By practicing both Golden Rule and Categorical Imperative Principles, I opened myself to the process of change and improvement. My attempt at trying to make ethical decisions daily by treating others as my highest ends influence on the transformation of my character from the inside out. When I reflect on my decision after seeing the consequences followed by it, I learned that being honest is a key aspect. Moreover, any individual will probably face some ethical dilemmas in life. The most important thing is to listen to your heart as the main guide and conform to your moral personal values before making any important decisions that might affect others. Because ethical decisions maintain the main engine of our society – the trust. Ethics means to me the continuous effort of exploring my own moral values and striving to be confident that these values will assist a society in shaping and living up to standards that will make our world a better place for everyone.
This moral dilemma that I have experienced put two of my major values in conflict: to be honest with myself or loyal to my best friend. Based on my personal experience and upbringing, I thought I made an ethically right decision. I choose to be honest and follow my personal values, as well as tried to support my friend by telling her the truth which might be hurtful at the time, but hopefully will help her in the future. As a result, she showed a significant improvement that I didn’t expect to see by writing everything down, multitasking various assignments, coming everywhere on time, etc. Accordingly, I plan to write her a recommendation letter describing her qualities, progress she has made, also mentioning her main strength: strong will. The most positive influence in my life was from the situations where I had an ethical dilemma and needed to resolve the problem in the most appropriate way.
Last year, my friend Aidana who is a committed student studying Architecture Design at the University of Texas was seeking an internship to help her mother to pay for tuition. Aidana has been my best friend for more than fifteen years and moved to Houston to fulfill our lifetime goals together. In fact, Aidana is known to be a smart, creative person, who likes to have a messy desk, studies for examsat the last minute, and might come late to the scheduled events. Several months ago, Aidana asked me to write her a recommendation letter for the landscape architect position she wanted to apply that requires excellent organizational skills. The issue, in this case, is whether I should write a recommendation letter about Aidana for the job that’s the main element is significant planning or should I refuse to write this letter by putting our friendship on the line since she is not fully qualified. After several days of deliberations, my decision was to follow my moral values and refuse to write a misleading recommendation letter. Instead, I sincerely explained Aidana the reason for my denial to write the following letter and suggested her to work on organizational skills.
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My plan was to write her this recommendation letter only if I will see that she made some major improvements. From my childhood, I have changed drastically and realized the importance of collaboration and helping others including both humans and animals. When I was a child, I used to enjoy going to the zoo to watch for different wild animals, eat horse meat since it considers as a delicatessen in my country, was inconsiderate in some cases toward others, and blaming others for my errors and shortcomings. However, during the last few years, I became a vegetarian, trying to be more spiritual by doing yoga daily and reading books about self-improvement and spirituality, volunteer for different organizations,such as Food Bank, Red Cross, and various animal shelters. From being Egoist, my goal is to become more virtuous by focusing on being a good person. My favorite aspect of Virtue Theory is that if you become a good person, the rights actions will come effortlessly, without any rulebook needed.
From my perspective, I see myself as an Egoist in the past and Utilitarian at the current time. In the past, I was more self-concerned about my own needs and desires by not concerning enough about the environment we live in and people surrounding me. Nevertheless, when I grew up and became more mature, I realized the importance of altruistic actions that lead to the best experiences in my life, such as strong friendship, deepest forms of love, happiness from helping others. Moreover, I started to care about the environment by recycling to reduce pollution, using a bicycle instead of a car, and trying to save water and electricity. The second theory that deeply influences my moral values is the Golden Rule Principle which states that people should try to treat each other as they would like to be treated themselves – with kindness, compassion, and respect. The Golden Rule transcends divisions of social status, gender, and ethnicity.
When I apply the Golden Rule to my life, I try to imagine myself on receiving the end of theaction in the exact place of the other person. From my interpretation, this rule is based on consistency. It does not replace my ethical beliefs but gives me something reliable that directs me in the right direction. In fact, throughout the centuries, the greatest number of religions and individual thinkers have applied very similar versions of it. All of them focus on the same subjects as empathy, understanding, and reciprocity. To live based on the Golden Rule, you need to avoid excess, and live in harmony to obtain a true happiness. My ultimate goal is to be a perfect example of altruism that will make my words and deeds to have a special meaning and power.
The Universal Ethics approach focuses on the concept of moral absolutism, that actions can be only intrinsically right or wrong. Kant also claimed that the only thing that exists without any qualification is goodwill. A goodwill is governed by reason which includes being motivated by duty. Therefore, the rightness and wrongness of the person’s behavior depends on his or her intentions, and not particularly on their consequences. Categorical Imperative encourages people to behave in a way that can regard their acts and become a Universal Law. The autonomy of this theory makes them fully responsible for their actions. Also, Kant’s theory based on the other Universal Law states that you should treat yourself and others as an end, and never merely as a means. According toCategorical Imperative, there is no need for religion to determine what the law is, due to the fact that what is morally right and wrong is totally understandable using your intellect.
As a result, I learned from this law to not use others as an instrument to further my goals, instead, to respect and treat everyone in the best possible way. The role of ethics in my life is substantial. When you ask the majority of people about what ethics means to them, they will respond that it is moral principles that govern an individual’s actions. However, it is hard to justify what is good actions and what is bad actions. From my point of view, being ethical means to me to do the right things in terms of virtues, moral beliefs, social responsibilities all which was derived from my family background and culture. To be ethical for me is also to be rational. Because being rational guide individuals in the right direction and pushes to act based on their moral standards. In my opinion, Universal Ethics approach and Golden Rule are the best theories that suit my beliefs.
