Hi there mentees! First, let me say on behalf of all the mentors that we are sorry for the tardiness of this blog post. As we are sure you have experienced in the past, miscommunications can and do happen, and we all apologize for any inconvenience this particular miscommunication may have caused you!
This week we will initially be asking you to complete a unique interactive exercise to determine where you stand with regards to critical thinking. Using a common thought experiment, we will help you identify how you critically reason through a website called “The Virtual Philosopher.” Then, taking what you learned about your personal processes of critical thinking, we will ask you to evaluate your interdisciplinary degree and areas of focus in light of this information.
So first, click the link below which will take you to this interactive exercise called Virtual Philosopher developed by Dr. Wade Maki from the Philosophy department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Virtual Philosopher Link (must have updated FLASH to play correctly): http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/vicecrime/vp/vp.html
Once you have completed this activity, please include comments on your critical thinking reasoning that led to your decisions for all three scenarios: the friend's problem, the lifeboat problem, the liver problem in your response post. Elaborate on where your critical thinking gave way to your values, ethics, and beliefs. Your post should also include comments on the differences you perceive between "ethical" and "critical" reasoning and what kinds of problems the differences caused in doing or reflecting on this exercise and even in your academic experiences. You should also give further consideration and comments about how the Virtual Philosopher scored your response. Based on the scoring and comments you received, what insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning?
Having completed the thought experiment, in what ways does your critical thinking apply and relate to your interdisciplinarity in general? How do your critical reasoning strengths and weaknesses relate and affect your interdisciplinary degree? Just be thorough in your post about your personal experience with this thought experiment, and don’t be shy about engaging your fellow mentees about the subject. Critical thinking is such a vital component of life and the better understanding we have about how we each reason individual as well as collectively, the better our society will function.
As always, be sure to sign your post with your full name! Thanks and have a great week!
~ The Mentors!:)
(PART 1: THE EXERCISE)
ReplyDeleteHello Mentors,
In my eyes I made the best decisions for all three scenarios. For the first scenario, I chose the honest route of telling the friend that they are "odd" but that there are plenty of other fish in the sea. My reasoning behind doing so is that the alternative of telling them that they are not "odd" is the best temporary solution, but in the long run could but them right back in the same situation. I believe that the honest route, though it may seem offense initially, in the long run would help the individual become more accepting of who they are and therefore allow them to better match themselves with someone in the future, leading to more happiness.
As for the second scenario, I chose to get rid of the 400 pound man and save everyone else. My reasoning behind this decision was simply that either alternative was going to result in a loss; loss of 1 life or loss of 11 lives. An while yes I do believe that one person's life is not more "valuable" than another, I also believe that 10 lives is more valuable than 1. In order words, why would you allow 11 people to die when you can minimize the "lose" by only having one person die? It just makes sense to take the lesser of the loses.
Lastly, in the liver scenario I chose to give the liver to Bob, the first patient on the list. This decision was more difficult in that I had to weigh giving the liver to Bob or the 8 year old boy Chris who had the worse medical condition. However, the deciding factor was the fact that the scenario stated that chances are whoever does not received the transplant, will still die. Therefore, it did not matter that Chirs' condition was the worse, because even if he had the best condition he was still going to die if he didn’t receive the transplant just like all the other patients. In other words, because anyone who did not receive the transplant was going to have the same result of death, it made no difference what their medical condition was. Therefore, it was only right that the person who had been suffering the longest receive the transplant.
In addition, I only considered the behavior/moral attributes of each person to a certain degree. For example, one patient was an AIDS researcher-someone who society would view as a "good person". However, I could not give the transplant based on who I think is the better human being, only God can judge character, not another human being. And yes I understood that Bob had a history of a drinking problem, but once again a person can only go so far with their judgment of another person. Therefore are many other alternative scenarios that could be implied negatively or positively from this situation. For example, Bob despite the history of drinking, may also be a humble man due to his years of being homeless. Therefore, that humble attitude may lead him to change his drinking habits because he sees that he was given a second chance at life after the transplant. Or maybe one of the other "morally sound" patients had a destructive personality trait that me as the director of that transplant program did not know about. The bottom line is that I think that as the director of that program, you cannot judge an entire person based off just the 2-3 facts that you know about them. Therefore, unless there is some extreme case were it is obvious that the patient has negative intentions for the transplant or just wants to live to harm others, than you have to base the decision on what is fair. To me, first come first serve is the closet you can get to that.
