Jalyn Olivas

Mrs. Carroll
American Literature
7 April 2019

Rules to Abide By

What is Ethics? Ethics is the moral philosophy where one takes into their

considerations their actions. It is the rules or code of conduct one takes into. There are

different frameworks: Natural duties, voluntary obligations, narrative conception,

obligations of solidarity. The definition of justice would be equality or peace or genuine

behavior or reaction. Justice and ethics go hand and hand because justice and ethics

are about doing the right things and serving a good purpose. My 10 Rules to live by are

guided by the consequentialist and duty framework.

First, the 10 rules are all connected where they fall into place with each other to

become an ethical person but are not all the same. Rules include doing no harm,

considering others/ thoughts/ feelings when talking or doing something, not being

selfish, learning from one's mistakes, when others need you to listen to them speak,

protecting others, thinking then doing, not getting involved in anything bad, not being

jealous but trying to find a way to reach that level, and lastly being the one those can

count on.

Without a doubt, half of my rules fall into the consequentialist framework. This

framework takes into consideration one's actions. According to Brown University, it

states, “Focus on the true effects of the possible courses of action, considering the

people who will be directly or indirectly affected.” For example, the runaway trolley
would be the nature of an ethical dilemma described as a consequentialist where you

consider the people lives being affected directly or indirectly. The rules that would fall

under this framework are considering others #2, thinking then doing #7, and lastly, #10

being there for others when they need someone. I can ensure that these rules are

consistent with the frameworks by how each one of them is connected and have a

connection. Each rule will entirely connect to a framework. For instance, #10 you are

not only following your natural duty of helping someone but are also considering them

as well.

Then, my rules fall under the duty framework. The duty framework ideally is

about your personal morals. As stated by Brown University it states, “The Duty

framework, we focus on the duties and obligations that we have in a given situation and

consider what ethical obligations we have and what things we should never do.” My

rules reflect this framework by ensuring others do not get hurt. Mainly invoking the

natural duty by avoiding cruelty to others as well as preventing one's actions from

affecting others. Then the rest of my rules invoke the duty framework. Upon what we

owe to each other natural duties is a natural response of a person to anything. For

example the Runaway Trolley dilemma I would have solved it by looking for another

option so no one has to die or sacrifice. I would choose according to my natural duties

When creating these rules I took into consideration my own morals and what I

think about. I chose to implement rules that would not only help myself but others too.

Upon looking at my rules they are consistent with each other but #4 and #10 had been

similar in which I had to change them. Therefore I changed #4 to learn from one's
mistakes. They are now not redundant. Learning from one's mistakes can do a lot even

though you may have messed up there's the moment to move onto better things for

either yourself or others.

In conclusion, if abiding by these rules my life would stay the same because

these are rules I live/ abide by. These rules are a fraction of how I live my life upon the

decisions I make. If the world would follow these rules there would be consideration of a

lot of things but although they may not all be the same for everyone in the choices

made. There are things we owe to each other. Of course as people, we think about

many things we do/ for each other. We owe what we would want others to do for us as

well.