Sofia Vidanes

Mrs. O’keefe

American Literature

27 April 2017

10 Essential Guidelines To Follow:

Each one of us has different rules and obligations they follow in their lives. But there also

some rules that are known to everyone known as natural duties. In natural duty, each one of us

has the obligation to respect each other in order for us to get the justice that other needs. Justice

is the act of treating others equally. In order for fulfilling our justices, we must value each other

and also to ourselves in order for our community to be safe and peaceful. This theme applies the

ten rules mention as all of them involves improving on yourself or how you act on others:

The first rule is to do no harm towards others. This means to not hurt anyone both

physically and emotionally. Even if there is tension between two people, it is our natural duty to

not injure others and instead fix the problem in a peaceful way such as a compromise. According

to Saudel, natural duties “...include the duty to treat persons with respect, to do justice, to avoid

cruelty, and so on.” (5-6). Doing harm to others affects on who you are as a person and how

others see you. Remember that everyone should have the chance to live a fair and stress-free life

and harming them can broke your moral responsibilities we all have, braking the trust and loyalty

from others around you.

 The second rule is to be on top of your priority. Starting our adolescent year and onwards,

you start to feel pressure built-up as you have more activities to do from school, home, church, or

so on. It can add stress if you are unready to do all of the things you have to do on that particular

day because there are so many things to do. That is why you should always plan ahead of time

and list all of the important things the first. Be in charge on all of your important tasks you have

to do and it will all have a good effect at the end. Sandel explains, “he calls them ‘motives of

inclination’- with the motives of duty. And he insists that only action done out of a motive of

duty have moral worth” (17-19). Be on top of your priority not only achieves all of the tasks you

have to do but it also prevents less stress since you will be more organized. This will help you

throughout your adult life as you have more responsibilities to do.

The third rule is to be patient. Sometimes you come into a situation where to have to wait

in a line and there is a lot of people in front of you. You have to be more tolerant of waiting at

the situation you can’t control because there are others, like you, who are also waiting. This is

one of our natural duties we must do since it is our motive to not bother others and not make a

scene. According to Sandel, “ What matters [of morality] is the motive, and the motive must

be...to fulfill our duties and obligations.” (9-11). It is part of our morals to be mindful of other

people’s personal spaces since it is part of our obligation of not disturbing them if they are

peaceful. This means that I can’t just cut in the line because if they respect their place, then you

should have the right to respect theirs too.

 The fourth rule is to be humble. This means to care about other’s interests over yours.

Whether it is your friend or your significant one, it is our obligation is to value the other person

as a whole even by any means being selfless. By being humble, you can gain relationships to

others, which is something that is important in life since they are the ones who can help you

grow as a person and the ones who will help you along the way. Building relationships can get to

reveal who you and the other person's truly are. It could build integrity, which is the end result

that you want. This is an example of “motives of inclination” as it “attempts to satisfy our wants,

desires, preferences, and appetites” (Saudel 16-17).

The fifth rule is to always respect our elders. Even if you’re furious at them at times, it is

still our obligation to treat them with the special respect you have because of their old age. Your

elders have a family obligation that is attached to them since “[You] have an obligation to repay

the benefit.” (Saudel 15-16). What they meant by “ repay the benefit” is of your parents or

grandparents might have taken care you and have an impact in your life, then they have more

authority than you have because they have raised you based on their rule and as their children, it

is only right to follow their rules since they’re are the ones who raised to become who you are

today.

The sixth rule is to always strive for success. Even if it is impossible for you now, you

can still fulfill, if you commit and take the necessary steps to get closer to your success, any type

of challenge is possible. For example, if you have is a big test the count as half of your grade and

you really want to pass it, you take the necessary steps to actually to study the material you are
tested on. Even if you don’t take in the information you just read, you would have to read it over

and over again if it is the way you will remember. With enough perseverance, you can ace the

test at no time. Just like Saudel said: “... the only action done out of motive of duty have moral

worth” (18-19)

The seventh rule is to don’t gossip behind anyone’s back. Gossiping breaks our natural

duties since this not how we owe as human beings. In Sandel's perspective, “...natural duty not to

commit injustice.” (19). What we owe is to give respect and justice to others. In this rule, this is

the example of an injustice: the act of treating a person inequity because they’re are looked down

upon. Gossiping not only break trusts of others but if other people know what you did, they

would question their relationship with you and might even befriend you.

The eighth rule is to always help those in need. Whether it is helping your parents

cleaning or helping a homeless man by giving them money, we all tend to have the urge to

wanting to help others who in need of help because we did not want them to struggle with any

situation they’re facing. According to Sandel, “...what matters is doing the right thing because

it’s right, not some ulterior motive.” (13-14). In this case, we just want to help our parents or the

homeless man in different ways because we think it’s right decision to help them as a way to end

their struggle.

The ninth rule is to love what you do or leave it altogether. It’s okay to leave one thing

and move to the next especially if that decision will make you happy. For example, you were
close on fulfill your nursing career and you just need to need to take one more class before

graduating. But then you realized that you are interested in being an artist instead of being a

nurse. It’s never too late to change our interests even if it is the worse time to change. Sure you

were on your way on into becoming a nurse but if it keeps you unhappy then take the necessary

steps on change your career and plan ahead on what you should do in order to be an artist. It

matches “Kant’s idea of reason- of practical reason...is ‘pure practical reason, which legislates a

prion.” (39-40)

The last and final rule is to try new things. It is definitely not easy to try new things

because we think that we’re not going to be good at it. But with an open-mind trying new things

can also discover your hidden talents that you didn’t know you have. Keeping yourself busy is

another why you should try new things. But discovering new things to yourself, it can keep you

active and outside of school instead of staying home and sleep every day. It could also help you

meet other people outside of your community and open up new relationships, which is some of

many ways to keep yourself happy which is a natural duty that we owe to ourselves since we all

deserve to be happy and live life to its fullest.

All of my rules that I mention are all based on my personal experiences that I faced

throughout my middle school and high school. They are also based on how I think people should

all treat each other to prevent any problem from happening from my life. Along the way, I did

make a lot of revisions to my list mainly because they similar to each and I want each one of my
rules to be different from one another and at the same time, matches that one theme I have in my

mind.

If anyone were to follow all of my rules, then it would have a positive change in our

community since more people value each other even more with the respect that they deserve and

it could also improve yourself since you are making change for yourself for the better and make

your life even easy and less stressful.