Ethical Theories in Relation to Personal Experiences

In studying General Ethics, I’ve learned a lot about moral, non-moral and immoral thing.
While studying this subject, I’ve also realized that I’ve experienced some of the lessons I’ve learned
and suddenly I knew that there are a lot of things that we’ve done that is connected to ethics. There
are a lot of theories in Ethics and one example is consequentialism.
Consequentialism (or Teleological Ethics) is an approach to Ethics that argues that the morality of
an action is contingent on the action's outcome or consequence. Thus, a morally right action is
one that produces a good outcome or result, and the consequences of an action or rule
generally outweigh all other considerations. It is an ethical theory that judges whether or not
something is right by what its consequences are. For instance, most people would agree that lying
is wrong. But if telling a lie would help save a person’s life, consequentialism says it’s the right
thing to do. One time when I was still a kid, I think I was in elementary school that time, my mom
was scolding me and my brother for fighting and shouting at each other. When she caught us that
we were fighting she got mad at us I suddenly threw a tantrum and accidentally blunted out a bad
word, which triggered my mom. Growing up in a Christian household, we are not really allowed
to say bad words, and I never heard my parents say a bad word out of anger. So when my mom
heard I suddenly spitted out a bad word, she went berserk. She asked me where I learned those
words and why would I say such a word, which made me speechless, but still angry deep inside.
I wasn’t actually pertaining to her when I said a bad word, I just said it out of my anger. She asked
my brother to get the spider cage outside our house and when my brother got back my mom told
me to eat the “sili” inside the spider cage. I hate spicy foods most especially if it’s from a spider
house. I cried and cried and begged for my mom to not make me do it. She told me that I need to
learn a lesson and what I said was wrong. My brother suddenly told my mom that he was the one
who started the fight and I just fought back because he started it. I don’t really know what kind of
heroism suddenly got into my brother and why he saved me from eating that “sili”. What I
remembered is that he told a lie for me. I know that he wasn’t the one that started the fight, I was
the one who made the fight bigger that’s why it got into a point where we shouted at each other.
What my brother did was an example of consequentialism. He told a lie just to save me. Even
though I think he knows that he can also be punished if he told a lie, he still did it to save me from
eating the “sili”. In the end my mom calmed down when my brother volunteered to eat the “sili”,
so she just scolded us and talked to us.
 Two examples of consequentialism are utilitarianism and hedonism. Utilitarianism judges
consequences by a “greatest good for the greatest number” standard. I’ve been a student leader
for a long time now. Since I was in elementary school there were instances where in they would
pick me as the leader of the group to perform special tasks. Up until high school I was chosen as
a leader in some group activities. There were some instances in high school where in my group
had already prepared for a presentation, but majority of the groups in class wasn’t informed that
there will be a presentation held that day. Sometimes teachers also forget about the presentation
so instead of reminding the teacher that there is a presentation that day, I tend to just keep my
mouth shut for the greater good of the majority of the class. There was also a time when I was in
Senior high school, it was our physical education time and we were about to perform a class
performance but a lot of my classmates were absent that day and our teacher told us that only
those people who are there and get to perform will have a grade. The people who aren’t there will
get a zero in their performance task. That performance task has a huge percentage in our grades,
not being able to submit a performance task can result to a failing grade. I’m the class president
and considering the fact that majority of the class was absent that day due to a bad weather, I
asked the teacher if we can just adjust the performance the next day because it is the decision
for the greater good. Of course some of my classmates don’t understand my point that day
because unlike my other classmates who were absent that day, they took the time to prepare to
go to school, but just like them I also went all the way from Batangas to Calamba to perform that
task but I decided to make a decision for the greater good of the majority.

Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong. We need
to believe that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t
cheat.” As a human we need to follow set of rules and sometime we need to set aside empathy
to follow a rule. I’ve been a working student for a long time now. When I was in senior high school
I worked at McDonald’s and we follow a set of rules and standards there that we need to follow.
Now I’m working at Infinitea we also follow a set of rules like; we should tell our superiors if any
accident happens inside the store. There was this one time when I was a cashier and I was filling
the cup with some coconut jelly and I passed it to our barista and then when he got the cup from
me he accidentally dropped it and all the sinkers in the cup fell to the ground. Our boss who was
inside the store heard it and looked at me and asked me what happened there. The barista who
dropped the cup, had also done a mistake earlier that day which is private but it was also a huge
mistake that our boss already told him that he will be suspended because of the mistake he did.
I didn’t know what to say to our boss when he asked me what happened there, because the
barista who was just beside me was whispering the words “please don’t tell it” because that will
really make our boss mad and it can result to more days of suspension for him. But when our
boss stood up and asked what happened, instead of covering up the accident, I told him that the
barista accidentally dropped the cup. I wanted to be empathetic that day because what the barista
did was an accident, but following the set of rules that our boss gave us which is to inform them
about any accident that happens in the store. I was just following the set of rules which is to “Not
lie”.

Hedonism, which is the philosophy that pleasure is the most important pursuit of mankind,
and that individuals should strive to maximize their own total pleasure. It can be generally summed
up as a belief that "pleasure is the highest good" or that "whatever causes pleasure is right." My
experience in this theory is whenever I get hungry I always buy food, even though sometimes I
know that It’s just my cravings and I can buy other foods which are much cheaper than that, I still
tend to buy the food that I crave. Example is when I get out from work and it’s already past 11pm
and I’m hungry, instead of going straight home I sometimes pass by Jollibee and buy something
to eat because I know that it will remove my tiredness and it will satisfy me. Another example is
whenever there is an online sale. This is one the problems most girls who love online shopping
experience. If there is a sale in Lazada or Shoppee I always look for the things that I think I need
even though I know that I’m just thinking that I need it but the reality is that I only want it but not
need it. Because it brings me pleasure I still buy things that makes me happy most especially
because I earn my own money that is why it brings me much more happiness.

Altruism is the belief that the well-being of others is equally, if not more, important than the
well-being or survival of the self. One example I have in my mind was when I was in Senior high
school and I was saving up to buy a new phone because I’m earning my own money and I don’t
want to ask money from my parents just for a new phone. I have this piggy bank and I just put in
my salary every time I got it from McDonald’s. Then, one time my mom told me that we don’t have
a lot of budget for that month, if I can just use my salary as my daily money for school, then our
budget would be good for the whole month. When I started working when I was 16, my parents’
intention was for me to experience how it was working at a young age and earning my own money,
but I realized that my goal changed from gaining experience to helping my parents financially. In
the end I was the one who answered my daily school expenses for the whole year and didn’t get
the chance to buy a new phone. I sacrificed the thing I like so that I can help extend our family
budget. I also remembered not attending some events and gathering so that I can work and help
my parents financially.
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Naomi Gayle E. Mendez
General Ethics
September 23, 2019