Final Essay

Ethics 1 Essay

Yesenia Gonzalez

Behavior Ethics & Leadership

FINAL ESSAY

In this units essay the question is, which does each philosopher seem to think is more

important, the individual or the organization? Every philosopher has their own view and

opinions, each one of them views things differently. Some philosophers care more about their

own life and rather do things for themselves on finding ways of happiness for themselves to be

able to succeed. While other philosophers care about others and want to make others happy and

even become heroes and make sacrifices for others as well. Then you have philosophers that

working in teams bring happiness to an organization. Some just focus on reaching goals and

because they are not satisfied when the reach the goal they continue to strive for more.

Philosopher Plato believed in a good human life, and to be able to hold a good life you

had to be knowledgeable of what the good was. For example, the more the human knows the

form of the good the more they will live a better life and having good morals and working hard

will get you to the good and not expect for things to happen just because. He also believes in

education, again the more knowledge the human has the more the human will succeed at life and

reach their personal goals. What the individual believes in will be the outcome of what the

individual will be and feel. The individual has to go through their own challenges in life to be

able to educate and learn what good is. In this case I think Plato thinks individual is more

important.

Aristotle was very different, he believed that happiness was a way through life and goals.

Happiness to him was purpose to human life, and having good moral character was a way to

bring happiness the more good is done, or the more good one does will bring happiness. He
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believed that every action one does there is a good outcome for that one action. For example,

helping someone who is disabled opening the door for that person would bring happiness to

them. I feel that Aristotle will find more importance in organization and individual because he

focuses on both one-self and everyone else as well.

Hobbes finds individual to be very important because he believes that not all things could

get done by only one person, he believes in unity in coming together and getting things done as a

team rather than by one-self. As well as having peace with everyone getting along with everyone

and also power, he focused on power because he felt that having power will lead people to strive

for more in life and goals. He will not be content with having something good if he has

something good, he wants something better, always striving for more and not settling.

Kant emphasizes on having good intentions, when one acts in goodwill they act in purity.

That having good intentions and actions will bring good and happiness. Having virtues will stop

people from doing what they want to do and do the right thing in life, which goes back to having

good intentions. Without virtues people wouldn’t be happy. Kant focuses on the importance of

individual, to have good intentions you must have good morals.

Stuart Mills has a totally different way of thinking, he sees for everyone not only himself

or one-self, he believes that making sacrifices for others and helping others will bring happiness

and that is how it should always be. Becoming a hero for people even if it means sacrificing your

own life so someone else can live will bring happiness and pleasure for something good being

done. he mentions that he believes in maximizing happiness and minimizing unhappiness.

Therefore, he is I think his importance will be in organizational because he feels for everyone’s

pain and happiness and is willing to make others happy rather than himself.
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Lastly, there is Nietzsche, and his theory of believing is striving as long as people are

working hard and trying to get to their goals. The time that people are working hard for their

goals is the time for happiness he believes. Once goals are reached he says there is no more

happiness, therefore he feels the need to strive for more he will never be happy with what he has,

he is ambitious to just keep working to be happy that is what satisfies him or he says that’s how

people should be to be happy in life. Nietzsche considers individual to be more important

because of how he says that one has to strive and keep striving even after they have reached their

own goals.