Please write a 500-700 word (2-3 page, double-spaced) paper with one-inch margins, elegant/professional 12-point font, interestingly titled paper that fully addresses the prompt below. As is customary in my classes, you are instructed NOT to consult outside sources. You will not need them as you are expected to engage directly with the assigned text material and to give me the sense that you have understood the content for this unit of the course. But even when using assigned textual material, you will still be expected to adhere to rigorous academic honesty in citing any direct quotation or paraphrasing you may deploy. The expectation is that you will give me YOUR reflection and not the “pre-chewed food” of someone else’s reflection. The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate that you understand how to apply at least two of the ethical theories we have studied (read about or discussed).
Select two from the numerated ethical theories and apply them to the ethical dilemma below. Note well: this is not an invitation for you to tell me how you personally would respond, but rather what a person whose professed ethical theory corresponds to your choices would say. CHOOSE TWO: 1. Utilitarianism (whether Act or Rule), 2. Deontology, and/or 3. Virtue Ethics (which may involve some version of Care Ethics or not). Apply them to this scenario:
Dan, a sophomore in college who believes with all his heart that the christian god has appointed him to the mission of getting through his education so that he can become a political leader in the United States, is at a crossroads in his Introduction to Ethics class. He must earn an “A” on the final exam in order to keep up his GPA and he must keep up his GPA in order to continue to receive the scholarship funding that will make it possible for him to complete the education that is necessary in order to attain the political position that will fulfill his god-given mission. Dan’s friend, Bart, took the Ethics course with Dr. West in the previous semester and managed somehow to take a screen shot of the final exam with the correct answers. Having heard from others that Dr. West frequently recycles the same exam, Dan figures that he would be assured the “A” if he studied Bart’s screenshot of the exam. Dan decides that the future fulfillment of his god-given purpose is too important to risk not receiving an “A” on the exam; so he decides to use Bart’s exam. Dan scores a “100” on the exam, imagining that Dr. West and everyone else is none the wiser for it. Suppose that he goes on to become President of the United States.
You may, for the sake of organization, divide your paper into two distinct parts or you may weave the two parts together in a compare/contrast kind of organizing principle. In any event, dovetail in the concluding paragraph to your assessment as to which ethical theory has the upper hand, even if only slight.
