Legal Studies Reflection

Dear Future Matt,

I think we both know that I have never been the most ethical person. From turning the other cheek in regards to an overabundance of socks we received or abusing certain return policies, we don’t have the best track record. If one thing is certain, this class definitely helped us understand or at least be more aware of the implications of our actions and how to take a more ethical approach to just about everything. Without veering too far into the trenches of self indulgement in the form of acknowledging our understanding of certain concepts, I feel that it is important to reflect on the most important takeaways from this course. I hope this memo serves as both a primer and a reminder for you to keep yourself in check throughout your life and especially in your career.

        Honestly the most striking lesson for me was understanding the various frameworks for ethical reasoning. Looking more deeply at the different ways one can classify a decision as right or wrong (just or unjust, etc.) was something I have struggled with. I have always felt that society feels the need to categorize a decision in black and white. While this deterministic mindset may help settle our heartbeats faster it doesn’t do justice to the complexity of situations nor does it encourage more careful analysis of decisions in the future. I found the five frameworks/theories (Utilitarianism, Duty/Rule-Based, Rights, Virtue, & Social Justice) to be helpful in illustrating more of the depth involved when it comes to making decisions that inevitably impact a large amount of people - typically decisions that you face in a business setting. I felt that in class discussion however, we again tried to categorize decisions into one of the five frameworks. I just don’t think that any decision can be viewed in an isolated manner, albeit there are ways of analyzing decisions within a certain framework. I would like to suggest a way of framing your future decisions under a hybrid approach that combines Utilitarianism, Social Justice, and the Rights-based theory. If we as humans agree on certain rights (accounting for variation among cultures) and support the maintenance of those, we are essentially distributing the burden of the upkeep of rights among all people; in addition we value the needs of all and must respect the interests of those who are underrepresented. By placing this value on our basic needs and rights, when it comes to making a decision that is typically viewed from a financial perspective with certain morals often left out, we instead hold ourselves accountable and consider the impacts on other humans (no matter how few) just as importantly as we consider our individual and group benefits. Obviously the definition I just gave could be an assumed definition of any one of the frameworks depending on personal inference, but I believe that it is important to have a baseline to return to when confronting tough decisions. I hope that you continue to develop your way of thinking and continue to build on the framework I have just described.