Blog Assignment #10

(1) Choose one inquiry, from inquiries 1 - 28 (pages 114 - 117). Indicate which inquiry you chose, and then briefly explain it in your own words:

A young boy gets an expensive gift from his parents and he gives it to his poor friend. (Page 115)

(2) Stakeholders:

Tom, the young boy, Tom’s parents, the boy who received the gift and the parents of the buy who received the gift.

(3) Are the details given sufficient? Why or why not?

I do not believe there is enough information; Tom made the assumption the child was poor and decided to give him his expensive toy. How did base the opinion the boy was poor?

(4) What additional questions does this inquiry raise?

Does tom give away a lot of things to other child? Does he only give things to child he feels is less fortunate than himself. Does he tell his parents that he is giving his toys away or his he hiding it and lying about where the toys are?

STEP TWO: THE RELEVANT CRITERIA

1. Obligations (aka "duties"):

Tom has an obligation to his parents to take care of the toys the give him.
His parents have a duty to raise their child to be kind to others.
Tom’s friends have an obligation to not take advantage of his kindness.
Tom’s friend who receives the toy has an obligation to take care of the toy
Tom has an obligation to his parents to tell them that he gave away the expensive toy.

2. Moral Ideals (aka "virtues"):

Tom displayed temperance by yielding his desire to own the toy and give it to his friend. (Page 108)

Tom displayed agape (loving kindness) and Compassion to his friend by valuing his friend’s desires as he felt sympathetic to these desires. (Page 108)

I believe Tom gets a bit of self gratitude for helping others. (Page 109)

Its hard to say but I believe Toms act displays beneficence even though he does get a bit of self gratitude from being kind and giving away his toy. (Page 110)

It is unclear whether Tom told his parents that he gave the toy away, but I would hope that Tom would display honesty and tell his parents (Page 109)

3. Consequences (aka "outcomes" or "results"): Optional this week

STEP THREE: POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION

Alternative #1:

Tom’s parents could find out that he gave his toy away and become upset. They may choose to punish tom by not purchasing anymore gifts for him. He will have to earn them through chores.

Alternative #2:

Tom’s friend may take the toy home and his parents may feel it is inappropriate and make him give the toy back.

Alternative #3:

Tom’s friend when Tom tells him that he may have the toy Tom’s friend may decline the offer hurting Tom’s feelings.

STEP FOUR: THE MOST ETHICAL ACTION

Examine the action taken or proposed and decide whether it achieves the greater good (the most widespread "respect for persons")...if it does not, choose one that will, from your alternatives. Where the choice of actions is such that no good can be achieved, choose the action that will result in the lesser evil.

In this situation Tom showed compassion (Page 108) for his friend by giving him his expensive toy. I believe the best course of action would be for Tom to ask his parents prior to giving the toy away. This would keep Tom from having to make an ethical decision about telling his parent s when they ask where the toy is. Honesty (Page109)

SELF EVALUATION

1. In your own words, describe something new that you learned from this week’s assigned reading material and guidance.

Every Christmas Eve I go to our church for service and we pick a piece of paper as we enter. The words that are one each piece is different, the words are the ones in our text and I now know what they mean. How cool…

2. In your own words, describe in detail some insight you gained, about the material, from one of your classmates' blogs this week.

I took a minute or two to view Ltrain’s- Ethics-blog, I liked the reference to the origin of honesty.

3. Did you post a thoroughly completed post to your blog on time this week?

This week has been crazy I missed work today with a migraine, but I did get my post completed thoroughly and on time.

4. Did you ALSO print this out, so you can bring it to class and earn total points?

I will print this out tomorrow and bring it to class.

5. Of 25 points total, my efforts this week deserve: Insert your JUSTIFIED answer here.

I should get a 23 on this, I asked the professor to publish the assignments early so I(we) could have more time to work on it. I totally underestimated the work load of 5 classes this semester. I pushed this assignment back but I did get the assignment posted on time.