Kianni Delgado

Mrs. Carroll

American Literature

30 April 2017

10 Rules to Live By.

When learning about ethics, the biggest picture I get from ethics is the between good and

evil, rights and wrongs and the different ways of human actions. Reading many books that show

all of these is what mainly made me realize the ethics within this world. Justice is also another

thing I didn't not see while reading some of these books. Justice to me is equality or even taking

in both sides to a story and give fair chance to both sides. Living by the 10 rules I believe in, may

have a way to better justice and even help ethics within the world. Having rules to live by in your

daily life may actually affect and improve the way things are in a person or persons lives. Living

up to specific rules can only help you be a better person or at least try to be better person. There

are 10 rules I believe living by, will help not only improve my actions but others actions as well.

Do No Harm. Doing no harm simply means do no harm to people. This is a rule that

everyone should already follow in their everyday lives. This rule is a really important rule

because causing harm to a person will only result in consequences or ever regrets within

yourself. In the Justice reading it stated, They include the duty to treat persons with respect, to

do justice, to avoid cruelty, and so on(Sandel 3). Here you can see that it states to avoid cruelty

and this is in the section of Natural Duty which also something people should do naturally.
Doing no harm will not only help you as a person but it also will lower the violence rating within

the world. Doing no harm is something that will improve the way people live because it will be a

way for people to control their actions and avoid doing any wrong to people and even avoid

doing harm within yourself.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Treating other the way you want to be

treated will only help yourself. Treating others the way you want to be treated isnt necessarily a

natural duty but it could be but it can also be voluntary obligation. In the text it stated, Though

we must respect the dignity of all persons(a natural duty), beyond this, we owe only what we

agree to owe(Sandel 11). Here you can see that you only get what you give. So treating people

with respect will only result in people also treating you with respect. In some cases though, a

person can still be disrespectful to you even after you respect them, but that is where improving

yourself as a person comes in. This rule is something you should live by because it will only help

you as a person. Treating others with respect will most likely result in them respecting you, in

the cases where they still will be disrespectful, this rule will only make you feel better about

yourself. You can only control yourself not the ones around you.

Learn from your mistakes. Learning from your mistakes will help you as a person. When

learning from your mistakes, you can see that it will only help you get better at things in your

everyday life because you wont continue to mess up the same way you have before. In the

Justice reading Excerpt #2 it stated, Suppose you are the driver of a trolley car hurtling down

the track at sixty miles an hour. Up ahead you see five workers standing on the track...You
realize that you can turn the trolley car onto the side track killing the one worker, but sparing the

five(Sandel 1). It then goes on and states, ...This time, you are not the driver, but an

onlooker,standing on a bridge overlooking the track.. (Sandel 7). Here, they give you 2 different

options of what you can do, but thinking about it , you can spare this one person to help multiple

people, though this is a terrifying example, seeing what will happen in whatever decision you

chose to go by, you will learn from your mistake from the first time. Learning from your

mistakes, will eventually turn your mistakes into accomplishments and sometimes even

successful stories. Learning from your mistakes will also only help you become a better person

because it will help you continue to learn what exactly not to do from personal experiences. If

you were to continue the same mistakes, you will realize that you aren't making any

improvement in life for yourself.

Take risks to help others. Taking risks to help others will improve your communication

with people because it will help you with trust within a person. There is a limit to this rule

though, depending on the situation. In the Sandel Reading #2 it stated, Suppose you are the

driver of a trolley car hurtling down the track at sixty miles an hour. Up ahead you see five

workers standing on the track, tools in hand. You try to stop, but you cant. The brakes dont

work. You feel desperate, because you know that if you crash into these five workers, they will

all die. Suddenly, you notice a side track, off to the right. There is a worker on that track, too,

but only one. You realize that you can turn the trolley car onto the side track, killing the one
worker, but sparing the five (Sandel 1). See here, we have to think about killing 5 or killing 1,

and this is something to which you would really have to take a risk to help others. This is a more

serious case of having to take risks to help others. Here many people would have to think about

their choice but no matter what choice they chose, they still would have taken a risk to help

others. Helping others can result in saving a person's, getting them out of a situation where they

are being harmed in and even something little as helping them escape for a little. Taking risks to

help a person can really help you as a person as well, it can result in them doing the same for

you.

Put others before yourself in certain situations. Here, putting people before yourself can

actually be a good thing but in some cases it can result in a bad thing. For example, imagine if

you are sitting on a bus and there are no more seats but a old lady who can barely stand on her on

is standing next to you, being a kind hearted person, 9 times out of 10 you will offer your seat. In

that situation, you have put someone before yourself. Now in this case, if your best friend was

getting suspended for breaking the window at school but they wanted you to say it was you, you

would not do that because it will only result in you being in trouble. In the A Framework of

Making Ethical Decisions in the Virtue Framework it stated, Obviously, this framework is

useful in situations that ask what sort of person one should be. As a way of making sense of the

world, it allows for a wide range of behaviors to be called ethical, as there might be many

different types of good character and many paths to developing it (Brown 34). Here the Virtue

Framework really connects to the real life examples because it shows how one person can be

good but have many more different good characteristics about themselves which result in a path
to development. Knowing this, following the rule of putting others before yourself in certain

situations will only help you as a person. It will not only help others but it may actually improve

your behaviors as a person.

