Identify How The Five Operations Of Moral Questioning Play Out
- Each question should be answered separately in paragraph, short essay form.
- It should be 1 to 3 pages for each questions, double spaced.
- If quotes are used from Melchin's book, you can put the page number in brackets beside the quotes. No footnotes are necessary.
In conjunction with class lectures and your own reading of Kenneth Melchin’s book, Living with Other People, you are required to answer the following questions (each question corresponds to one chapter as indicated):
Chapter 1
Imagine that you are returning merchandise to a large department store. The value of the merchandise is $500. As you are returning the goods, you notice what you think is an error on the part of the clerk. Instead of crediting your account the proper $500 amount, it seems the clerk has credited your account with $1,000.
In order to come to a correct understanding of what has happened in this example which will allow you to decide what it is you should do, identify how the five operations of moral questioning found in Chapter one play out in this example:
What is it?
Is it so?
What am I going to do?
Is that action the right thing to do?
Are you going to do it?
Chapter 2
Describe the characteristics of drunk driving by answering the following questions:
What are the contexts?
What might be some of the intentions of a drunk driver?
What are the larger social structures that are affected by drunk driving?
Explain the moral characteristics of drunk driving in terms of the three meanings of the term good (personal desire, social order, and longer range progress or decline of the social order (social structure) itself).
Chapter 3
Describe a situation, either from your own experience or someone you know, where a moral act led to freedom. Explain why you think the moral act led to freedom. In your explanation, refer to the four ‘types’ of freedom that Melchin explains in Chapter three.
Chapter 4
Drawing on Melchin’s explanation in Chapter four, in what sense is there a distinctive Christian Ethics, or a particular Christian understanding of responsibility? Be specific in your answer. How has this distinctiveness played itself out in a story from your own life or in someone you know about, whether in fiction or real life?
Chapter 5
Identify an event or cluster of events in which you can see the three historical forces (progress, decline and redemption) actually at work in the event. Explain each of these ‘forces’ and also how they interact with each other.
Study Guide Questions
Name
Institution
Study Guide Questions
Q.1Identify how the five operations of moral questioning play out.
Moral maturity according to Kenneth Melchin is to seek and choose the common good as a matter of desire and routine habit. In understanding moral action, it is important to understand the inner realm of ourselves as subjects (p.17). In making ethical decisions, it calls to gather facts with a neutral approach bearing in mind that without factual information, moral judgment will be distorted. Use reasonableness to try and establish if the amount entered by the department store clerk was an error of commission. After establishing what it is, take the initiative to understand the circumstances that caused this situation.
It is not possible to know the whole facts regarding a situation and considering the state of oblivion in which others can see stuff about you that you cannot be able to decipher. It is even more difficult to fathom a situation which you are not aware of, but it calls for you to make up a decision to an ethical problem, mostly based on reasonable assumptions. Facts require analysis and justification depending on personal values and persuasions as well as the effect on other people involved. The situation in which the clerk credits my account with money that I did suppose to use requires me to summon my conscience and present to her the facts about my account details. After a thorough interrogation of my account transactions, the clerk and I should be able to deduce the correct price for the merchandise and debit as such.
The second step requires you to confirm the facts of the incident and make predictions. Relevance is important in handling a situation, and it amounts to positive results. There is a probability that expected outcomes are often not guaranteed. The element of uncertainty must always lurk somewhere in the back of one’s mind. Ensure that the clerk counterchecks the price of the merchandise and a correct entry is made. A clarification on the error must be made, so that future transactions do not face similar bottlenecks and can reach desired results. There is always that element of uncertainty, and the clerk may have had underlying issues that may require urgent intervention like job-related stress or another unattended to the problem. It needs one to choose an action plan that is most likely to cause good or remedy the situation.
In step three, you need to identify your way of thinking otherwise called intuition or conscience. When feelings are founded on doing well, rationality comes into play. It always counts to be conscious when handling such situations. Asking her to rectify the error politely is the next best thing to do.
The fourth thing to do is to interrogate your conscience and decide if that was the best action taken. It is necessary to seek other people’s opinion in case you doubt your actions and in a bid to avoid guilt. This will earn you respect and act as a learning point for others. Finally, it is necessary to engage other people and engage them in a moral discussion about the choices you made. It also helps to gather other people’s experiences hence advances knowledge.
Q.2 Describe the characteristics of drunk driving
Drinking and driving is an individual practice that affects the social surroundings and the risks involved with it has a social background. When put in the context of road safety, drunk driving has many negative social effects top among them impaired judgment in terms of perception of speed and distance. Social psychologists intimate that people engage lower levels of reasoning when they have consumed alcohol. Drinking and driving are individually performed through personal decisions, actions, and thoughts, but widely affects other social circumstances and external influences.
While driving under the influence of alcohol, risks of causing an accident are high. In Europe alone, drunk driving is responsible for over 10,000 deaths annually, and in the USA, alcohol-impaired driving accounts for over 30% of traffic-related fatalities, while in China DUI is listed to account for 34% of road accidents. It, therefore, implies that drunk driving has a high probability of causing serious accidents.
In most countries, driving under the influence (DUI) is prohibited and is considered socially immoral. In some jurisdictions the words “under the influence” sound too vague, so they are replaced by “intoxication” to mean someone who is under too much influence of alcohol such that he is unable to control his actions. The moral reasoning of road users of different ages varies with adults using more appropriate reasoning patterns. Driving has two behavioral components; cognitive behavior and rational behavior. Many drivers use both of these components. For example, inexperienced drivers are underdeveloped cognitively, but by acting prudently, they become morally advanced, while experienced drivers have the high cognitive ability but may be morally underdeveloped by driving impulsively and carelessly without regard for potential injury.
Driving under the influence of alcohol impairs skill and most times one is likely to speed and not wear safety seatbelt which increases the risk of crashing. The behavior of driving after drinking is informed by individual choice and is motivated by environmental, social, economic and organizational factors. Preventive interventions, therefore, involve multidisciplinary approaches.
Deterrence of drink driving will help prevent their passengers from accustoming themselves with DUI since studies indicate that young people who have had experience as passengers of a drunk driver are more likely to imitate them. Those offenders whose licenses are revoked and are unwilling to regain them are at more risk than those who regain them because convictions programmes assist DUI offenders in reforming. This implies that unlicensed offenders are likely to risk drunk driving than licensed offenders. Social theorists, however, criticize the perceptions of deterrence since it is a constituent of contemporary criminal law. It depends on citizens’ perceptions of punishment after breaking the law, which requires enforcement. It works hand in hand with retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation and is not affected by social differences.
Q.3 Moral Acts that lead to Freedom
Morality presupposes freedom and individual actions should be judged by using moral standards. Freedom limiting practices are not acceptable. Its members determine the morality of a society. Moral individuals are guided by reason and justice and do not interfere with other people’s ways of life. Freedom in society is derived from moral individuals, who liv...