Ethics For The Real World By Ronald A. Howard And Clinton D.

Ethics for the Real World by Ronald A. Howard and Clinton D. Korver is about the ethical choices that are made every day in our lives, and how we should make those decisions. It starts off by giving examples of temptations that people are faced with on a regular basis. They want us to become aware of these parts of our lives, and the reasoning behind the decisions that we make. The first part of the book dissects why we have some of these beliefs and where they came from. The impact that those beliefs have on our lives is significant. The way someone is raised and the morals that are instilled into them at a young age are very important. The second half of the book focuses on making those ethical decisions, and then living the best life possible
If we put responsibility on actions that means we are always doing the right thing no matter the outcome, this is discussed using Benthams view that an action is ethical if it provides the greatest good for most of the people (p. 41). With consequences there is the decision between doing what is right or doing what will have the best outcome. I think it can be tricky to pick between the two, so I do not think that it is plausible to have a pure form of either option. Once again it goes back to the upbringing and personal views. I think it is easier to have a combination of both because sometimes going through with an action even though it will not produce the desired outcome is necessary, while in other situations the consequence might be too great that it would be devastating to do what is ethically true. To get to these decisions we either must reason or rationalize. Reasoning is a cleaner way I think of analyzing a situation to come up with a decision and why that decision was made. While rationalization is a more ethical decision process and taking self-interest more into the situation. I think it is easier to rationalize rather than to reason because we can always come up with a justification for why we lied or why we fell to a temptation. It just makes us feel better about the choices made because if we go into the reasoning it may be obvious that we should have gone with
The first one is clarifying the ethical issue. Obviously, we must figure out what our issue is to be able to decide how to handle it. If we can clearly define what the ethical temptation is it allows for a more thought out and well-conceived response to be made. The next step is creating alternatives. We need to think out what the possible outcomes may be, and the way they could play out. It is best to come up with multiple to allow for the best to be chosen instead of just coming up with one that is just all right. There are always multiple options that can be made, and we need to lay out all possible solutions to the ethical problem we face. I struggle with this step because I can be hot headed which leads to a quick decision making, and that is not always the best decision. I do not lay out all of my alternatives, instead I take the first one that comes to mind. This leads to the third step of the process as well which is evaluating the alternatives. Simply put we are taking the scenarios we laid out and figuring out which one will be the best in the current situation. I think this could be a useful process if I am able to put aside my emotions at the time of these ethical decisions. I am not saying that all emotion needs to be taken out, but that should not be the driving force of the decision that is ultimately made in the end. I think that is learned over time and practice though, and reading a