Consequences is the True Meaning of Ethics
Abstract
Consequences are not strong enough to guide soldiers with ethical dilemmas. Ethics is a value of moral principles, rules, or standards that guides life-making decisions. What makes us decide to do one action over the other? A common thought is that we obtain our ethics from ourparents or from religious beliefs. I do not believe it is our internal ethics or values are from our parents or religious beliefs. Our ethical decision making process contemplates the fear of being caught or the consequences behind the actions. What if you could do something without anyone knowing? You would not be accountable for any civil or criminal law infraction and no one would ever know. This situation could be anything from cheating on your spouse to punching out that rude or obnoxious person that you work with. Many of us at one time or another has thought about doing something that is unethical. I can think of several situations that are very unethical and against most laws in the United States that I would love to do. What keeps me from acting out these "fantasies" is the fact that they are not worth the price of embarrassment or trouble. In our minds, there is a line between things that we are willing to do with out regard to the cost and the things that we are not willing to do. Most unethical situations would not be worth the embarrassment to my family or the risk of going to jail. However, what if no one would know and I could not be caught. Yes, I would do several things that are unethical. However, does that make me an unethical person?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 15, 2005
- Accession Number
- AD1127862
Entities
People
- David Yamamoto
Organizations
- United States Army Sergeants Major Academy