LEONISA GUERRERO TORINO BSA 2

ETHICS

ASSIGNMENT 01d

SITUATION: Christine remembered that today is the birthday of her boss. She wanted her boss to be happy.
She bought a large size of Chocolate - Toblerone. She went to the office of her boss to give her a
gift. It was 12:20 noon and she opened the door abruptly and her boss was really surprised and was so
angry that she started to yell at her to get out of her office.

Question for Reflection: Is Christine liable to her acts? Yes or No? Justify your answer by using the principles of
circumstances. What type of circumstances does this case can be applied for? Not less than 300 words for your answer.

In my own opinion, Yes, Christine is liable to her acts. I know that in surprising someone, we need to
make sure it was unexpected. It was just 12:20 noon, the boss is expecting that her workers are eating lunch.
Maybe her boss never expected that someone will coming in such time so she was just surprise that is why
she yell to Christine. Even though Christine had a good intention, she also did a mistake because she didn’t
knock which startled her boss.
And the circumstances that it can be applied in this kind of situation is the "Circumstance may either
increase or decrease the merits of a good act". I know Christine has a good intention in her action, but her
emotions carried her out to surprise her boss on her birthday. The goodness of Christine's act has decrease
because of the sudden anger of her boss. The situation wherein Christine’s boss yelling and being angry to her
in doing such action may decrease the quality of Christine as being a good person.
If Christine didn’t make mistake, she can’t make anything at all. We should always remember when
we do such action, we should also consider what might be the reaction of others when we do it. We
should know what will be the good and bad things that will happen if we do such thing. We should
always consider the timing and place when we do things like what Christine does.
Every human act in the concrete order is done under particular circumstances. Circumstances may
therefore affect the morality of an action and add something to the moral quality that it has by reason of its
object. The latter concerns the abstract nature of the act, that is, what kind of action it is morally, while the
circumstances concern the individuality of the action, that is, the act as it exists here and now.
Mitigating or extenuating circumstances, phrase which is used to describe serious and exceptional
factors outside your control which adversely affected your performance. In the case of Christine, it means the
situation or condition have an excuse in doing such action. Christine’s degree of moral good decreases
because of her action.