Eduardo Leyva

Ms. O​'Keefe​,​Mr. Kelly

American Literature 3rd period

March 22,2018

10 rules everyone should live and their justification.

​ Ethics are principles that conduct a person's behavior and actions,Ethics is what

someone believes is the right thing to do.Justice is a legal or ethical action taken to make

something fair.Ethics and justice are related because they both involve taking action

based on what is thought to be rights. The Ethical framework that guides my rules is the

Natural duties. Natural duties are duties everyone must do.

The first rule everyone should live by is to do no harm.This rule is about not

hurting or killing others and respecting each other. This rules makes everyone better

people because it shows the respect people have for one another. This rules ties in with

the natural duties because everyone has “the duty to treat persons with respect”.(Sandel,

Michael J. ​Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College, 2009. ).

The second rule everyone should live by to become a better person is to not be

bias toward people and towards beliefs. This rule is to have a open mind and let others

express their point of view to ty to produce the most good. This rule is important because

it allows people to be heard and the most good to come out of decisions. In the case of

the runaway trolley debate it was sacrifice 5 people to save one or vice versa.This brings

my rule into play because the person changing the tracks could be a relative of the one
person and this person would save his relative but if he decided based one the amount of

lives he would save and not be bias he would choose the 5 people over his own relative

to produce the most good. This rule is tied in with the natural duty framework because

everyone should have a fair opportunity in life and this rule helps people achieve a fair

advantage.

The third rule everyone should live by to become a better person is to give to

those in need(Charity). This rule is all about helping people who are less fortunate than

oneself such as the homeless,and the hungry. This rule “doesn’t require an act of

consent” and it’s based on the will of helping others (Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice: What's

the Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College, 2009. ). This rule makes everyone a better

person because helping others who are in need is always the right thing to do. This rule

is tied to the natural duty framework because we as humans must help each other move

forward and succeed.

The fourth rule everyone should follow to become a better person is to help

those who are in danger (Don’t be a bystander). This rule is all about helping people and

in this case people who are in danger. This rule is basically urging people to not be

bystanders and to take action. This rule makes people better because as stated under the

natural duties it “ doesn’t require consent” to save a life(Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice:

What's the Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College, 2009. ). This makes people better

people because it's all about trying to do the most good and help people which is always

a good thing. This ties into the natural duties because everyone must help each other “it

is what we owe each other as rational beings(Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice: What's the
Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College, 2009. ).

The fifth rule that can help people become better people is to take everyone into

consideration before making decisions that will affect others. This rule is stating that

people should think about how decision will affect other people. This rule is a rule

everyone should follow because rules cannot be made while excluding the public, rules

should be made based on what is best for everyone.This rule is meant to ensure actions

are made which are intended to help people although it may not always work. This is

related to the natural duties because it is a person's natural duty to “try to produce the

most good”(“Brown University.” ​A Framework for Making Ethical Decisions | Science

and Technology Studies​, Brown University,

www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-making-ethical-

decisions​.).

The sixth rule everyone should live by to become a better person is to never put

yourself over others especially younger people. This rule means that you should never

try to save yourself only you should try to save the younger people and others then

yourself. This rule ties in with the sinking of the william brown in which the “crew

saved themselves some women,two married men,and a boy(“William Brown (Ship).”

Wikipedia​, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Mar. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_(ship)). The crew were wrong to sacrifice the

passengers to save themselves because it was their natural duty to help those who were

in need not themselves. This rule makes everyone a better person because it could be the

difference between saving people's lives and being called a hero or sacrificing people
and being called a murderer. This rule goes back to the natural duties because it's

everyone's duty to help each other and to ensure a future for younger people.

The seventh rule everyone should follow to become a better person is to not steal

specially from those who have little. This rule is trying to say that stealing from others is

bad enough on its own but stealing from those who have little is just cruel and

inhumane.

This rule helps people become better because it prevents people from stealing from

others and acting in a way that is not tolerated anywhere. As stated in the reading by

Michael Sandel “it's everyone's duty to treat everyone with respect” and this includes

not stealing from people(Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

Langara College, 2009. ). This connects to the natural duties becuase its everyones duty

to treat each other with respect and not steal from each other.

The eight rule everyone should live by is to not lie. Lying isn't good especially

when you are lying to younger people or to yourself. This rule means to not tell anyone

false information knowingly. This is also a nutural duty because as stated in the Excerpt

from ​Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?​ “We owe them to persons as a rational

beings” we as people cannot go up to each other and lie to each other it isn’t the right

thing to do(Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College,

2009. ). This connects to the natural duties because as stated above we owe this to each

other.

The ninth rule everyone should live by to become a better person is to not judge

people who you may or may not know. This rule is trying to say that you should not
judge people based on actions and looks, these people might be going thru difficult

situations that are hard to get over. This rule is similar to the natural duties because it

adds to the “respect we owe each other as people”(Sandel, Michael J. ​Justice: What's the

Right Thing to Do?​ Langara College, 2009. ).

The last rule everyone should live by to make themselves a better person is to not

be racist. Racism has existed throught the centuries and still persists on today. Racism

divides people and creates social barrieres. This rule is trying to persuade people to not

be racist and treat each other the same. This rule adds to the natural duties because againt

it’s based upon the respect we owe each other as people.

This list of rules were developed based on todays society and what things are

seen to be right and wrong. I also developed this list using readings provided to me by

my class to support my argument. Some revisions I had to make were making some of

the rules clearer such as the “Do not lie” rule. This rule had to be changed because

before it was worded “Do not lie unless it is necessary”which did not work because lying

should not be nessesary. I also changed my “helping others rule” because it was a bit

unclear so I had to make it clear and separate this into two rules.

My life would be good because I would feel good about myself because I

helped others. If I feel proud of myself life will be good. The world will be peaceful and

not full of separation and hate if everyone lived by these rules. The future of the world

would also be good because everyone would helpe each other move forward and not

backwards(no wars,hatred)