Lesson One: Principled Thinking

It is never easy to make good decisions about life whether it has to do with major problems or just about playing a good game. Many times, it is difficult because our beliefs and values may disagree with the group or the coach in charge. It seems that most folks don’t stand up for what they believe...in fact, most folks aren’t quite sure what they believe...or if they believe in anything. Most of us, however, had a mother, father, or grandmother who gave us good advice and good wisdom about how to make decisions. However, sometimes we forget or when we get into the REAL world we find her advice hard to live by because other folks don’t believe the same thing. For example, let’s assume that your mother taught you that it’s wrong to tell a lie; however, in the real world just about everyone lies. In fact, many liars get away with it and even seem to get ahead. As one of the current jokes on the market says, "How do know when an attorney is lying? His lips are moving." On television and in the newspapers, it seems everybody lies...from the President of the United States to the local magistrate. So is Mom right? Or, do we follow what we see is practiced in society? Should we lie? The purpose of this little book is to help us develop a clear plan about what we value so that we can make good responsible decisions. Hopefully, when we come to the end of our study, we will have

An ethical dilemma occurs when you are placed in a situation where what you believe, is challenged or questioned by someone else, or you are forced to act on something you don’t believe in. For example, let’s assume that you are in a class taking a test. You are on your honor not to talk to anyone and not to give anyone else your answers. You have promised your teacher that you will follow this code of conduct. The teacher leaves the room. Your best friend asks for an answer. What do you do? In this situation, you have an ethical dilemma. You promised one thing to your teacher, yet you feel a loyalty to your friend. Which is more important? The promise to your teacher or the loyalty to your friend.

In this case, you are forced to decide. The friend won’t stop asking you and you have to say something. Hence, you are now in a situation where you must act and make a choice. In this case, your choice is voluntary behavior. That is, someone is not placing a gun to your head. You do have some choices: You can give your friend the answer. You could leave the room. You could ignore your friend. You could give your friend the wrong answer. You could do all sorts of things, because you do have a choice. Can you think of any other choices you might have?

1. List your choices of what you can do?

Do you worry that any of your choices are stupid? If so, Why? Remember in discussing hard choices, there are no stupid thoughts. Hard choices are difficult for everyone and what you think and what you have to say is important. Before we go any further, let’s talk about the value or the worth of telling the truth in this situation. Why is it Mom or Grandma or whomever raised you told you it was wrong to lie?

 

1b. List as many reasons as you can remember:

 

1c. Of all of these reasons, which one do you believe? List Them.

 

1d. If you have listed a reason or reasons against lying. Why do you think it is wrong to lie?

Of course, we must realize that sometimes lying might be acceptable, but we will talk about that a little later.

First, if you agree that in most cases it is wrong to lie, then you believe so because of certain values that you hold. A value is something that you think is worth while. Values tend to be very relativistic... meaning that what you value and what I value may be two different things. I may value eating pizza while you may value eating steak. You may value a skate board while I may value team jackets. This sort of valuing is known as non-moral values, or values about things, places, or events. However, the value about whether we should lie is known as a moral value.

Moral values have to do with how other people value us or how we value people. We might say that, "Carlos, your school team mate, is a good person." We are saying something about Carlo’s character, which in this case means what about him?

e. What is the difference between saying, "Carlos is a good person, or Carlos is a good basketball player?