Kant On Ethics Essays - Kantianism, Deontological Ethics

Kant On Ethics Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) had an interesting ethical system for reasoning. It is based on a belief that the reason is the final authority for morality. In Kant's eyes reason is directly correlated with morals and ideals. Actions of any sort, he believed, must be undertaken from a sense of duty dictated by reason, and no action performed for appropriateness or solely in obedience to law or custom can be regarded as moral. A moral act is an act done for the "right" reasons. Kant would argue that to make a promise for the wrong reason is not moral you might as well not make the promise. You must have a duty code inside of you or it will not come through in your actions otherwise. Our reasoning ability will always allow us to know what our duty is. Kant described two types of common commands given by reason: the hypothetical imperative, which dictates a given course of action to reach a specific end; and the categorical imperative, which dictates a course of action that must be followed because of its rightness and necessity. The categorical imperative is the basis of morality and was stated by Kant in these words: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will and general natural law." Therefore, before proceeding to act, you must decide what rule you would be following if you were to act, whether you are willing for that rule to be followed by everyone all over. If you are willing to universalize the act, it must be moral; if you are not, then the act is morally impermissible. Kant believes that moral rules have no exceptions. Therefore, it is wrong to kill in all situations, even those of self-defense. This belief comes from the Universal Law theory. Since we would never want murder to become a universal law, then it must be not moral in all situations. Kant believes killing could never be universal, therefore it is wrong in each and every situation. There are never any extenuating circumstances, such as self-defense. The act is either wrong or right, based on his universality law. For example, giving money to a beggar just to get him to leave you alone would be judged not moral by Kant because it was done for the wrong reason. With Kant's belief in mind; if the consequence of immoral behavior were dealt with in a legal structure, people would be prosecuted for EVERYTHING since there are no extenuating circumstances. Kant's categorical imperative is a tri-dynamic statement of philosophical thought:(1) "So act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle establishing universal law."(2) "Act so as to treat humanity, whether in your own person in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.'(3) "Act according to the maxims if a universally legislative member of a merely potential kingdom of ends." In other words, Kant argues that particular action requires conscious thought of the rule governing the action. Whether if everyone should follow that rule, and if the rule is acceptable for universal action, it should be adopted. If the rule is unacceptable, then it should be rejected. In order to understand whether or not an action follows Kant's "categorical imperative," we must prescribe those norms that we wish to be universal laws. These norms are created through value judgments based on issues of justice between persons or groups (nations, etc.) of persons. Kant's theories discuss the ethical questions that determine impartial consideration of conflicting interest in issues of justice. Kant also states that because we must believe that all things develop to their fullest capacity, then we can theorize in summary, through cognitive processes we can create communities, based on moral (ethical) action towards every person, thereby creating universal ethics throughout the community or "republic". With that in mind, it appears that Kant makes statements that assume all people within like "republics" can achieve a level of cognition equal to one another, for without that equanimity of cognition and judgment, then the conflict issues cannot be rationalized through creation of universal law. The statement that all people can achieve a similar level of cognition seems preposterous in our modern world cognition in the sense of like thought. Because we need the principles of Kant's categorically designed thought and action to have universal acceptance; we must be willing to accept the undesirable psychological deviants within the "republic." If we can't accept that a person's cognition is capable of

