SBMT Personal Reflection
Personal Reflection 1 – Question B
I think ethical decisions are decisions that should be made for better results. However, there is no universal standard to determine whether an ethical decision is right or wrong, as it is vague to define what a better outcome means to different people. In other words, ethical decisions are subjective to everyone.
For me, I generally make ethical decisions with considering the impacts and my own emotion.
I believe that consequences are essential to ethical decisions because they affect the stakeholders. Stakeholders are parties who form this contemporary society. For example, I am a stakeholder in HKUST because I study here. You are a stakeholder of the government because you work for it. You and I are stakeholders from various bodies or institutions. It is so important that we should not ignore them. Therefore, we must contemplate before we make a decision. I especially like the principle Utilitarianism, which is advocated by David Hume in the 18th century. It emphasized the significance of maximizing mutual benefits. That means all the stakeholders involved could gain as much as possible. And thus it could create a fairer society which leads to a better outcome eventually. This really matches my mindset.
My feeling is also a crucial factor as I have to be true to myself. This is not he or she, but I to make the ethical decision. I must follow my intuition. And like the mom test and sleep test, I should feel proud and pleased for any decisions made and using my own conscience and value system to judge and determine.
But sometimes, I would still make wrong decisions. Recently, I met an elderly in the MTR station. She told me that her wallet was being stolen. And she was begging me to give her money for transportation. Though I have heard about news that swindler would use this kind of means to deceive money, I still lent her money because I concern the consequence and my own feeling. If she could not receive
I think ethical decisions are decisions that should be made for better results. However, there is no universal standard to determine whether an ethical decision is right or wrong, as it is vague to define what a better outcome means to different people. In other words, ethical decisions are subjective to everyone.
For me, I generally make ethical decisions with considering the impacts and my own emotion.
I believe that consequences are essential to ethical decisions because they affect the stakeholders. Stakeholders are parties who form this contemporary society. For example, I am a stakeholder in HKUST because I study here. You are a stakeholder of the government because you work for it. You and I are stakeholders from various bodies or institutions. It is so important that we should not ignore them. Therefore, we must contemplate before we make a decision. I especially like the principle Utilitarianism, which is advocated by David Hume in the 18th century. It emphasized the significance of maximizing mutual benefits. That means all the stakeholders involved could gain as much as possible. And thus it could create a fairer society which leads to a better outcome eventually. This really matches my mindset.
My feeling is also a crucial factor as I have to be true to myself. This is not he or she, but I to make the ethical decision. I must follow my intuition. And like the mom test and sleep test, I should feel proud and pleased for any decisions made and using my own conscience and value system to judge and determine.
But sometimes, I would still make wrong decisions. Recently, I met an elderly in the MTR station. She told me that her wallet was being stolen. And she was begging me to give her money for transportation. Though I have heard about news that swindler would use this kind of means to deceive money, I still lent her money because I concern the consequence and my own feeling. If she could not receive