Jessica Contreras

April 1st, 2019

Mrs. Carroll / American Literature

Why Being a Consequentialist Makes Us a Good Person?

Ethics are a moral philosophy that distinguishes whether something is morally

good or bad in a person's decisions or actions. Ethics are used to make ethical decisions
and be good people and choose to do the right actions and choices. Justice is having equal
rights for everyone and being fair and reasonable. Both ethics and justice can be related
by making a decision that is equal for everyone and benefits everyone to be equal and
think equally about everyone. My 10 rules to live by are ethically connected to the
consequentialist framework as well as virtue.
First, 5 out of my 10 rules can be categorized to natural duties. Natural duties are
considered obligations that are expected to be done by society. For example, some natural
duties are to help people when they struggle or always give respect to elder people. Some
of my rues that can be associated with natural duties are to Do no harm, Treat everyone
equally, Always be truthful and honest, focus on positive things, and Do not take
anything for granted, be grateful. Doing no harm is a natural duty because society expects
people to not hurt each other in any aspect whether it be emotionally, physically or
mentally. Doing no harm also is categorized with the consequentialist and virtue
framework because when you do not want to cause harm you think about the futures of
other people and how it would affect them if you do harm and you will also think of how
it would affect you and what consequences would you have to face if you do any harm.
Doing no harm makes you a good person because you do not commit any problems or
tension between you and others. This can show how you are a genuinely loving person
and you can make a change to others by just not harming others with your words. Next,
Treating everyone equally is also a natural duty because society always thinks about
equality and is something that is well wanted in America. Treating everyone equally is
consequentialist because you mainly think that if you can’t be equal towards people,
people will carry on that energy and will not be ethical nor good people. This can also
show how people feed off of other people's reactions and thoughts. Feeding off of other
people's attention shows how dumb you are and you just want to be a follower, you
should always strive to be the leader and be equal with one another to show that
negativity is not your friend and it is not welcome. Then, Always being truthful and
honest is another natural duty because people always expect others to be truthful and give
them honest opinions. Always being truthful is in the virtue framework because people
usually have to think themselves if it is best to say the truth and how it will affect them
and if they will feel guilty or happy to tell people the truth even if it does hurt the other
person. Telling the truth is always right and is going to make someone be more truthful
and honest as they keep saying their honest opinion and truth. Telling the truth can show
how much you love and care for others. Another Natural duty is always to focus on
positive things. People especially teens nowadays want to feel good but they let
negativity push them down. Focusing on positive things can connect to the virtue
framework because these teens want to feel good and be positive but don’t know that the
positivity has to come from themselves. They must think for themselves and show
themselves that the positivity is in them, you have to love yourself before you try to love
someone else. And Finally, Don’t take anything for granted and be grateful. People
nowadays take things for granted like their freedom and their time they have. People
don’t realize they should be grateful for the life they have right now because people have
it worse. You should always take everything as it is and always make something good out
of it. Being grateful can connect to the virtue and consequentialist framework because
you aren’t just thinking about how you can become a more grateful and humble person,
but you make other people feel good as well with your gratitude. When not taking
everything for granted, you show your true self worth and you show how you aren’t
phased by society’s thoughts, you just want what is best for you and your mind set.
Second, the other 5 out of my 10 rules are in the virtue framework and deal with
voluntary obligations. Voluntary obligations are when people volunteer to do something
or one person in return for something in exchange. This can follow like volunteering to
do chores for someone, then expect to get paid by the person. You both got something in
exchange and both people enjoy the outcome. The other five rules that are associated
with the virtue framework and voluntary obligations are Respect other people's decisions,
think about others when making a decision, go above and beyond, smile genuinely, and
work on a conflict as best as you can. Respecting other people's deciscions show people
how you are a good person because you look at other points of views and you also take
into account that other people have different thoughts and feelings on the same topics.
This rule can connect to virtue and voluntary obligations because people think about
themselves and how they should be better people, and listening to other is a great way to
become a better person. This rule also connect to voluntary obligations because people
usually expect if you will listen to them, they will listen to you. Its an exchange and it can
lead you into having a good relationship with the person. Next, thinking about others
when making decisions. This follows into the virtue framework because people think of
how making their own decision can affect others, and they try to make themselves a
better person for themselves and other people so they try to keep their decisions equal for
everyone. People now usually expect to think about others when making decisions, like
how will your actions deal with other people's thoughts. People always have different
opinions and doing something good will always give people a good impression about
you. Then, Going above and beyond is in the virtue framework and voluntary obligations
as well. Going above and beyond is about thinking about you have how far you can go
and showing people how good you are at doing certain things. People who go above and
beyond want to show everyone how good they are, and they expect in return to get some
attention on it and they deserve a reward or fair treatment for doing their best. If you go
above and beyond, people will see your true potential and how far you can go. Next,
Smiling genuinely is another rule in the virtue framework. People always think how they
can make themselves happier and how they can attach that emotionally onto someone
else. Smiling genuinely is one way to do it, it can affect both yourself and the people
around you. If you can show yourself to be genuinely happy you will always be happy
and feed that energy to others. Lastly, Working on a conflict the best way you can. This
falls into both the virtue and voluntary obligations. Working on a conflict can show how
both sides want something and coming to an agreement can show how both sides are
getting what they want equally. Working on a conflict is also in the virtue framework
because working on the conflict shows how you can be a better person for the other
person. You want to please the other person and let them know you are good and have
good intentions. So instead of creating more tension, you try to come into an agreement
and both of you feel happy after.
Next, I had created my rules based on how people want to grow as individuals and
how people want to create and strengthen bonds with others. I developed my list thinking
about how people should treat each other and how people should treat themselves. I don’t
think people can feel better by just helping themselves or just other people so I wanted to
make things equal for both themselves and others. You want to be a good person for you
but also for other people as well. I only had to make one revision because it sounded
similar to another rule I had so I changed it up and I added another virtue framework rule
so we can balance it out on both virtue and consequentialist frameworks.
In Conclusion, I chose these ten rules to show how people can be happy for
themselves and use that energy to give it to other people and create a better community. I
believe if life was set out with these ten rules negativity would be less likely of a thing to
happen. There will be lots of equality and lots of understanding of other people and their
point of views. I believe I will be genuinely happy and I can always know that people
think well of me and I can always make them feel great just by doing simple things like
listening and being grateful. I believe the world would be a better place and it wouldn’t
be so hostile. I also believe that people will be more understanding of each other and of
themselves as individuals as well. They can see what it takes to be good people and do
good things for everyone.