Introduction to Ethics
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Option 1
I identify more with Bentham’s utilitarianism than Kant’s deontology, as learned in chapter 5. Results are more significant. For instance, one individual may dislike his neighbor so much that he willfully runs them over with his car, killing them. Another man accidentally drives over his neighbor while driving intoxicated and kills them. The first is morally repugnant, but they are both incorrect. And because the victim is already dead, what difference does it make? They are both equally dead, whether they died through murder or manslaughter.
I recently encountered a difficult situation in my workplace that required me to make an ethical decision. I worked for a particular company part-time while still in school. All along, I never really knew the ins and outs of the company. However, one time while delivering something to my boss’s office, I made a shocking discovery. My boss had collected data about all employees, including personal information about our relatives and work history. This was alarming because we had not consented to this; even worse, we were unaware of this development. I did not know whether to tell my fellow employees or not.
I had thought about this issue for a week until I decided to tell them finally. This is because this personal information could easily be misused against our will and knowledge, causing significant harm to our and our relatives’ safety. On the other hand, I was afraid of being discovered and losing my job, but I still thought tellingthem was best becauseit was their right since it was their data. The employees raised concern and demanded to know the reason for this information, although they did not disclose my identity after passing information to them. Overall, I used utilitarianism in this situation since I considered the consequences of collecting this information illegally rather than the boss’s intention, which I never found out about.