- Nicholas Spivey
Nicholas, your reasoning for your choices are all agreeable. I chose to tell a friend that he/she is being odd to for the same reason as you which I found interesting. As far as getting rid of the 400 pound man I also agree however I did not put that answer. I also highly agree with you on the answer of choosing the first person on list; however again somehow I talk myself out of using that has an answer. I found that I could go with more than one solution to these answers. You did a great job giving all of your reasoning.
DeletePatricia Alise Priest
Nicholas-
DeleteI also chose to get rid of the 400 lb man, for the exact reason you did. Although in the first part (I don't remember the exact question) I answered something to the extent that all lives are valuable, this situation was different. Like you said, it was the matter of losing 1 live versus losing 11, and I think we made the right choice here!
Bri Darby
Nicholas,
DeleteI find it interesting that you chose to tell the friend they are odd even though you said it might be offensive at first. To me, this says you define normal by acceptable societal views of what normal is. The question doesn't specify what the friend does that can be considered odd so really there is no way to discern if the friend is truly odd or maybe just an individual whose significant other has a mean streak and went for what would hurt them most in the break up.
Gabriella DiSpada
I went back and forth with the first scenario and ended up choosing telling my friend that she is a bit odd but then I realized I chose sometimes it is ok to tell a lie. So I re-thought this one and then thought it would really hurt someone's feelings to tell them this and who am I to judge them as odd in the first place. I am still conflicted but you make a really good point that if they know this about themselves they can better match up with a mate.
DeleteGreat job on all of your explanations!
Leanne Sless
(PART 2: ETHICS & CRITICAL THINKING IN MY INTERDISCIPLINARITY)
ReplyDelete*I HAD TO BREAK MY POST UP INTO TWO PARTS BECAUSE IT EXCEDDED THE AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS ALLOWED*
These scenarios served as an effective way to distinguish between ethical and critical thinking. Ethical thinking, is not based on a specific scenario, it is a comparison between what you think is right or wrong. An example would be the question about is it wrong to murder or can it be justified, that question was ethical thinking. Critical thinking applies to scenarios/situations you are in when you may have to apply or alter your ethical values. An example, the lifeboat question in which according to the exercise, my decision contradicted my ethics. Ethically, I believe it is wrong to murder. However, in the lifeboat scenario I decided to give the life of one man to save the lives of 10 others. Reason being, that someone who says they are saving the 400 pound man's life, is not. By "saving his life" you are actually giving his life and 10 others because the odds are that a miracle is not going to happen and all 11 people will sink. In this case logic took rank over my "ethics".
As far as how the exercise scored my decisions, I understand the purpose was to show that people make decisions that contradict their ethics. However, it fails to recognize that the reason people do so is because of their logic or they chose one ethic over the other. For example, my belief that saving 10 lives and giving up 1 is "better" than giving up 11 lives may not apply to a dilemma involving only the President and a serial killer on the lifeboat. Also, had the 400 pound man been a family member, some people would have made a different decision. Therefore, it is not always a person's ethics that should be paid attention too, but rather which ethic is more relevant to the situation, and rather it agrees with their logic.
As far as how this relates to my interdisciplinarity, critical skills are a valuable part of many of the careers that I could pursue with my IDS degree. Most careers involving business and health services administration means you will be held accountable for your choices and may be responsible for workers under you. Therefore, you have to have good critical skills to make the best choice. Furthermore, to progress in such as career means puts even more emphasis on your critical thinking skills because as you move up the ladder in management, your decisions effect more and more people. An entry level worker responsible for filing papers may make a bad decision that affects him/herself and maybe the productivity of their department. However, a bad decision made by a CEO can affect more than just one department, it can affect the entire organization.
-Nicholas Spivey
Hello Nicholas,
DeleteYou have done a great job going through the scenarios and describing your reasoning behind it. Also, I agree with you about how ethical and critical thinking differ. When I went through it myself, the relative simplicity of the ethical questions didn’t carry over to the applied situations because suddenly there were new factors to be considered. I also agree with your thoughts on the fact that the addition of even further details can change a situation. Using your example of the boat, I also had voted to remove the 400 pound man, but if that person had been a family member I would have made the opposite choice even though it could be argued from a strictly ethical viewpoint that there should not be a difference in the two situations.
