For example, the situation presented in class where you skipped class to help your dying neighbor was not done because you felt like you had a duty to help, but instead was done out of self-interest. If you let your neighbor die, you would have likely been held liable; therefore, you a rational person would choose to help their neighbor to avoid the more severe punishment. Overall, can any action be said to be done completely without our own self-interest in mind? Personally, I cannot think of any instances of when I acted solely on duty alone without weighing the benefits and consequences of doing so. Can you think of any examples? Do you agree with this claim or do you believe a person’s sense of duty guides their actions? Lastly, when discussing this topic in class, I could not help but remember the story of Gyges’ Ring. While I initially did not fully agree with the idea that people follow rules solely to avoid punishment, after this recent discussion in class I cannot help but find myself agreeing with this statement.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Good Will
This
week in class, the idea of "The Good Will" was introduced. To summarize, it was
said that this good will was done for the sake of duty and duty alone and that
the outcome did not matter, as long as the action was done with the right
intent. While I do believe people are guided to by their own sense
of morality or duty to follow the objective principle, I am still a bit hesitant
to fully agree that any human action is done for the sake of duty alone. Essentially, the point I am trying to make is
that no action is ever done purely because a person feels as if it is there
duty to do so.
For example, the situation presented in class where you skipped class to help your dying neighbor was not done because you felt like you had a duty to help, but instead was done out of self-interest. If you let your neighbor die, you would have likely been held liable; therefore, you a rational person would choose to help their neighbor to avoid the more severe punishment. Overall, can any action be said to be done completely without our own self-interest in mind? Personally, I cannot think of any instances of when I acted solely on duty alone without weighing the benefits and consequences of doing so. Can you think of any examples? Do you agree with this claim or do you believe a person’s sense of duty guides their actions? Lastly, when discussing this topic in class, I could not help but remember the story of Gyges’ Ring. While I initially did not fully agree with the idea that people follow rules solely to avoid punishment, after this recent discussion in class I cannot help but find myself agreeing with this statement.
For example, the situation presented in class where you skipped class to help your dying neighbor was not done because you felt like you had a duty to help, but instead was done out of self-interest. If you let your neighbor die, you would have likely been held liable; therefore, you a rational person would choose to help their neighbor to avoid the more severe punishment. Overall, can any action be said to be done completely without our own self-interest in mind? Personally, I cannot think of any instances of when I acted solely on duty alone without weighing the benefits and consequences of doing so. Can you think of any examples? Do you agree with this claim or do you believe a person’s sense of duty guides their actions? Lastly, when discussing this topic in class, I could not help but remember the story of Gyges’ Ring. While I initially did not fully agree with the idea that people follow rules solely to avoid punishment, after this recent discussion in class I cannot help but find myself agreeing with this statement.
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Nick: You bring up some good points. I absolutely agree with your first point regarding the Good Will, but at the same time, I think you may be looking at it the wrong way. I think it is true that you can't take any human action and trace it back to duty; that presumes a lot. BUT, this is where I think you may be looking at it wrong. Although I think not every action can be traced back to only duty... I do think that for any action that cannot be explained for other reasons, duty would be at the center of it. I think duty could be found at the center of almost every action; but for the actions that can't be explained by self-interest at the core, then duty would be at the core. Maybe we agree on this? In any case, good post.
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