Eth/316 Inventory Lens Essay

Resources: The Ethics Game using the link located on the student website. Write a 700-1050 word essay on the results of the Ethics Game. Address the following in your essay:  In talking to a friend, how would you describe your ethical perspective as identified by the Ethical Lens Inventory, including your blind spot, strengths, weaknesses, and values?  What does the term personal ethics mean to you?  How might your personal ethics help you to determine a course of action in a situation? Format your paper consistent with APA Sample Paper guidelines and include a minimum of 2 sources.

Ethical Lens Inventory Results for 

Your  preferred lens is:

Results Lens and Reputation Lens 

You listen to your intuition (sensibility) to determine the greatest good for each individual (autonomy) and the character traits and virtues that will best serve the community (equality).

Your Core Values: Balances between self and others

You value autonomy and equality equally. For you interdependence is the goal, harmonizing the rights of individuals with the well-being of the community.

You moderately value sensibility, following one’s heart to make prudent choices. You are tempered by rationality, using reason to find the rules of life.

Your Classical Values: Prudence and Fortitude

You demonstrate wisdom in practical matters and foresight as you act with enlightened self-interest in each circumstance. You manage to avoid rash actions while bringing the gift of entrepreneurship to the table. You also bring optimism, imagination and courage in the face of obstacles.

Your Key Phrase: “I make virtuous choices that are good for everyone.”

Because you equally value autonomy and equality, as well as sensibility, you tend to assume that each person operates from a clear sense of their own values and the positive character traits required by their role.

Your Definition of ethical behavior: Creating the greatest good by living out role responsibilities

You define an ethical person as one who makes responsible choices that benefit many different individuals at the same time. For you, those who demonstrate strong leadership in their roles and who encourage others to do the same also exemplify ethical behavior.

Your Tools for analyzing problems: Experience and tradition

You see the current situation in the light of past experiences and tend to use a combination of intuition and imagination to incorporate new information and solve problems.  You focus on seeing what is actually going on in the situation and consider options that will both reflect excellence in your role and make people happy. You are able to consider multiple perspectives and are comfortable with ambiguity.

Your Gift: Free Will and Compassion

Your gift to the community is self-reliance and accountability. You are not afraid to pursue what delights you and pursue this freedom for all in the community. Because of your ability to put yourself in the shoes of the other, you are able to “tell the story” of each member of your community, even as you live out the requirements of your role.

Your Blind spot: Satisfied with too little good or Unrealistic Role Expectations

Sometimes you fail to be accountable to those who are depending on. So long as you’ve satisfied your own needs, you can become complacent, leaving problems unresolved in the long-term and everyone else to fend for themselves. You also run the risk of developing unrealistic role expectations. You will tend to rely too much on the virtues associated with a particular role, forgetting that individuals are fallible regardless of their role.

Your Risk: Self-Righteousness or Reducing decisions to a cost-benefit analysis

If you do not assure that all have free will, you run the risk of reducing decisions to a narrow and purely financial cost-benefit analysis. If your compassion fails, you also run the risk of believing that you are entitled to perks and privileges because of your role. This can make you susceptible to insincere flattery and immune to constructive critiques preventing you from doing your job effectively. 

Your Temptation: Expedience and entitlement

If you are not paying attention, you can be tempted to base your actions on what is politic or advantageous rather than what is right or just. You will convince yourself that everyone will be happy in the end and not mind a few insignificant corners being cut. You can also persuade yourself that your role gives you special privileges inconsistent with good character.

Your Vice: Becoming Greedy or Hard-hearted

If you fail to exercise free will responsibly, your healthy pursuit of good for all can devolve into an excuse for taking as much for yourself as you can get away with. If your compassion fails and you become hard-hearted, you may apply capricious and inappropriate solutions.

Your Crisis: Failure and Confusion

Unless you develop the practice of mindfulness and reflection, at some point you will face failure. No one can accomplish or acquire everything and the more you do, the less satisfying it becomes. Alternatively, you will confront the loss of your center, especially if you lose the role with which you have become identified. If you find you have few friends, it could be because your acquisitiveness or obsession with the responsibilities of your role drives them away.

Your Seeing Clearly: Use your head

To see more clearly, make sure that both your head and your heart agree. Although you do a good job of balancing the needs of the community and the rights of individuals, you do tend to be somewhat capricious and ad hoc in creating solutions to common problems. As you consider the communal character traits that will provide the greatest good, remember that consistency is not the same as uniformity. Some members of the community actually do better in an environment with some predictability. As you learn to consider other perspectives in your decision making process, you will live out the best of your ideals with compassion and care for others.