Do whats best for yourself. Sometimes doing whats best for yourself may affect others,

but when it comes down to doing whats best for yourself its mainly a point in time in which

you forget about satisfying others and think about your own satisfaction. Doing what's best for

yourself also does not mean to forget about others, as long as you are doing what is best for

yourself, you can start to think about what's best for others. In the A Framework for Making

Ethical Decisions it stated, First, it can appear cold and impersonal, in that it might require

actions which are known to produce harms, even though they are strictly in keeping with a

particular moral rule(Brown 25). Same as the Duty Framework, doing what's best for yourself

may seem cold at first but it also revolves around the fact of being happy as a person internally

not just externally. Though you may be affecting others, no person can ever actually make a

person happy if they aren't happy themselves because they truly do not know how to. I try and go

by this rule because it helps me focus on myself internally and externally so I can be there for

others the way I am for myself. So overall, doing what's best for yourself will only help you

improve as a person with your internal emotions and actions.

Be a helping hand. Being a helping hand will not only help a person or persons, but it will

help your also have better communication with others. Being a helping hand to others may also

result in them retiring the helping favor. In the Justice Reading Excerpt 1 it stated, If I've agreed
to paint your house (in exchange for a wage, say, or to repay a favor), I have an obligation to do

so(Sandel 9). Here, though it is in a retiring manner, you still are being a helping hand and

getting a favor back if you do so. Here is an example that clearly shows that if you were to do

something for someone , they will return the favor. This is a way of improving your

communication with others because it shows how you as a person are fulfilling your voluntary

obligations. Being a helping will help you as a person because it will show your compassion

towards a person or persons and it will only help you feel better about yourself. Some people

who actually help out others, often feel very accomplished after doing so.

Have an open mind to others opinions. People who usually only accept what they believe

tend to leave out other options upon things. Having an open mind to others opinions, will only

increase the amount of choices one has. In the Justice Reading 1, it talks about the duties and

obligations we have as a person or persons. When speaking of respect we have as our duty and

helpfulness we have as our obligations, you can see the mixture of thoughts upon each side. This

whole excerpt shows the different options upon the way of Justice upon a person or persons.

When reading this excerpt, I noticed that having an open mind while reading this excerpt, you

will come to learn that people act specific ways because of their duties and obligations. When

reading this I had an open mind upon others options of duties and obligations because you notice

the different examples and definitions of those duties and obligations. Having an open mind will

only expand your beliefs and thoughts ima given situation or at any point in time. Those who

believe in only 1 opinion, theirs, will most likely never get the chance to experience or know

these other options to things.

 Be compassionate to others. Being compassionate to others is just having respect for

others or even action respectful around a person or persons. Being compassionate will help you

improve your personality and impression that others have upon you. In the Justice reading it's

stated, They include the duty to treat persons with respect, to do justice, to avoid cruelty, and so

on(Sandel 3). Here you can see that being compassionate to a person or persons involves

respect and justice. Having compassion for others is as simple as respecting them whether they

are respectful to you or not. Many people fail to show compassion to others because of how

others are towards them but when it comes to compassion , you can not change a person's

actions, you can only change yours or change the way you help others improve upon their

actions. Being compassionate will not only help you as the type of person you are but it will also

help you on how you make a first impression on others. Many people judge right off the first

impression, so being compassionate from the beginning will only help you look like a better

person in life.

Do not judge others if they do not judge you. Being judgemental does not make you look

any better. Some people who tend to judge others do so because they usually like or want what

other have. In some other cases, people judge others because they judge them. In the Framework

reading it stated. In the Duty Framework, we focus on the duties and obligations that we have in

a given situation, and consider what ethical obligations we have and what things we should never

do (Brown 15). In my opinion, focusing on duties and obligations at a given situation, is

showing that your actions only come from the situation that you are given or even put in. With
that, judging a person because they judge you is a way of doing something because of the

position you are in, but in another case to where you are only judging a person just to judge them

is all internal emotions. These actions can really affect you as a person when it comes to trust for

others and even just a simple as making a friend. Many people do not agree with judgemental

people so it may affect the amount of people you have around you in your daily lives.

When making my list of 10 rules to live by, I noticed most of them are some of the things

I've been trying to work on in my own life. Some of these rules I already live by in my daily life

and some I fail to even try. Loving by these 10 rules, I noticed it will help many people fix

themselves internally and externally not just one way. Over and over again, I had to think about

the different rules to put together that will fit and actually be 10 rules that a person can and

should live by. Loving by specific rules makes things challenging because some people don't

even notice when they are making mistakes or even being a person to whom they are not. So I

changed my rules about 2-3 times and coming up with these final rules made me really think as a

person myself. It really made me think about the way I live and my close people live on our

everyday lives. Some of the rules aren't only things I believe I have to work on, but I also believe

many members of my community need to work on to better themselves. Having 10 rules only

sets a high point to which a person like myself would love to reach. If one day I can fully fulfill

loving by these 10 rules, I know for a fact I will not only feel better about myself but have a good

look to others who are involved with my daily lives and even people who aren't.
 Having 10 rules to live by isn't something that is easy, but it is very possible. Living by

my 10 rules, will help me become a better person because they will help me be a better people

person. My rules will help me accept others, accept different thoughts, help others and even just

be a good person not just on the outside but the inside as well. If the world were to live by these

10 rules, it will help them become more compassionate and respectful to others even when they

aren't being treated in that manner. It will also help people better themselves by who they may

surround themselves with and even help people focus on what's better for themselves as

individuals. My 10 rules were set this way to only help people live happier and more loving lives

because many people fail to do so, so if people can fix who they are internally and externally and

help others improve themselves as well, many more people will find ways to get along with one

another and people will begin to improve on their relationships with others. Living by these 10

rules isn't to change who a person is, but it is to help improve a person or persons to be someone

better for not only themselves but for the ones around them as well.