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Ethics

 

             When asked if I feel that a human being's life is much more valuable than that of a toad's, one is asking about my ethics. They"re different beliefs and principals to base your life on. I"m going to take a look at two of these ideas and see if maybe they can get me to switch the way I think.
             First there is Aristotelian ethics, which I believe in. This claims that life follows a natural law. It claims that man should strive for happiness. There also is a chain of being within natural law. It starts with the divine at top, with humanity next and finally at the bottom with unformed matter. The downside of natural law is that it promotes slavery and only the "maturest philosophers" can truly grasp it.
             Now the second idea we are going to look at is environmental ethics. This is defined as, one accepts that moral consideration must be given to the health of the biotic community itself. Basically what this concept is, love all things on earth. There is two ways to follow this one dealing with extreme environmentalism, where you an existing thing ahead of yourself. The downside of this is that you must make great sacrifices for the biotic community, when you maybe not even sure what it's status is.
             I can see my ethics are somewhat similar to environmentalism, but only "shallow" environmentalism. That is when you try to help the area out for your own good, your own chance to survive. I definitely think there is a chain of being unlike environmentalism. This takes away from your individual rights.
             It's not that I don"t care, it's just I don"t feel that the whole entire ecosystem counts. I would like to help out, but we are the dominant species, let's act that way. If I have to kill a dog to save my brother than so be it. Even if I have to kill a dog to save a stranger I would do it. I feel a human life is much more valuable than any other creature. .
            


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