ETHICS 4
Exam copying and ethics
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Exam copying and ethics
Introduction and thesis
Moral decisions and actions should be made based on their consequences. Ethical judgments are assessed based on the greatest good for the most significant number. There are multiple situations which lead to ethical dilemma with individuals facing hard time in deciding the best alternative courses of action. The focus of the essay is on which would be the best decision when one has an opportunity to cheat in exam following ethical opponents of utilitarian, egoism and Kantian ethics.
Following utilitarianism ethics cheating in an examination acts against the examination codes of conduct and leads to getting grades that one does not deserve making it unethical. There are dire consequences associated with cheating in exams as it leads to half-baked graduates who will poorly execute tasks despite scoring high grades in academics. For instance, doctors who cheated in exams will mess with a client’s life, such as offering wrong diagnosis, prescriptions of drugs, and prone to multiple errors in surgeries (Caldwell, 2016). Due to the adverse consequences of cheating, such as substandard quality of work in the organizations, I would refrain from cheating despite having an excellent chance to do so.
The psychological egoism or being an egoist is purportedly our frequent observation of self-interested behavior. The preference r the desire accounts to identify the self-interest with the satisfaction of the individual desires. Based on the fact that the ultimate goals of sitting for an examination are to score the highest possible grades, as an egoist and through the endeavors to get the best for me, I would exploit all the available chances to meet these goals, which implies that the cheating would be ethical as along us to evokes happiness and meets the self-desires (Machan, 2015). Since cheating can lead to increased satisfaction due to the higher grade scored, I would rather cheat is if I can do so without being caught rather than avoid cheating ad score a lower grade.
Following the Kantian example of the deontological moral theory, which can be summarized in two main questions: do my actions respect selfish desires merely drive humankind’s goals of the humankind r. Can I rationally, will everybody act as I propose to act? In case the answer is no, then one should deem the action to be unethical and refrain from implementing the decisions and the plans. Following this line of thing, I would not wish that every student should cheat in exams if chances to do so are available. However, I would advocate for all people to work hard, prepare adequately for exams, and act in compliance with all the examination rules, including refraining from cheating. Hence, I would not cheat despite having an excellent chance f to do so (Wunderlich, n.d).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the act of cheating is merely driven by selfish desires only to further personal interests, which is contrary to the proposition of utilitarianism and Kantian ethics; hence the action is morally wrong. I would regard working hard, obeying the examination rules and acting as I would wish everybody to act to be imperative for all students and hence refraining from cheating as I would like to lead as an example. Every one ought to demonstrate the best behaviors which he would like others to copy one of theme being adherence to examination rules and other laws.
References
Caldwell, B. E. (2016). Practice tests for the California MFT law and ethics exam.
Machan, T. R. (2015). Egoism, psychological egoism, and ethical egoism. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-4. doi:10.1002/9781118785317.weom020109
Wunderlich, F. (n.d.). Kant and Hume contra materialist theories of the mind. Kant und die Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Absicht. doi:10.1515/9783110246490.1329
