things I can't get off of my mind

[ethicsandmore]

kidfluencers

Watching the video and watching several videos of kidfluencers on Youtube makes me think how do they like their lives being exposed to the public. It may be true that some of these kids are living the life because at a young age they are already earning money and they get to have everything they want but as videos nowadays are getting too personal, is it healthy for them to be exposing their whole lives just to earn from it? Some of these kids were said to have a beyond average confidence which is good because we know that children tend to be shy a lot and by making videos online, they gain confidence. I think it is good if they like what they are doing but if there are signs that they are just being forced by their parents to do things, I think this is where it goes out of hand. Also, there a lot of psychologists and other specialists that argued that these young Youtubers should also have the same legal protection as child actors and performers which I think is a great idea and that it should be vital for them to be protected at any cost. Thus, I think there are a lot of pros and cons in being a kidfluencer but we should always remember that kids should enjoy their childhood because having great childhood memories will make an impact to their future lives.

[ethicsandmore]

birth strike

As someone who loves babies, it is really sad to know that there are a lot of people who are undecided to have a baby given the state of our planet. It also hurts me that there are people who were being judgmental to women and their partners for not wanting to conceive. In my opinion, it is not a shame to not want to conceive because there’s the fear for the future child or children and the fear for the planet’s state. It was stated in the video that couples fear how would their child contribute to the world and how would it be for the child to live in this kind of world? Moreover, I think being a person who has a thinking like this is inspirational because they think first about the bad situation of the planet rather than conceiving a new life. Having a support group regarding these helps people to not feel pressured by the people who were saying that there’s nothing to worry about conceiving when in fact it is dangerous for not just the child but for everyone else.

[ethicsandmore]

Reflection 4

Utilitarianism is something interesting in my opinion. It is because it has two sides like a negative side and a positive side and I can relate it in the present events in our country. Like when some articles came out that President Duterte has utilitarian views based on his war on drugs such that he is aiming for the greater good of the country by eliminating drug businesses in the country. However, he is not only eliminating drug businesses but also eliminating drug pushers, users, and drug lords which is alarming because I believe it’s unjust to kill and kill just to end the drug businesses in the country. I think our president believes that killing them is the last resort such that they continue to do their business here in our country even though a lot of presidents in the past tried to stop them. Thus, utilitarianism had a bad image to me because of this situation but I still believe that utilitarianism has it’s goodness even though sometimes it is taken for granted.

[ethicsandmore]

Week 4

In this week’s episode of ethics, we’ve learned about moral theories namely universalism, cultural relativism, egoism, hedonism and emotivism. As I was absent in our digital day class/activity because of a severe headache, I wasn’t able to participate in the activity regarding the moral theories I’ve mentioned above. So, I just researched about these isms.

I wanna talk about hedonism. Hedonism for me is quite intriguing and interesting because there’s a lot of things that we can apply hedonism. I think that many of the people I know has hedonism as their belief in life such that in definition, hedonism is a belief that happiness or pleasure is the highest good in life. For example, I have a friend who likes to eat in unlimited food restaurants even though she’s getting fat because of it. It is because she believes that she is living to achieve happiness and pleasure. Although hedonism has its disadvantages, I think I’m somewhat living with that kind of belief.

[ethicsandmore]

Week 3

The first video we’ve watched talked about morality and if it does came from God. The questions that stuck in my head are these two:

“Does God tell us to do what is good because it’s good? or is it good because God tells us to do it?”

In the two questions, I think that the answers to this comes with a “but” or an explanation because it is not answerable by just yes or no. Like in the first question: Does God tells us to do what is good because it’s good? I think the answer is yes because for a slightly religious person like me, I think that God only wants us to do good things and not do bad things which is why I think that God tells us things because it is good. An example is to love thy neighbor. God wouldn’t said that if it isn’t good but he said that so it is good. On the second question: Is it good because God tells us to do it? In line with the first question, I think that God wouldn’t tell us something bad to do because His only intention is to makes us do good things. My answer to the question is yes and no. I think it is good because God tells us to do it but I think it’s also not good because sometimes, God will tell you things to do that is just a way to test your faith. In the example in the video, like if God says that you should burn someone’s house down, I think God can only say this to test your faith in Him by knowing your decision to burn the house down or not. Morality can enter in this kind of situation because you’ll think about it if is it right to do it or not. Thus, my thoughts about “Does morality come from God?” is that I think it depends on the faith you have for God. If you are religious, you’ll believe that morality came from God and if you’re not or you’re skeptic, then you’ll believe that morality is just a collection of social norms or whatsoever.

On the second video, these are the questions and statements that stuck in my head and below these questions and statements are my thoughts regarding them:

“What if you could do whatever you want and get away with it?”

