The Two Shopkeepers- Kantian Ethics and Consequentialism

Liza G Prof. Williams Ethics 21 November 2011 The Two Shopkeepers One of the several topics covered in Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals is the issued of two shopkeepers. One shopkeeper is honest with his customers in order to maintain a positive reputation and improve profits. The second one is honest because he thinks it is right and exercises his respect for the moral law. The first shopkeeper is motivated to be honest by the rewards of a positive reputation and profit. The second is motivated by respect for morally right action. Taking these motivations into consideration from the standpoint of Kantian ethics, it is clear which shopkeeper is acting right. Kant believes that actions that are consistent with moral law, yet motivated for desires for happiness or pleasure are absent of moral worth. One reason he concludes this can be seen in Groundwork where he introduces the idea of the categorical imperative. This idea contains two formulas, the first one states that one ought to â€Å"act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should be a universal law† (Singer 274). In other words, if ones principle, or maxim, behind what they are doing is something they would be willing to make a universal law, it is a good action. The first shopkeeper’s motivation to be honest is inconsistent with this formula, as their maxim of being honest is purely selfish, and it would not be effective if willed to a universal law. This is because it fails the concept of reversibility, for in an ideal society one would want others to treat him according to what the other person is doing. In this case, society would not function in the sense of moral rightness because if everyone acted honest to each other for solely their benefit, no one could trust anyone else or assume they are acting out of respect for the moral law. Since the first shopkeeper’s action fails the notion of reversibility, it also fails the universalizability test in which actions can be willed into a universal law. Secondly, the first shopkeeper is not acting in compliance with Kant’s second formula of the end in itself. This notion of respect for persons has to do with treating people as having intrinsic value in and of themselves. The first shopkeeper is only acting to reward himself through the means of his customers. The fact that he is not rewarding customers with honesty, but complying with the moral law in order to reward himself with a good reputation and profit makes it so that he is not acting rightly. The second shopkeeper, however, is acting in accordance with Kant’s categorical imperative. This shopkeeper acts in accordance with the first formulation of universalizability. Unlike the first, the second shopkeeper is honest because he knows it is morally right. And this passes the universalizability test since an ideal society would inhabit people who act based on the sense of right and wrong, according to Kant. The keeper’s honesty is also reversible, because if others in a society acted out of respect for the moral law like he is, everyone would be acting right towards one another. He complies with the second formulation by his honesty with customers out of respect for the moral law. He is not only using the treatment of his customers as a means for honesty, but also as an end respect for the moral law. In other words, being honest with his customers is not only enabling him to act morally right, but allowing him to be evaluated as respecting the moral law (Singer 274-275). Now, a consequentialist thinker would not judge the shopkeepers moral intentions, but would judge the acts they do by the consequences they produce. Consequentialism is a normative ethical theory where actions are right or wrong based on the consequences that result from action. This contradicts Kant’s notion of evaluating the moral intentions of the action, regardless of the consequence it produces. This theory often adopts ideas seen within utilitarianism, where an action is good or right considering how many people it benefits. For example, a consequentalist may say murder of one person to save one hundred people is right simply because of its consequence. But a non-consequentialist, or deontologist, such as Kant would conclude that killing someone is always morally wrong regardless of the consequence. Applying the consequentialist theory to the shopkeepers’ actions, one can conclude that neither of the shopkeepers is acting in accordance with the ideas of consequentialism. Evaluation of their actions through the mind of a consequentialist will explain this conclusion. Considering the utilitarianist approach within the theory of consequetialism, neither of the shopkeepers is acting rightly. This is because a utilitarianist judges a situation based on how many people it will produce the best consequences for. Since the first shopkeeper is simply benefitting himself, he is not acting in accordance with this process of judgment, but rather benefiting his own ego. And the second shopkeeper is also not acting in accordance with this process because, if anything, he is only benefitting himself with the feeling of acting morally right since he acts in respect for moral law. His honesty may allow him to feel confident that he is doing the right thing, but it fails to benefit anyone else in a sufficient way. Personally, I see the situation from the consequentalist point of view to be closer related to my own perception of the shopkeepers’ actions. I say this because I tend to cast consideration for other people aside. That is to say, the respect for persons and passage of the universalizability test are not as important in determining my actions. I see consideration for the greater society as well as for myself of more importance than acting in accordance with moral law. For instance, I perceive killing one person for the greater good of one hundred as a more realistic and commonsensical than refraining from benefiting all of those people because killing is morally wrong. The fact that I label myself as a realist also greatly affects which viewpoint I see fit. The realistic view to have for the sake of the betterment of society is definitely that of a consequentialist, as acting solely for respect of moral law can sometimes harm humanity. This especially applies to cases where morally right thinking contradicts logical thinking, like in the example of sacrificing one for the sake of many.