As far as the use and need of critical thinking skills, I once again agree that it is something that people need to be able to do in any position, but the effect of your decisions becomes far greater and more widespread the further up in management that you go.
Chanel Mosby
Nicholas,
DeleteI agree with your reasoning behind telling the friend the truth. Without being honest with them, it will be hard for them to understand what they feel they did wrong, and to find someone who will accept all their quirks.
Your reasoning behind the other scenarios is also very well thought out. I especially found the liver scenario to be very thought provoking. You bring up a good point when you said that we can only judge someone on so much. Whether they get life or not is not something we should dictate.
While doing this exercise I immediately found myself thinking what is the right answer or what it "thought" to be the right answer. I guess that was the real problem here is there a right or wrong answer for any of these questions. I'm not sure there is. I new by the first few background questions they would be comparing our answer to future questions.
ReplyDeleteWith the first questions I chose to tell my friend that he/she are being odd. I've found that in realty people do want to here what that are or are not doing right. They may not like the answer at first however if it fixes a problem they usually like the results. I also strongly believe that it depends how you are to tell someone something of this nature as to how they will respond.
When it came to the life boat scenario I wanted to choose to get rid of the 400 pound man; however I knew that my previous answer of the preliminary questions would not be true to an answer of getting rid of a 400 pound man so I choose to hope for a miracle.
When it came to the transplant questions again, I first thought of the preliminary questions and how I would keep true to my original beliefs. Which my answer should have been to go with the first come first serve basis. However I found myself really thinking about this situation. I knew that everyone was going to dye if they had they did not have the transplant. I chose the mother because she had such a responsibility left on her hands with all of her children. I felt like if she were do die she would be leaving a heavy burden to possibly a family member if she had anyone who could take on her kids. Or worse her children being put in foster care and possibly split up.
After reviewing my answer it didn't really matter that I cared so much about staying true to my originally answer because I was inconsistent 2 out of 3. I guess it true that we need to "Practice what we Preach" it's just really hard to do that.
I believe that critical thinking is very important with IDS, we have the knowledge of different areas in order to find a solution. The more we learn the better we will become at critical thinking and finding the best solution.
Patricia Alise Priest
Hello Patricia,
DeleteI have to agree that this exercise really helps to show that it is easy to say that you will always stand by your beliefs or convictions but there will be situations where lines start to blur. From an outside and distant view, we might find ourselves looking at a decision someone made and say “I would never do that!” but it may be that the person was faced with a situation like this where the background factors of the situation made it a lot more complicated than a simple black and white value. Of all the situations that the exercise proposed, I thought that the one with the organ transplants was very interesting because it is something that I could easily see someone in management having to face. Personally, I don’t think there is really a single right answer in cases like that. I also chose the mother like you did but there were so many other results that would have been equally “right” depending on different reasoning and views. Of course, this means that critical thinking is something that requires acknowledging and looking into different views on the problem at hand which is something that I think IDS helps with learning how to do.
~Chanel Mosby
Patricia-
DeleteFor the transplant question, I also chose to give the organ to the mother of 6. There were so many ways to approach this situation, and my first thought as well was to give it to the first person on the list. However, I tried to see how many lives were going to be directly impacted with the death of the candidate, and this is where I ruled out the AIDs researcher and the millionaire. There are not DIRECTLY impacting lives, especially the person doing research. We do not know how successful this person's research is, so the candidate with the most lives impacts was the mother of 6 children. If those children lost their mother, then a huge burden would be placed on their family, and these children may grow up to never have the opportunities that would have been given to them by their mother.
Bri Darby
For the first scenario, I chose to be honest with my friend. I wouldn’t have said exactly those words when telling her she’s essentially weird, but I would have told her nonetheless. This apparently contradicts my beliefs and values. When the program asked if lying was sometimes justifiable I answered yes. However, I feel like the scenario chosen wasn’t a good example. I always try to be honest with my friends because if I don’t tell them the truth I feel like I’m cheating them out of the opportunity to help better themselves. I’m honest with them because I would want them to be honest with me.
ReplyDeleteMy answer for the second scenario also contradicted my values. I believe that murder is wrong, but then given that situation I changed. Being in (or even just thinking about) a life or death situation, everyone’s morals or values change. If someone knows they are going to die they are going to do everything within their power to prevent it from happening; our will to survive changes us in those situations.