I think this question’s intention is to ask me if what if I could do whatever I want whether it is right or wrong and get away with it. If I could do something bad to gain something from it and get away with it, I think I wouldn’t do it. First, I am responsible for my own actions which is why I wouldn’t do anything bad even though I can get away with it because in the first place, we shouldn’t do bad things. Although I look like a little hypocrite with what I said, I think that is what I will do. However, in some instances, I know I can do bad things knowing that I could get away from it. Like when I ask my mom for money to buy a book. I would ask a higher amount for me to gain some kickback from the money my mom gave because I know that my mom wouldn’t know that I raised the price a bit. Thus, my answer is that it depends on the situation like how bad is the thing that I will do.

“According to Plato, the just person will always be infinitely happy than the unjust person because the just person knows that committing unjust acts messes with his soul and his happiness.”

I agree with this statement that Plato said because I believe that true happiness is obtained when you don’t have any burden or regrets in every action you’re making or you’ve made. For example, I’m a very just person which is why I won’t do anything that will hurt me and will hurt other people. Then, I think if I am really a just person, I would definitely be happy because I know all of the things I’m doing is good.

“Goodness is not derived from material or social gain.”

I somewhat agree with this because maybe sometimes we obtain goodness from material or social gain and sometimes we don’t. For example, I obtained an award from helping in the evacuation centers by giving out the relief goods but when I was giving out the relief goods, it was tiring and it made me annoyed a bit. Although I was a bit annoyed when I was giving out the relief goods, I think I will reflect with what I felt and acted during that time because of the award I received because I would think that I should be deserving of the award. Thus, I believe that material or social gain also helps us goodness in a way. 

[ethicsandmore]

November 16, Saturday

Today we talked about involuntary, voluntary and deliberate actions, the differences of moral, immoral and non-moral actions and ignorance and more. The class lasted for just an hour and I think even if it just lasted for an hour, the class still asked a lot of questions about the topic. I remembered a lot of “huh?” moments.

It was funny how my classmates were asking questions and being confused with the questions they asked HAHAHAHA.

Going back, I don’t think I have a question about the topics because it was clearly discussed and the questions of my classmates were also answered clearly which is why I think the class was pretty clear to me hehe.

I just want to note something about being morally correct and immoral. I think that our actions will not always be in accordance with being morally correct and being morally incorrect because these things that were said to be morally correct and incorrect were things that were just established by social standards. For example, in a country where most of the people are Catholic, they believe that the body of a person is sacred and that women and men should not wear revealing clothes. Which is why if a girl posted a picture of herself just wearing a two-piece bikini while she is a student of a Catholic university or school, she will be asked to take down her picture just because it is “inappropriate”. My point is that due to social standards that dictates if our actions are right and wrong, we are missing other important points like in my example, we are missing the promotion of body positivism. Thus, I believe that we should always be responsible with our own actions and think before we act.

[ethicsandmore]

November 14, Thursday

Today is the first day of our formal discussion in our Ethics class with Ma’am Hiloma and I can say that this class will be memorable to me because I know I’ll learn a lot of things that I can use in my life.

The questions that stuck in my head were “Ano ang mas malala? Ang alam mong mali pero ginagawa mo pa din o hindi mo alam na mali kaya mo ginagawa?”.

I first picked the latter which is “Hindi mo alam na mali kaya mo ginagawa.” I think this is much worse than the first because it might be the person’s fault that he/she doesn’t educate himself/herself about things that are right and wrong. Which is why I came up with a conclusion that the latter is much worse. However, after talking to my seatmate who chose “Alam mong mali pero ginagawa mo pa din” as much worse than the second, I suddenly questioned myself if my judgment was correct. I voted for the first one when we were asked to raise our hands for the voting but I was still confused whether I was correct with the second one or not.

When Ma’am asked a few of my classmates for reasons why they didn’t raised their hands to vote, one of my classmates said that the two were both wrong but you should weigh it out and he said “pipili ka ng mas tama sa dalawang mali”. I agreed with him because it is true that both statements are wrong. Then, Ma’am revealed that according to Aristotle, the second one was worse because you can blame the person that he/she doesn’t know anything or that he/she is ignorant. After knowing that the one I picked, matched with Aristotle’s theory, I was convinced that my judgment was somewhat correct or that I was just relieved to know that I matched with Aristotle.

The class ended with the questions still in my head. Until I got home, I thought about it and I really think that the second one was worse than the first. I also thought about debating with my sisters about it which is why I asked them just earlier the question. They both picked the first one and then I explained why I picked the second one and I want to laugh because of their amazed faces. They said it just hit them that I was right. Overall, this topic really struck me that I wanted to talk about it with my sisters.