Teen Pregnancy Paper

There are hundreds of babies born each day. The scary and quite alarming fact about this is most of those moms are teenagers. Teen pregnancy has become an issue that affects numerous families in the United States. Planned Parenthood has reported an average of one million girls gets pregnant, and that is between the ages of 12-17. A staggering eighty-three percent of these pregnancies are to poor or low income families. Statistics have shown that seventy-eight percent of these pregnancies were unplanned and four out of ten were aborted.Although the numbers have plunged from five years ago, they are still uncomfortably high. The issue of teen pregnancy needs to be addressed head on otherwise this sweeping trend will soon become a dangerous norm. In most cases the only individuals that are for this issue are the teen mothers, and hopefully fathers, while the vast majorities against it are the families, schools, and society the girls are surrounded with. It is believed that the reason mo st young ladies are in support of pregnancy varies from the inability to go through with an abortion to feeling the need to be accepted.Teen fathers should be there for their girlfriends because they have also played a major role in the situation, but sadly a large number decide not to stick around. Families tend to be in opposition to the pregnancy due to financial and sometimes religious aspects. It is also difficult to comprehend the idea society has seemed to turn its back on teen moms when a solution is crucial at this time. The attention that is bringing much concern to this matter is the trend following it. Meaning, many younger girls are thinking it’s â€Å"in† to have children at a younger age and proceeds to multitudes of girls having babies at a very young age.In result of this, more and more girls are getting a lower education due to dropping out of school. Also the expectations girls have for themselves and their lives are decreasing. A recent poll by Seve nteen magazine revealed that five percent of teen moms go on to obtain a college degree. If that’s not shocking, more than half of teen moms go on to have a second child following the first. Along with this issue as a whole, a major concern is the fact that four out of ten pregnancies are aborted. This might not sounds like much, but when it is said in the thousands it is an extremely high number.It appears that most girls are relying on the ability to abort rather than the pill or other forms of contraceptives. If these options weren’t out there then teenage sex would hardly be a concept let alone the increasing outcomes of teen pregnancy. Schools have been trying over the past decade or so to educate students on safe sex and awareness. However, this education hasn’t been enough to drive the rates down to an acceptable level. If the teaching of this matter is spread out more and the awareness of diseases is also brought up, the numbers of teenage pregnancy will decline along with it.The media in some cases has brought attention to it, but has done it in a harmful way. In the summer of 2009, MTV kicked off a new series called â€Å"16 and Pregnant†. This show was to show the lives of girls who had gotten pregnant at 16. Most episodes revealed hardships each one went through and their decisions when it came to their unborn child. During the show there would be statistics on teen pregnancy and commercials about where to find help. All this seemed purely education until they continued the series for three more seasons as well as made a spin of series to showcase the growing lives of the first teen moms.The problem with this media is most of the episodes are now giving girls the idea that it is acceptable to have a child at a young age and even though there are hardships, things will still work out one way or another. Personally, the thought has crossed my mind a time or two, but reality sets in when I see real moms at my high school st ruggling just to get their diploma and juggle all the stresses of a baby. The shift of focus that needs to happen is, unfortunately, more of the bad side of pregnancy and parenting need to be shown in order to â€Å"scare† our youth.At the same time there isn’t profound public attention since this issue has never been fully addressed head on due to that fact it is a touchy subject. As with sweeping dirt under a rug for example, the more dust is swept under the rug the more it accumulates, then the problem becomes unbearable to manage. The same applies regarding teen pregnancy, the sooner education and a plan for the future is composed, the sooner this epidemic will come to a screeching halt. As long as individuals are armed with facts and have a driving force, the easier this issue will become obsolete.Although I possess all this information, there is still a lot more investigating on this topic that could be done. Are there more prevention programs or assistance for t he teen mothers and families that we don’t know about? What can the government do to eradicate teen pregnancy? In order to learn more about this, my plan would include searching the internet and possibly contacting Planned Parenthood to obtain these answers. The widespread trend of pregnancy extends further than just the teens it affects and society must handle this before it becomes intolerable.