For the third scenario I felt that some lives are more worth saving than others. By process of elimination I ended up with the decision to give the little boy the liver. Upon reading the comments, I hadn’t taken into consideration that because he was the sickest he would still most likely die and then no one would be saved. I thought about the situation more and I think maybe the most ethical decision would have been to give the liver to the first person on the list, even if he was an alcoholic. Who knows, maybe getting a second chance at life would help him realize how precious it is.
Ethical thinking differs from critical thinking in that ethics is what you perceive to be right or wrong and critical thinking is weighing all options and choices before making a decision. I think the first three questions of this program were examples of ethical thinking and the last three were testing critical thinking while still involving ethics. The scenarios needed to be thought out and all options needed to be considered before making a decision.
Critical thinking relates to IDS because we have to understand how to integrate out disciplines. Without this reasoning it’s very difficult to see and understand relationships between them.
-Amanda Brashear
I agree with you on the division of questions between ethical and critical. Also, we shared similar decisions on the critical questions while our ethical choices varied. One area that I may disagree with is that even though Chris is the sickest there is nothing stating that he is unstable for surgery or no indication that he will die however, if you are working off this assumption then maybe the single mother should have received the liver. I enjoyed your explanation on the differences between critical and ethical decisions.
DeleteAngela Boyd
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYou are exactly right when you said that our will to survive changes everything. We may say one thing in a moment however once our lives are at risk the whole scenario changes. I think everyone will find there own reason for choosing who they woudl save. I also really thought about savign the you boy just because of his age. I also could agree more with your explanation of ethical thinking and critical thinking.
Patricia Alise Priest
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI think you are right on the money when you say that the first questions in each of the scenarios were ethically driven and clearly black and white. These questions made me feel like there was one right and one wrong answer. The second question in each scenario did indeed involve critical thinking and exposed us to the shades of grey that are inevitable in life. After doing this exercise I was thinking about the reading response post that I did last night, and one of the Interdisciplinary traits that I personally feel I posses is my tolerance for ambiguity, or that ability to see the grey area.
Ironically, with the exception of the transplant scenario, my responses to these questions did not involve that ambiguity. I found this to be very interesting. It just goes to show the effect that these types of "real life" scenarios can have on our perceptions of what we think we know or feel.
~Ann Ross
~Ann
This exercise was an interesting personal learning opportunity for me. It made me realize that it is not always easy to stand by our ideals when presented with "real life" ethical dilemmas that require critical thinking solutions.
ReplyDeleteIn the first scenario my response to the friend scenario was not consistent with my ethical beliefs. This is because I said that I think that there are instances in which lying is acceptable (when I said this I was thinking about the Tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus), but when faced with the good friend scenario I said I would tell the truth. I responded this way though because I feel very strongly about not lying to close friends and family members about things that really matter. For some reason it seems more feasible to me to lie to strangers, or when the lie will not have an effect on trust between me and the other person. I believe that in order to have trust in our interpersonal relationships there needs to be honesty.
In the second scenario my responses were more consistent. I said that murder of an innocent person is never excusable and in the life raft scenario I said that I would not be able to push the overweight person off the raft. My reasoning for this is that simply I would never be able to forgive myself for causing the death of an innocent person.
In the third scenario I was also consistent in my responses. I said that I do believe one person's life may be more valuable than another. When I answered this question I had rapists, murderers and child molesters in mind...not mothers, children, philanthropists, and Nobel prize winners. In the long run though I did decide that I would narrow down the list of potential recipients and decided to base my decision upon most urgent need and selected the boy who was the most ill.
This exercise was very effective in highlighting the differences between making decisions based on ethical merits versus critical thinking.
I found it personally interesting that although ethical questions are usually pretty black and white for most, when faced with the real world scenario the solutions were not so simple and required a different level of thinking. I learned a lot about myself as an individual in doing this.
~Ann Ross
I enjoyed reviewing your post, my favorite part and possibly the most profound part of your post was your statement regarding the difference between ethical types of questions versus critical thinking questions. You are absolutely correct that ethical questions are usually very easy to decide because there is typically no wavering for people, either yes or no kind of thing. However, when forced to put these into practice in real life situations things become grey and there seems to be no right or easier answer. This is something good we should all keep in mind as we develop our personal ethical principles and as we progress through our course work and in our future careers.
