Chapter 9: Considering Moral Ideals, Essay Example

Regardless of what system of decision-making one chooses, moral ideals stand out as the critical elements of relevant ethical decisions. Without appropriate moral ideals, individuals who seek to take ethical decisions, will lack appropriate ethical direction and will not be able to create an objective picture of the problem. Ruggiero (2008) lists a whole set of moral ideals, including prudence, justice, temperance, courage, loving kindness, honesty, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude. To my mind, the three most important moral ideals are prudence, justice and beneficence, and there are several reasons for that.

To begin with, prudence “consists of choosing one’s behavior judiciously by consulting experience and deliberating thoughtfully about what response is most appropriate” (Ruggiero, 2008). Taking into account that ethical decision-making involves the need for individuals to recognize the issue and evaluate appropriate alternatives – the steps that require thoughtfulness and insight, which are actually the two critical elements of prudence. For these reasons, ethical decision-making and prudence are the two inalienable concepts. Second, justice is important to create an objective picture of the issue and to develop an ethical solution, which will grant all parties with fair advantages. Justice also implies that ethical decision-making will be associated with the need to fairly distribute benefits between different parties. Finally, justice will help account the merits and contribution of each party in the process of taking the best ethical decision or in creating the issue in question. Finally, beneficence should be considered as the third critical moral value in ethical decision-making, because in any ethical situation and for any ethical conflict, the final ethical solution should avoid any harm and promote goodness and kindness of all ethical actions. For example, no ethical issue should imply the need to use violence of physical abuse as a means of resolving ethical dilemmas. These three moral values will shape the foundation for the development of sound decision-making frameworks, which will be fair, prudent, and non-maleficent.

References

Ruggiero, V. (2008). Thinking critically about ethical issues. The McGraw-Hill Companies.

SCU. (2009). A framework for thinking critically. Santa Clara University. Retrieved October 22, 2009 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html