and that you will betray your parents’ trust if you do this. On the other hand if you don’t, your friends will take you as a wimp and you might be left friendless; this along with the atmosphere of the party and everyone else around you having fun smoking makes you want to try it even more, but there is still your family to consider so which do you chose?

In this case multiple things could go through your mind. Firstly, you would think about the consequences of your actions which are either betray your family or betray your friends. This is evaluating a situation from the teleological ethical perspective where the consequences of the action determine if it’s ethical. If you betray your family because your friends are more important to you, that would be considered ethical as the consequences of doing the action are better than not doing it. Another way to look at this would be thinking that you won’t follow your friends because you have a duty to your family; to maintain their respect, honor, and reputation. Therefore, in that case, not smoking would be the more ethical choice; this is the Kant’s Categorical Perspective. When evaluating from the Absolutist point of view where the action itself is evaluated from a set of rules, smoking is injurious for health and underage smoking is illegal so that would be the unethical thing to do. Moreover, if the utilitarianist perspective is considered, happiness of the majority is taken into account. So if more friends would be happy with you smoking than your parents disappointed when you’re smoking, the ethical thing to do would be to smoke and make the majority, your friends, happy. Lastly, when following the existentialist perspective where there are no set ethical guidelines to follow, you would look at what would make you happy. If smoking and having fun with your friends will make you happier, that is ethical; but if keeping your parents’ trust will make you happier, that is more ethical.

The important thing to consider is the implications of your decision in the long term. How are people around you being affected by your decision? Is making majority of people happy better than making people you value more, or who value you more, happy? Which decision is better for the earth? Even the simplest things like how much water you use in a shower make a difference in the world.