DeleteAngela Boyd
Ann,
DeleteI was thinking almost the exact same thing in regards to the lying scenario. There are just some things more worth "lying" about than others. I completely agree with your statement about maintaining honesty within relationships.
In the third scenario I was also thinking about people who were detrimental to society. That question really made me think about what I would do if I was actually in the situation--I was finding myself saying, "well that's not fair;" not for the person who had to choose or for the people who were being eliminated from the procedure.
-Amanda Brashear
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ReplyDeleteFor the friend situation I chose to be honest with the friend because it’s better for her to know the truth about herself so that she is aware of it in furture situations. I would also tell my friend that there are plenty of ‘fish in the sea’ and that it was the guy’s loss. She deserves to be with someone who appreciates her for who she is as a person. My decision shows an ethical connect and that my ethics are intact. For the life boat problem, I chose to let go of the one man who was sinking the boat. I made this decision because even though it could be seen as ‘murder’ it would result in saving the lives of ten others. For this example, it appears that my critical thinking conflicts with my ethical standards because my choice says that there is a different value placed on individuals lives, which is not what I believe. For the last example, the liver problem, I gave the liver to Chris, the child. I decided this because he would benefit the most from the transplant, in my opinion. The program said that my decision was conflicting with my ethical standards. It suggests that it should be first come first serve, however Bob the first person on the list is an alcoholic. While alcoholism is not a reason to discriminate, there are rules in place by hospitals that legally prohibit those who have not been sober for at least a year from receiving transplant organs. Also, for the other patients no other time line was listed so there was no way of knowing who was supposed to be next after Bob. This situation is difficult because in the end all those that do not receive an organ will die. Therefore, I’m not completely sure that I gave way to my values.
ReplyDeleteEthical decisions are based on a belief system while critical thinking decisions are based on reasoning and common sense. My thought is that it is possible to make good choices using both methods. But there are certain situations where your ‘ethical’ and ‘critical’ standards may conflict. The Virtual Philosopher activity and results supports my theory.
In my interdisciplinary major as well as in my future career as a pharmacist critical thinking is essential. There are many situations that could arise with patients, physicians, and insurance companies that involve making decisions. In order to make good and correct decisions it is important to have strong critical thinking and reasoning skills.
Angela Boyd
When I did this exercise I chose the same answers, but I think that actually responses is less important than the actual thought process it pushes us to. There is really no right answer and many people thought other answers were better than these. There are just times in life when there is really no right or just answer and rarely is anything strictly black and white.
DeleteMelissa Castorino
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHey Angela,
DeleteAfter reading a lot of these posts it seems like most people also agreed to tell the friend in the situation the truth. I did not realize that there are laws against those using alcohol not being able to receive a transplant. I mean, it makes sense, I was just not aware of it. Combining the critical thinking and ethics seems to be the best bet, and you'll most definitely have to use it in your future career in pharmacy!
-Tanya Hunt
I agree with these posts. Its hard to make a decision based off of any single thing. You need a combination of critical thinking and ethics in order to make an appropriate decision, but still there is no "right" decision.
DeleteGreg Eisenberg
Hey guys!! Sorry it has taken me so long to post this week I had my appendix removed monday night and im trying to recover from that and deal with the pain and pain meds making me all fuunny! It funny in the questoins before the sceneiros about ehtics the way i answered them and the way i answered the questions in the scenerios was completely different from each other. I through the 400 pound man out of the boat and gave a liver to sarah so that she could take care of her 6 kids and told my friend the truth.idk the ehtics said other wise to those answers. but if given better details of a situation i can better decide what needs to be done. the told my freind the truth becasue i thought well if I asked the same question to my friend i would hope that they would tell me the truth as well, little white lies work for somethings but not something like that its better to get it all out on the table when it hurts the most just to get it over with. the 400 pound man deal that was a no brainer for me if that meant that i had to take one life to save ten others so be it, that comes down to survival and he had to go. then the liver transplant I felt bad fot the little kid the most evryone else was older and bob even tho he was the first on the list he would only ruin the liver in the first 6 months by drinking it away so that was a no go for me the noble peace prizer lady she had done a lot for everyone but she was 60 years old the recovery time and beindg that she is older and rislk of the rejection of her body. wasnt worth it to me. then the rich guy that waited til the last mintute to get on the list and try to buy his way into the tranplnat just upseet me and made me mad that he thought he could just do that becasue he had money. sarah she had to rise 6 kids so instead of those kids going to the state or whoever she could continue to take care of them and rise them with a new liver.
