What are moral obligations?
I found chapter 10, Kindness to strangers to be very thought provoking. He starts out with a philosopher questioning about our passive feelings and why they can be selfish, but yet generous at times. How is it that we can look to only ourselves at certain times, but then also look to others when they are in a time of need? It appears that these feelings “are a stranger power; a more forcible motive that exerts itself upon certain occasions” (Appiah, 157). We can have these shape our reasons, our principles, and our conscience. It is what we do with them that according to some philosophers, determines our self-being.
In Smith’s eyes we have an “ethical commitment… to extend our concrete realities to include some distant and generalized others” (Appiah, 158). However, we cannot be obligated to everyone. Are we really that morally responsible for everyone? Are we called to action when others cannot? What truly makes an ethical commitment? Appiah uses the organization UNICEFF as a connection to the moral responsibility. This organization wants you to donate money to the sick and poor because we are well off. Since we are the abled bodied, we must create a better life for others. But what deems a better life? Certain aspects of a good life may be different for others. What we deem horrible, someone may believe they are running in riches. It could be our own selfish passive feelings that make us believe that someone is in need of saving because their good life is not up to how we want it. I see in the media, like UNICEFF commercials, that use fear to get people to morally obligate themselves to a cause. If we do not send that $100, a child will die. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that statement or watched a video of sad children. Why are we using this fear method to get others to help? It should be out of their own moral judgment to help others.
“If you can prevent something bad from happening at the cost of something less bad, you ought to do it” (Appiah, 160). This statement alone is requiring us to prevent all bad things. This philosopher is telling us that we are obligated to save everyone. This makes it hard to decide on what decisions are the actual right ones. As Appiah uses the drowning kid and a school bus full of children as a decision, whom would you save? We cannot always make the right decisions, but according to Smith, we are required to save everyone. I feel that there are countless other ways to have someone help. The proper statement about moral obligations is “if you are the best person in the best position to prevent something really awful, and it won’t cost you much to do so, do it” (Appiah 161). This is the best way to represent how a person should act on their morals. There is not radial consequence judgment that came from the previous moral statement. Moral principles are hard to come up with. Everyone has his or her own view on what they believe is the right way to act.
For Kid’s Club I see that Carlos and Lauren have taken it upon themselves to feel morally obligated to these students. They feel the need to be there for these students through all the troubles they may go through. In the beginning, I felt that these kids were not part of my “obligation”. My obligation was to receive the hours I needed to complete a service-learning requirement. I can tell you that my obligation is no-longer the hours. I could careless for the amount of hours I receive. My moral obligation or principle is telling me that I am meant to be there for the students. After conversing with some of the students, I found them telling me stories of their home-life I never knew someone could have. How kid’s club is the only outlet for them to have a sense of balance in their life. I have switched from dreading the drive to the club; to wanting to continuously staying their till every student goes home.
