Jovanna Pulido De La Rosa

Mrs. Carroll, Mr. Kelly, Ms. ​Wilczynski

American Literature

6 April 2019

The Way Life Should Be Lived

Ethics are moral principles that decide a person’s behavior or how an activity is conducted.

Justice is when people are being treated equally and are getting the respect they deserve. Ethics

and justice are related because in order to get justice people to have to be ethical in the way that

they interact with others. The ethical framework that guides my 10 rules to live by is the virtue

framework because my rules are things that you would do to make you feel like a good person by

fulfilling your natural duties and obligations of solidarity.

In order to be ethical through the virtue framework, you must do the things that we owe each

other. The following rules are all our natural duties to each other as fellow humans are to do no

harm, to be the bigger person, to be open-minded, to be adaptable, to be determined, to have

self-control, to be helpful, and to be reliable. To do no harm is to not inflict pain on another even

unintentionally whether it be physically or emotionally. It is a natural duty because we have “to

avoid cruelty” (Sandel 223) towards one another since we are all people it is something that we

own each other out of respect. To be the bigger person is to not be the one to start or continue an

argument but to be the one who ends with both sides being happy. It is a natural duty because we

have to be able to take the lead when things are not going well so that things don’t escalate to go

against what our natural duties are fundamental. To be open-minded is to be able to look at

things from different points of view than your own and understand how others see things. It is a
natural duty because if you are open-minded you are likely to avoid cruelty to others because you

will be more sensitive to how others may take what you have to say. To be adaptable is to be

able to get used to the environment you are in. This is a natural duty because it will help you

treat others with respect by being able to realize how things work in the place that you happen to

be at so that you don’t do things that you aren't supposed to do. To be determined is to be set on

something to have your eye on the prize and to not get distracted by other things. This is a

natural duty because it out of respect for others that you must not stray since are getting in the

way of them moving forward or getting past you when you can’t will yourself to move. To have

self-control is to not be swayed by that which seems easy or by the things that you want. This is

a natural duty because you have to this out of respect for others in the way you behave by not

being impulsive and jumping at that which you want and to be conscious that it isn’t only you in

this world. To be helpful is to do everything you can to help those around you. We are all human

and we all need help once in a while so we should all pitch in when we can. It is a natural duty

because it is something that "we own them to persons as rational beings." (Sandel 223)Helping is

not something that we need permission necessarily to do it is just something that we do because

we feel we need to. To be reliable is to be a person that others can lean on for support or be

someone who is can be trusted with responsibilities. It is a natural duty because it is something

that we should be to one another so that we can be able to rely on someone when times are

tough. It is something we feel we must do not something that we ask permission to do. These

rules connect back to the claim that to be ethical through the virtue framework you need to do

your natural duties because they are things that we are compelled to do for one another based on

the fact that they are humans just like us.

 To be ethical through the virtue framework you must do the things that we owe each other

because we are part of their lives. The following rules are all our obligations of solidarity to

those close to us and they are to treat others how you want to be treated and to speak up for

yourself and others. To treat others how you want to be treated is just that to treat each other well

because it how you would want them to treat you. It is our obligation of solidarity because we

would realize that with each interaction that we have we are involving ourselves with others so

we should be considerate to others like the excerpt from Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

stated, “from a recognition that my life story is implicated in the stories of others.” (Sandel 225)

To speak up for yourself and others is to not just take everything that thrown at you but to stand

up for your and for those who can’t. We shouldn’t wait for another to come to do it for us but

instead be proactive in helping ourselves and others. It is our obligation of solidarity because it is

not something others give consent to us to act in their defense but we do it because of the history

that we have with that person. These rules connect back to the claim that to be ethical through

the virtue framework you need to do your obligations of solidarity because they are things that

we need to do for one another because we are part of their stories so we should act like we

deserve to be part of them.

The way I developed my original list was by stating things that I thought were important

duties a person should do in order to be a good person. They were very broad and simple so that

they could involve other duties that I didn’t include. In the first revision, I didn’t get any

feedback that could be useful for me when I was revisioning my rules. So when I was reviewing

them to see if some duties were too close to each other that I had to change them and at the time I

just changed rule 9 to “Don’t be impulsive” from “Don’t say the truth out of spite” because I
thought it was a better way of making it broader so that it umbrella other rules. During the

second revision was when I got feedback on the rule that had to be changed. My partner for the

exchange told me that rules 2 and 4 were very similar so rule 4 became “Be the bigger person”

from “Be considerate” because it is something that you would do to be a better person since I

could really think of anything better at the time. She also informed me that rule 8 and 9 were

basically the same so rule 9 became “Be helpful” because it is important in being a better person

if you are willing to help others. That was the last edit that I made to my list of rules to live by.

If I lived by these rules then I would be a whole different person because I am an introvert so

I like to keep to myself and the rules would make me get out of my comfort zone. It isn’t

necessarily bad but I don’t think that my mind would be ready if I went into it right now. If I

followed these rules from the beginning of my life I think that I would more social and more

open with others since the rules are mostly about those things that were should do to others

because we are all human and we are all part of everyone else's lives. I think that people would

be more considerate of others which would go so that we can sympathize with others on how

they feel. Like everything in this world things can be twisted to show the other side of things that

aren’t so pretty because they are so broad there is lots of room for misconceptions to make there

way out into the world. Overall I think that the world would be better if it followed them because

we would be able to understand what are the problems and how to solve them, there would be

peace because people would be considerate, and people would just treat each other better.