Friday, February 19, 2016

#Blog Entry 2: Ethical Theories

Suppose I’ve successfully wooed the Tralfamadorian. Now the alien has become remarkably open-minded and has asked me to outline and discuss the ethical theory/theories that should guide the interactions between the human and Tralfmadorian races.

These are the ethical theories…

Relativism theory should be the first ethical theory Tralfamadorian should consider from us earthlings, since we earthlings are originally a diverse culture, where every place could have different norms and beliefs and every society could have different rules and regulations. Tralfamadorian should respect each culture to promote peace invasion to the earth. For this theory believe that there are no universal moral standards or standards that can be universally applied to all peoples at all times. Though this theory also holds the idea of subjective individual basis (i.e. subjective relativism) which a person decide its own wrong and own right, the theory doesn’t imply that clearly morally wrong act can be considered ethical.  Tralfamadorian should understand that individual human beliefs on earth are valued in the society and if they wish to conquer earth and put their own ethical basis on us, they should be considerate in the diverse changes could happen. Tralfamadorian should then set their own culture standard to clearly understand their own morals and by then, other planets like earth could impose limits based on their ethics. In result, pleasant debates could be justify and concluded from Tralfamadorian and earthlings based on both moral and ethical standards.

In connection with diverse belief and norms, most human believe in divine command theory. Divine command theory states that right actions are aligned to the will of God and wrong doings are those contrary to the will of God. God for us humans, are believed to be the creator and savior of earth and humankind, that’s why we earthlings highly value his will. Tralfamadorian could think that God for us human follows one supreme being will but it’s not, since humans have diverse culture, we human also believe in different Gods with different wills. But the whole idea of divine command theory implies that human based their ethics to the will of a supreme being. Tralfamadorian should then consider and respect these beliefs, as we human also respect each other’s human belief differences.

To us humans we also have this ethical theory called Consequentialism theory which states that “the end will justify the means’’. This statement implies that the consequence of an action justifies the moral acceptability of the means taken to reach that end. Humans do a lot of decisions, some decide to walk to the wrong path and some to the right but with good consequence and results these could be considered ethical, atleast for this theory. Tralfamadorian should understand that humans are capable of deciding on its own whether to follow or unfollow certain theory or belief.  Tralfamadorian should then be dynamic, open-minded, considerate, and open to changes to the complex ethical beliefs of each human.

In contrary with consequentialism theory, humans also have this theory called Kantianism which states that ‘act morally regardless of the consequence’. As humans have the innate ability to act rationally, they therefore must act morally, irrespective of personal desires or consequence. As a whole the theory implies that morality should be based on pure reason and thus we could say that Kantianism is the opposite of Consequentialism.

Lastly, humans also have this self-centered theory called Egoism. Egoism focus exclusively on self-interest and actions that could give maximum long-term benefit.  This theory implies the greediness of humans and Tralfamadorian should be vigilant to these morals.

To some up, the ethical theories of earthlings are very complex matter but these theories also give the basis to overcome this complexity. Through these theories, Tralfamadorian could understand and interact with humans without violating the ethics of each race. 

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