I strongly believe that it is ethics that makes society work.

Without ethics, the law enforcement would

be unfeasible. There are lot of laws created but it will only work if it will be obeyed by the people. If
everyone decides not comply with these laws it will be a total chaos and the law enforcement will surely
not be able to handle all the violators. With that being said, ethics is the one who is responsible on why
people are obeying the law. The behavior and choice of the people to become ethical is the reason on
why we have a working system of society today. To sum it up, society would be impossible without
ethics.

If we look on the action of cheating, it is of course unethical. It is not the right way to retain the
scholarship. I should still have tried to answer the questions based on my stock knowledge and
understanding from past discussions. There might still be a little chance for me to pass and qualify for
the scholarship.

But now, if we emphasize on the reasons why I cheated, the perspective and judgment might turn
differently. The following are the reasons why I cheated: (1) I need to get high grades to retain my
scholarship, (2) my friend voluntarily offered me to copy his answers (I did not ask him) and (3) I have a
valid reason why I didn’t get to review

If we apply the generalization test, it may seem to be generalizable because it is not that frequent for
someone to have these reasons. But if we look deeper on the third reason, there will be a conflict on
how will you measure a reason for it to be ‘valid’. But even if we change the third reason and state the
specific situation (I didn’t get to review because I stayed in the hospital to watch for a relative), cheating
would still contradict the purpose of examinations which is to assess or measure the understanding of a
student towards the subject. Therefore, based on my analysis. It would fail the generalization test.

On one hand under the utilitarian test, I believe it will pass. The school would not mind a student (me) to
continue with his scholarship. I would be able to continue my scholarship and finish my course; then
later on in the future I will become a productive worker that contributes in our economy.

On the other hand, it would fail under virtue ethics because obviously, cheating is a form of dishonesty
so it is not virtuous.

Since it failed generalization test and virtue ethics, the action therefore is considered to be unethical.

Therefore, if I am given another chance, I would not accept the offer of my friend to let me copy his
answers. I would just only hope for that tiny chance of me passing the exam. If I failed the exam and lose
the scholarship, then I would do all my might to look for scholarships offered by other institutions since
scholarships these days is not that hard to find. And if ever I encounter difficulties in looking for
scholarship then I would have no choice other than to stop temporarily and maybe look for work and
other remedies. There will always be a way to counter our dilemmas.

(If generalization test, utilitarian, and virtue ethics should not be included in answering this question,
please consider that my answer would then only include the first paragraph and last paragraph.)