ReplyDeletegot to lay down getting sick
Justin sikes
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DeleteHey Justin,
DeleteHope you're feeling better from your surgery soon, I'm sure that's very painful. Like you, my answer were completely different than how I should have responded in relation to my ethics. I think that it generalized the situation too much. Just because ethically you believe something in one scenario, it may be different because of differing factors in another. I can see how why you chose the mother of 6, but picked a different option myself.
-Tanya Hunt
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Deletethanks Tanya!!
DeleteIts hard just to answer a plain jane question without having the details. Personality questoins are the same for me because in a certain situation i would do something different then the next, its not just the same everytime thats what makes poeple different from each other
justin sikes
Hey everyone!
ReplyDeleteSo this scenario, although interesting, didn't seem to be a good way to prove ethical consistency. In the first scenario, I easily chose to tell my friend the truth, as I didn't think it would be something that would be extremely detrimental to their health. Even though I decided in this situation to be truthful, I do think that white lying is okay in some situations. To me, it is only okay in an extreme situation that could lead to physical harm, and the situation presented did not seem of that much concern. As for the second situation, I don't think I could bring myself to literally push the 400 lb man off the boat myself, even if it would save the others on the lifeboat. Although I live a very healthy lifestyle, I do not look down on others because they do not choose to do so, and would never consider them less important. If they chose to jump off themselves, however, I would not object :).
In the third situation, I ended up choosing the homeless man with the drinking problem. Although others may be able to help more people if they received the transplant, I found it impossible to actually choose who's life is worth saving and who's is not. It is unknown how anyone, young or old, would respond to the transplant. Who knows, maybe the homeless alcoholic will get the transplant, decide to change his life, make millions, and decide to donate back to the hospital himself. Either way, the first person on the list was the way to go for me.
I like to think that I did a good job combining my ethical beliefs and my critical thinking skills. There are times, like with the situation with the 400 lb man, where it would make more sense critically thinking to throw him overboard. Obviously, my ethics took the forefront of that situation, and I think it was appropriate.
In any career, I firmly believe it to be necessary to incorporate both my ethical and critical thinking. Since I am planning on working in human resources, I will use my critical thinking on a day to day basis while solving problems, but may have to also incorporate my ethical standards when dealing with particular situations.
Tanya Hunt
Tanya,
DeleteI think it's important to point out that the Virtual Philosopher only gave you two options in the matter of the lifeboat. In real life, there would be the option of sacrificing yourself, which would be easier to do than sacrificing another. Also, the option to come up with a creative way to help everyone survive was not an option. So even though it may have defined your choice as inconsistent, the test itself was not very consistent in that it did not allow you to choose another option apart from the ones provided.
I feel as though these sample scenarios did not allow as much room for open-ended critical thinking because of the pre-noted choices. However, it did challenge me to make connections that I may not have seen. So in a sense it was like having a partner who already proposed a few ideas and then I had to take those ideas and filter them through my thoughts to come up with a solution or opinion. These samples helped to stretch my critical thinking skills beyond my first assumption.
I think this exercise was good in that it allowed us all to see that some situations capture our emotion and ethics can't leave our decision alone until we incorporate that into our way of thinking. I'm glad you all were able to see the different approaches to the situations.
-Michelle Puikis
hey Michelle, that is true that it did limit your critical thinking by only giving you a few choices to choose from. one way the excerise could have been better is by allowing you to write in a chioce or have an other section for the person to write in and then evualuate the answer from that. and it would also be more interactive as well which could make it a little more fun for the person?
DeleteJustin sikes
Hi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteFor the first situation, I chose to be honest with my friend. I would have said it very nicely, and I would explain that she deserves better people in her life. I was inconsistent here, because I had said that sometimes small lies are justifiable. I still agree sometimes telling a small lie is for the better, but in this situation where it was a close friends of mine I think it was better to tell the truth.
For the second situation, I again was inconsistent between the original question and the given situation. I strongly agree that all lives are valuable, but this boat situation was a matter of losing 1 life versus 11. We were not given any background information on the 400 lb man, and if he had been a family member or something like that, then my choice may have been different. Although this quiz called my answers inconsistent, I think context and ethics play a big role.
