Directions: Respond to the following ethical dilemma. Be sure to demonstrate familiarity with the material from the chapter to inform your essay response. After you have stated your response to the dilemma, write a criticism of your answer from the point of view of a rational and competent person who disagrees with you. Then respond to this imaginary critique.
Ethical Dilemma: What is the moral relevance of our intentions? Imagine four men: Jones, Smith, Smythe, and Chesterton. Jones intends to kill his nephew in order to gain an inheritance for which he is next in line in his brother’s will. Then, Jones kills his nephew.
Smith intends to kill his nephew in order to gain the inheritance, but as he is about to kill him, his nephew (fortuitously) drops dead.
Smythe does not intend to kill his nephew. But when he sees his nephew drowning, he does not save him, because he recalls that if his nephew dies, then he, Smythe, will receive the inheritance.
Chesterton does intend to kill his nephew for equally mercenary reasons, but Chesterton is incompetent. Chesterton falls in the attempt of strangling his nephew, and dies, while the nephew escapes with his life.
Rank order these men in terms of badness: who is morally worse and is morally less bad? Explain your reasoning for the ordering you choose. Some of these men could be equally morally blameworthy.
Learning Objective: Formulate one’s own conception of ethical theory in order to make responsible decisions and to make meaningful analyses of ongoing ethical controversies.
Grading Rubric:
Full credit requires: All relevant information is summarized appropriately in an “essay style” format (no bullet points, no excessive citations, etc.). Exhibits the ability to elaborate on the information summarized using proper philosophical language. Where possible uses the information outside of the reading context to clarify the meaning of it.
Partial Credit: Most of the relevant information is summarized appropriately in an “essay style” format (no bullet points, no excessive citations, etc.). Exhibits the ability to elaborate on most of the information summarized using proper philosophical language. Where possible uses the information outside of the reading context to clarify the meaning of it.
No Credit: Very little or no relevant Information is summarized and/or wrong format is used. It does not exhibit the ability to elaborate on most of the information summarized using proper philosophical language. And/or it does not uses the information outside of the reading context to clarify the meaning of it.
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May 31st, 2022