Ethical Dilemmas

Case number one involves an individual dilemma that pits professional life against personal life. The case offers a scenario where an individual is able to develop a special talent (creative, academic, athletic, etc.) that might bring pleasure to thousands of people. However, the cost of doing so will entail enormous work and energy being devoted to the development of that talent. This will come instead of and at the expense of other activities enjoyed by the individual and/or quality time spent with family. As such, developing this talent will require accepting personal limitations despite its impact on large numbers of people.

Reflecting on this case made me recognize certain values I hold. I am much too family-oriented to wish to spend the largest percentage of my time away from my family. I would enjoy bringing pleasure to thousands of others, but I would not be happy if I could only do so by losing valuable quality time with my family. Furthermore, I enjoy too many interests to wish to be limited to one primarily. Therefore, my ethical principle based on this value would be decisions that an individual makes must be based on whether or not they bring happiness to the individual, not based on whether or not they bring happiness to others.

In order to make wise decisions that are most meaningful and fulfilling in the long term, I find that one must detect what provides value and meaning to one's life. I believe this takes more than ration and rests on som

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ue my own interest, but when I thought about how my decision to help my parents would help my entire family I felt better. I recognized that if I devoted myself wholly to the family business, I might be able to enable future generations of family members to gain an education, maybe even a future engineer! Thus, I would say the ethical principle that I would say applies to this and similar decisions is as follows: In decisions that pit family obligations against personal desires, the choice that promises the most opportunities for the future should be adopted. When I say the choice that promises the most opportunities, I do not necessarily mean the choices that promise the most economic security, or the most fulfillments of desires or instincts. Instead I am referring to those opportunities that promise the most capacity for meaningfulness and personal fulfillment. These opportunities can only be detected by connecting with the values one most innately finds of worth in acting on or experiencing. These internal values are often in conflict with mainstream values or values of others. However, each individual is able to detect them by acting in such a manner as to reinforce their personal value to the self and others through ri

Category: Philosophy - E