While reading Southan’s article, it struck me as familiar. In my current ethics class, we are discussing Utilitarianism and the moralities that are followed by it. My first big note in this reading was when Southan was discussing the moral rules that altruists follow… They intend for everything any given person does to be worth something. In today’s society, western civilization has been shaped to tell us to do what makes us happy… not what makes others happier than us.; which is essentially what altruism, and utilitarianism, tell us to do. To the members of Effective Altruism, you must justify what you are doing with your time by scaling whether or not it is contributing to the overall betterment of society. With this in thought, I began to analyze my own goals and came to the conclusion that my major would be safe in this utilitarianistic society. Majoring in aquaculture, I could expand into the food aspect of it. I could be able to feed mass amounts of people if I were to have a farm near poorer communities. However, in order to keep this afloat, where would my income to keep the business going come from if it would be unethical to charge such a impoverished society? These altruistic and utilitarian ideals seem to ask way too much at times.
Isabel,
First of all, I think you expressed yourself beautifully in your About Me page. You did a powerful job articulating the frustrating sensation that the words on a page do not reflect your best thoughts/full potential. I’d never considered this frustration before (in the context of the classroom), and I am grateful to you for having brought it to my attention. Stay open and remember that writing is a process! You can write and rewrite. You can delete and move things around. No one expects you to generate gorgeous, thoughtful sentences in one sitting! Heck, if you figure out how to pull that off, will you let me know?! đŸ™‚
Your annotations are off to a strong start. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Utilitarianism. I’m pleased that your ethics class complements this essay so well! I am sure that you will be able to put those connections to work in your first paper.