{"id":936,"date":"2007-02-09T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-09T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/rpe\/2007\/02\/09\/ethical-decisions-and-the-study-of-philosophy-and-ethics"},"modified":"2007-02-09T11:08:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-09T11:08:00","slug":"ethical-decisions-and-the-study-of-philosophy-and-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/rpe\/2007\/02\/09\/ethical-decisions-and-the-study-of-philosophy-and-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethical Decisions – and the study of philosophy and ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading a comment over at the UNF philsophy blog:(here)<\/a> where a UNF<\/a> philosophy student [I think] relates a (rather frightening) real-life incident that she was involved in – and then relates it to the topic at hand (the ‘Golden Rule’ in ethics):<\/p>\n

But you can bet if I wake up and find a burglar in my home, the furthest thing
from my mind will be the golden rule, however conceived or applied. And when I
call 911, it won\u2019t be because I have reasoned that doing so will restore a
person\u2019s soul to a state of virtue. More particularly, I won\u2019t be doing that
type of reasoning while the burglar is in my home. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is a point about how <\/em>we decide – the process in the split-second moment – and whether we at that point apply any moral theory at all. Maybe we just act on instinct (that’s what is sometimes feels<\/em> like). OR perhaps we implicitly apply some set of crtieria? Or maybe it is habit\/training?<\/p>\n

The second thing I thought about after reading this was: Does the study of ethics make you a better person?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[This is very pertinent in the UK, as many more people seem to be studying philosophy and ethics at A level
A-Levels (split into As\/A2) are what UK students do between school and University – normally around the ages 16-18<\/span><\/em>
AS and A2 Religious Studies now have a large portion of this type of material in them]<\/p>\n

Anyway…<\/span><\/p>\n

There could be numerous answers:<\/p>\n