Ethics

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Please write one longer comment related to questions posted by the instructor. Then, comment on at least one post provided by other students. Enjoy the discussion!
Assignment Objectives:
1. Distinguish various approaches to ethics, including conceptual analysis and practical examples.
2. Articulate the relevance of ethics and questioning about ethics to everyday life.
3. Consider how ethics may or may not apply to differing ways of thinking and cultural influences.
4. Apply critical thinking to ethical theories and connect them with life-oriented situations.

Discussion:
I. Analyze the examples:
1) “Today in a wood, we heard a Voice. We hunted for it but could not find it. Adam said he had heard it before, but had never seen it….. It was the Lord of the Garden, he said,… and it had said we must not eat of the fruit of a certain tree and that if we ate of it we would surely die…. Adam said it was the tree of good and evil.
“Good and evil?”
“Yes.”
What is that?”
What is what”?
Why, those things. What is good?”
“I do not know. How should I know?”
“Well, then, what is evil?”
“I suppose it is the name of something, but I do not know what.”
“But, Adam, you must have some idea of what it is.”
“Why should I have some idea? I have never seen the thing, how am I to form any conception of it? What is your own notion of it?”
Of course I had none, and it was unreasonable of me to require him to have one. There was no way for either of us to guess what it might be. It was a new world, like the other; we had not heard them before, and they mean nothing to us.”
– MARK TWAIN

2) “Richard is a 67-year-old man with terminal cancer. He has just had a liver scan and been told to visit his doctor, an oncologist, and get the results. When Richard arrives, the doctor says that there has been no change in his condition, which is, neverthless, not good. Richard asks the doctor what can be done, and he replies that there is no remedy for this kind of cancer. Becoming somewhat agitated, Richard asks the doctor what he
would advice him to do, but the doctor merely repeats his opinion that there is nothing to be done. By this time Richard is both frustrated and upset, and he asks the doctor why he won’t care for him and does not care about him. In response the doctor gives Richard
a prescription, but he makes it clear that the drug is being prescribed only as a psychological crutch- that it will not improved Richard’s health. When he finally leaves the doctor’s office, Richard feels totally depressed, abandoned, and dehumanized. Do you feel the doctor handled Richard’s case well? If so, why; if not, why not? How would you have handled the situation or advised the doctor’s to handle it?”
– JACQUES P. THIROUX
Added on 26.08.2016 13:13
II. Answer the questions:
1. How are the above examples related to ethics? What would be a defintion of ethics implied by Twain and Thiroux? Are they discussing the same type of ethics?
2. Name all ethical concepts and dilemmas introduced by two readings. What types of ethics do they introduce?
3. What is a difference between ethics/morality and religion?
4. Using online resources, provide short definitions of the following: normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics (bioethics, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and business ethics).