Finally, for the third situation, I was again inconsistent. I said that all lives are equally as valuable, but again in the given situation you had to look at the context and the extra information that is given. I actually sat and thought about this question for the longest time, deciding how to approach it. I decided not to do the lottery option, because this is a mater of luck for each candidate, and I do think some were more deserving than others. I ended up not picking the first man on the list, because of his background. This is where I was inconsistent, because by doing this I am saying that this man's life is not as valuable as the others. This was not my thinking; I just think that you have to look at each person's situation. I chose to give the organ to the mother of 6 children, because each of her children's lives would greatly be affected if they lost their mother and only parent. Not only would that affect her children, but it would place a huge burden on her friends and family because they would have to decide what to do with the children, and the children would most likely be split up between homes.
In many careers, your ethics will play a huge role with critical thinking. I think it is very important to use both skills, as every situation is different. Everyone deals with situations differently, because people have different ethics. I plan to work with criminals through my criminal justice and social sciences disciplines, and although critical thinking is most important, I think that ethics will play a role as well.
Bri Darby
Inconsistent is not bad in any sense. I think it is nearly impossible to be consistent in this because every situation is so different. Its hard to decide who of a group of people will survive based off of all of your values.
DeleteHi Bri!
DeleteI was inconsistent on all of my answers as well. I think it is because I ethically I want to do the right thing but then you put it into an actual situation and when you weigh your options, ethics kind of flies out the window and you do what sounds best. For instance murder is never justifiable but put in that situation, I, like you, feel it is better to lose 1 life versus 11.
Ethics and Critical Thinking do play a large role in our careers, which makes it even more eminent that we need to be consistent with our answers.
Great Job on your response!
Leanne Sless
Hi Bri!
DeleteI think that is is great you realize that it is hard for us to be consistent with our ethics is some situations. I also took time with the transplant question and looked a the different scenarios but in the end I picked the lottery because I felt that there was not enough information given to make a medical decision on the the recipient. The elimination they wanted you to make was strictly on an emotional reaction with the information given.
I like the way you think and that you take into consideration that your choices might be different with other factors present in the scenarios.
Gabriella DiSpada
I also was inconsistent in most of my answers but I think the goal of the exercise is to see that it is hard to be completely consistent with your values 100% of the time. I like your comparison of critical thinking and ethics and it is important to use them together. Very good post!
ReplyDeleteMelissa Castorino
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, it has been very interesting reading everyone's comments and comparing them. I find it intriguing that just about everyone said they would be honest with there friend in the first scenario. It is rare that people agree on the same decision about things, but this is an exception.
ReplyDelete-Nicholas Spivey
Nicholas,
DeleteGood point! I didn't even catch that. Maybe it's just that the situation of being honest with a friend has been something we experience often compared to the other situations. I wonder if other groups found this to be true as well.
-Michelle Puikis
Bri,
ReplyDeleteI like the point that you made about how integration ethics and critical thinking to a career and how specific situations pertain to using one or the other. I can think of many situations in which one skill had to be used over the other. There is a time to base decisions off ethics, and there is a time to base decisions using critical thinking.
- Nicholas Spivey
In the friend scenario, I told him he was odd. I would embrace all of my friends personalities, even if they be they not "normal". I would be straight forward in an attempt to lighten the mood.
ReplyDeleteIn the lifeboat scenario, I motioned to throw the guy off of the boat. He should not have been let on in the first place but since he was, its better to lose the life of someone that heavy, whom is probably very unhealthy, to save ten people who could live.
I chose to save the child in the last scenario. I felt that he could eventually live the most fulfilling life and I am a sucker for sick kids. That was pretty much my entire thought process in that.
-Greg Eisenberg
Hi Gregory,
DeleteYou make a valid point that the 400 lb man that most people chose to throw out of the way to save 10 people is unhealthy in the first place and won't live very long.
Was your reasoning consistent with your ethics?
Having completed the thought experiment, in what ways does your critical thinking apply and relate to your interdisciplinarity in general? How do your critical reasoning strengths and weaknesses relate and affect your interdisciplinary degree?
Leanne Sless
Hi Gregory,
DeleteI love that you admit the reason you chose the kid was purely an emotional one. That situation is a difficult decision to make.
