Morality When Morality and Ethical

Morality

When morality and ethical sense are the pre-requisites for making a decision, most people would like to believe that they would opt for what is in general interest of greatest number of people. But do we actually do that? It requires some careful thought. People with basic moral sense are also guided by self-interest and self-love and they might choose something that appears to be in their interest. But there is a major mistake they make. The mistake as most people would think doesn't like in making a selfish choice, but it actually lies in not recognizing their own real interest.

This is the basic premise of my paper. When we make a choice even if guided by self-love, how do we know that the choice is actually in our long-term interest? The truth is that we don't know and we hardly care. We are driven by short-term interest and what appears to benefit us more. In understanding this concept, the following passage by Garrett is of tremendous significance:

The first step towards achieving such a universal concept of self-love is to recognize the difference between what people actually value or desire and what they would value or desire, if they were enlightened concerning what is truly in their interest. For to be truly loving towards oneself, a person needs to know what is truly in their interest and this is not the same thing as what they merely think is in their interest. (Garrett, 2002)

As Garrett explains, people are often blind to their own interest. They are only guided by what appears to be in their interest and thus they often make mistakes. Keeping this view in mind, when the offer was made to me, I had to say no to it even though I was at first tempted to accept. On the surface, everything looked great and was in my interest at least. The company was well-known, the perks enviable and the proposition of being financially free for life was too good to be true. But there was something inherently wrong attached to the offer. I was to help increase cigarettes sales even though I don't smoke myself and have always been against smoking.

How fair would it have been to others if I accepted the offer? Should I even be thinking of others when money is just a massive motivator? Questions like these are also tied to offers of this nature. Someone with a less develop moral conscious might leap at the offer immediately and some with very developed sense of morality might also be tempted. But what made it easier for me to reject the offer were self-interest and its true meaning.

When you have to make a decision that you know would benefit you and is in your interest, it becomes extremely easy to make it. The only problem is recognizing what is in our real interest. I discussed the offer with my well-wishers and found that while apparently the offer was appealing, it had never been in my interest. True, I could help in improving sales and could even be financially free for life, but the human cost of my actions would have never allowed me to enjoy my success. If you know that you must sacrifice the lives of 100,000 people in order to enjoy few great dinners and lunches, do you honestly believe you would be able to even utter the word enjoy, let alone actually have fun?

The problem is that whether we accept it or not, we are all born with an intrinsic moral sense. This moral sense is often bigger and more powerful than us. Some people could call it psychological effect, others might term it differently but the fact remains that if we are doing something wrong, this moral sense would keep nagging us to the point that we would no longer be able to enjoy what we are doing and might eventually starting harming ourselves.

In order to protect ourselves from such negative consequences, its best to make a decision that is free of guilt. In this way, we can enjoy the fruits of our success and live a more happy life in general. This is really what is in our best interest though we might fail to see it at first.

It also pays to study the offer from an objective viewpoint. If someone else were offered this job: what would you suggest? Would you allow the person to take the job knowing that it actually means threatening the health of millions of people? I would equate such a behavior with being a vulture. Only a person with very low and base faculties might want to earn money at the cost of life and health of millions. Mill has rightly pointed out that if given a choice, no man would ever want to be in the place of an animal even if animals were generally happier with their existence than we are with ours. He writes: "Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs."