Week 8 Assignment: Your Personal Moral Theory

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Contemplation And Consideration Of The Ethical principles In John’s Situation

For this case;” I will abide by the laws, rules, and regulations” That makes my personal philosophy statement. The act of downloading the books on nursing while infringing copyright rules goes against the rules in place. This personal philosophy statement seems to be in line with Immanuel Kant’s Kantianism. Just like in Kantianism, the personal philosophy statement emphasizes on fulfilling our duty and doing what can be universalizable ( Korsgaard,2020). By considering the universalizability principle, then the only option is to follow the rules and avoid downloading the books “illegally”.In following the rules, the copyright holders are used as an end in themselves and not a means to an end. The philosophy statement is important to me because it ensures that rules are followed without any bias and that all humans get protected by the rules.

According to my moral theory, there are some things that John did that are immoral. The act of downloading copyrighted books without the knowledge of his internet service provider is immoral. This is so because it fails the universalizability principle as proposed by Kant. It is from Kant’s theory that my philosophy statement borrows heavily. There is nothing that John seems to have committed moral according to my theory. Another theory that can be used to analyze the moral implications of John’s actions is Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism.

Applying Mill’s utilitarianism makes John’s action moral. He is simply using an “illegally acquired” nursing book to get knowledge to enable him to be a better nurse. Being a better nurse will lead to more benefits to the people needing his services. Therefore if we are to take John’s action as though it is the action of a benevolent spectator and then consider the number of those who benefit compared to those who lost as a result of the copyright infringement, then John has committed a moral act. Infringing copyright is “evil”, but in utilitarianism, one has to do an act that results in the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people no matter how “evil” the act is. ( Scarre,2020). The copyright infringement is therefore justified.

References

Facione, P. A., & Gittens, C. A. (2016). Think critically (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Korsgaard, C. (2020). Kant’s analysis of obligation: The argument of Groundwork I. In Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals in focus (pp. 121-153). Routledge.

Scarre, G. (2020). Utilitarianism. Routledge.