While I see your point in the 400 pound man's current health in that situation, what if survival changes him enough to inspire others to change their lives? Honestly, I love this question and it doesn't surprise me how many people just choose to get rid of the fat guy. It's the easiest way to survive. But what are we told about the other people? Nothing except they are normal weight. They could be serial killers, cannibals, or just stark raving mad. If there were a few cannibals on board that would rather eat me instead of helping me to survive, fat guy would get to stay and the others would have to go. I truly see the validity in your choice made with the info given and I know cannibals might be a little unlikely. Do you think your choice might be different if there were other factors involved?
Gabriella DiSpada
I find the scenarios given in this "test" interesting. First you are asked to make statements the generally define your ethics but then you are given scenarios with only basic information when there are other factors in these situations that will contribute to your actions and choices.
ReplyDeleteIn the friend situation, I chose to tell my friend that she is normal because of the limited info given. It is not determined if my friend truly was odd, and this depends if you subscribe to society's definition of normal, or if the boyfriend/hubby was just a d-bag and wanted to hurt my friend the best way he knew how.
The second situation was kind of tough. Do you all die together or do you go for the greater good of saving many over one? What if there were four people in the life boat you knew were horrific human beings - could you get rid of the four of them to equal out the weight and save the rest of you? This one is kind of a trick question because self preservation is a sticky situation and no matter your ethics, you will surprise even yourself with the things you will do to survive.
I chose the lottery on the third question for several factors.
First come first serve is not really how the organ transplant system works, although it is a factor.
You are not given enough information to eliminate any of the subjects as a recipient. Recipients are decided using several factors. Factors include tissue match, blood type, immune status and distance between the recipient and the donor organ. The only hint you are given is on Bob and Chris. Due to both their medical situations, their immune systems could be too compromised to survive the transplant and ensuing treatment. Information on the other three is simply meant to pull at your emotional strings. You have no idea if they at all meet any of the other criteria. Some times I think that this is why they use a computer system to match the donor organs with recipients. The computer can only look at the criteria and choose several candidates based on compatibility and calculated rate of survival. When you have more recipients than donors it will always be unfair to the person who doesn't get the transplant.
I am concentrating in Health Services Administration and Public Administration. Both fields require you to use ethical and critical thinking skills. In both fields, hard decisions often have to be made and these thinking skills go hand in hand to help us with those decisions. Your ethics can guide you, but there are instances where you have to step outside yourself to see the whole picture using critical thinking. The people who can blend the two to find solutions are innovators in their fields.
Hello Gabriella,
DeleteAs you mentioned, in both of your fields you're going to be faced with hard decisions that will require critical thinking as well as ethical thinking. I like your comment about blending the two to be an innovator and finding new solutions.
~Chanel Mosby
Hi there everyone. So I decided to post a comment in general for everyone instead of individual replies. When I completed this exercise in my Cornerstone class, I too had severe differences between my reasoning and choices, so we are all not alone with that. I too found myself justifying these differences by saying that not enough information was present to make truly complete choices.
ReplyDeleteSince then, I have come to a deeper understanding of the purpose of this exercise. The thought experiment is intentionally vague because it is not at all about the questions or identifying the "correct" answers. To me, this exercise demonstrates the importance of understanding the connections between what we believe and the actions to which those beliefs lead us. Taking our beliefs and playing them out to their extremes through these hypothetical situations allows us to gain a fuller understanding of the ramifications or potential unintended consequences of our beliefs and actions.
Moving forward, especially in our careers, developing critical thinking skills is vital because it will allow us to see the vast potential good and harm our decisions can create in the world. Bringing tools like an axe or machete to help the agricultural efforts of a tribe in the Third World, at the outset, seems like a good solution to helping starving people, but critical thinking skills would also encourage us to see that these items, which we call tools, are also called weapons which could lead to severely devastating unintended consequences such as war between tribes. Critical thinking is necessary to help identify weaknesses in our thoughts and actions so that we can be more fully prepared to avoid negative outcomes, whatever we may work on.
Hope this helps you all as it did me. And please, I welcome disagreement if you feel so inclined.
Thanks,
Julia Elrod!:)
Everyone,
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else have trouble with the Google Site portion of this week's work? I was confused on the creating a link portion where we had to attach a document from our SkyDrive to the link. Any clarification on how to properly do so?
Nicholas spivey