6 Powerful Reasons to Quit Your Job

6 Powerful Reasons to Quit Your Job In any job, there will be things you need to put up with. Personality differences, questionable lunch choices in an open-plan cubicle environment, the coworker who clips his nails at his desk- all are things that likely need to be endured (or at least ignored) in the interest of workplace harmony. However, there are definitely some serious workplace issues where you shouldn’t adopt the â€Å"suck it up† policy. Here are 6 powerful reasons you should quit your job.1. Being asked to do something morally or ethically wrongWe all have core personal morals and values, no matter what job we’re doing. If your job asks you to do something you know is wrong, or that you believe to be wrong, this is not a job you should keep. The request may be something small, something you could push through and look the other way, but that small thing could grow into a larger ask or a series of requests that make you feel uncomfortable. Very few jobs are worth having panic attacks- even fewer are worth sacrificing your core values.2. Being asked to do anything illegalThis is even less of a gray area. It’s not just you thinking this is wrong, it’s the law. In real life, illegal activity isn’t always caught like it is in the Hollywood-ized version- but if your company (or your boss) is ever caught and scrutinized, do you really want to be the one holding the bag? â€Å"I was just doing my job† sounds awfully weak in court, so why put yourself in that position? If your job is asking you to do things that are illegal, that opens up a whole host of consequences that you need to consider carefully. Unless you’re ready to deal with those consequences, it’s time to hand in your notice.3. Harassment or bullyingBullying is something that happens only in kids’ lives, right? Surely professional adults would never stoop to that kind of behavior. Sadly, no. Verbal abuse is never okay, whether it’s from senior employees to junior ones, or colleagues who think it’s funny to belittle others. Basically, you should never be made to feel uncomfortable in a work situation- and if you are, it’s okay to speak up and say so. All of you are professionals, and deserving of respect- no matter if you’re the CEO or the assistant. You shouldn’t assume by default that you’re just being thin-skinned; Human Resource departments are trained in how to handle situations like this effectively and discreetly. If that doesn’t work and it becomes a pattern, it’s time to move on.4. Giving up a personal life.This is a pretty common refrain, ‘cause it’s true: no one gets to the end of a career and wishes that he or she’d worked more hours instead of spending time with friends and family. Many jobs, especially ones outside the 9-to-5 template or ones that work on deadlines, make it challenging to balance work and personal life.If you find that your personal life is being crowded out altogether due to your long hours or answering emails 24/7, it’s definitely time for a priority re-evaluation. If you don’t see the situation getting better, then don’t wait for the Ghost of Christmas Past to come along and remind you of everything you missed by staying at your job. Start looking for a new job (or even a different career path) that works with your personal goals as well as your professional ones.5. Jobs that hurt you physicallyMost jobs are up front about physical demands†¦must be able to lift 50 pounds or more, must be able to stand for hours at a time. If you find yourself performing physically demanding tasks that you didn’t know you were signing on to do, you don’t have to suck it up and pop painkillers to get through your day. Or even if you knew ahead of time, but you’re less able to cope with the heavy lifting and standing than you used to be, it’s time to think hard about what youâ⠂¬â„¢re doing. Your health is not worth losing for one job.6. Sexual harassmentThis can be one of the toughest dealbreakers to handle, because often it’s not the job itself that is the problem- it’s a person in your workplace. Again, you should never be made to feel uncomfortable at work. However, in reality, identifying it and doing something about it can turn into a complicated mess of â€Å"he said/she said,† and the person reporting it can be made to feel like they’d have negative career repercussions for doing so. If someone at your job (any gender, any seniority level) is making you feel uncomfortable by making inappropriate comments or advances, that’s just not acceptable. The stress of the situation may well undo any positive career progress you’d get by staying, so it’s important to take a serious look at other job options and opportunities. You should never, ever feel obligated to stay in a role where you’re treated s o unprofessionally. And more importantly, you should never feel like you need to hide it and keep going for the sake of the job.There are always other jobs out there. That can be tough to imagine in a tight job market, but a job that asks you to violate any number of personal boundaries is likely not a job that would make you proud and fulfilled later on in your career. Sometimes it’s best to walk away, with your best self intact, and search for the next opportunity.

Stock Performance Trends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Stock Performance Trends - Essay Example One disturbing figure as of now is that the company's EPS has gone down to negative figure ($ -0.38). But seeing the kind of activity visible in the stock, it still appears to be a favorite stock, thanks to strong fundamentals. The stock experienced very high levels of volatility during the previous 12 months. The stock kept following the NASDAQ-100 index till about April this year, but thereafter it has been consistently underperforming. That has to be slight cause of worry for my company MPC. Similar trend was seen in its performance as compared to S&P-500. After April 2006 the stock is yet to catch up with the index. After August 2006 though the stock is making consistent progress while the market has been more or less stagnant. Particularly the last three months (Sept-Oct 2006) have shown some encouraging trends in the stock price. If we analyze the stock during the last 24 months, we find that the share traded at prices even less than $24 during February and March 2005, but therefore the stock discovered a smart recovery and rallied all the way to touch the latest 52 week high. The stock has been experiencing some amount of volatility though, but that is quite commensurate with the overall share market trend. In fact as compared to NASDAQ 100 the stock has shown good maturity.