In the story titled “Button, Button”, written by Richard Matheson, Arthur Lewis makes decisions

using the virtue framework, as he has one mindset about what is right and what is wrong, and what kind of
a person he will be based on his actions. To begin, after Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have returned the button unit,
Mrs. Lewis expresses lots of intrigue and curiosity about the button, while Arthur does not. While she
pushes and pushes to get him to talk about it, and asks him if he’d like to know what, or exactly who, is
doing it, he shakes his head and simply explains, “Because it’s immoral” (Matheson 2). This demonstrates
how Arthur thinks through the virtue framework because it shows how he feels about right and wrong,
how he feels about what is deemed moral or not. In this case, he’s showing what he values, and it’s clear
that he values morality. Pushing the button, and in turn violating his virtues is not something he is willing
to do. He wants to be a good person, so he's going to do the right thing, and in his eyes that is not pushing
the button. In addition, after Norma brought the button back in, after it was packaged on the Lewis’
doorstep, she brings up the topic again, as she’s even more curious than before. Arthur has no interest
whatsoever, and suggests they should stop talking about it, but Norma keeps pushing. When she suggests it
could be a genuine offer, Arthur responds saying, “All right. suppose it is? What would you like to do? Get
the button back and push it? Murder someone?” (Matheson 3). Finally, after that, Norma seems to not
care, implying that it could be someone sick or old that would pass away regardless if the button were to
be pushed or not, but Arthur disagrees. “The point is, Norma, what’s the difference in whom you kill? It’s
still murder” (Matheson 3). Because of his thinking through the virtue framework, Arthur tries to explain
to Norma how murder is murder, and how to him it isn’t justifiable to push a button and kill someone. No
matter the money or reward you get. Somebody’s life is on the line, it doesn’t matter who will die, killing
someone makes you a bad person. It’s simply inhumane. On the other hand, some may argue that Arthur
Lewis makes the decision he ultimately makes of refusing to push the button because of his mindset
through the consequential framework because he’s thinking about the consequence of pushing the button
and what will happen as a result. However, it seems clear whenever he talks about the button, he’s
conveying that he doesn’t want to push the button for the values he has, and how he respects himself in a
way that he wouldn’t ever do something like that. Also, every time he says the word ‘murder’, he says it
because he’s implying that no matter who dies as a result of pushing the button, you will be responsible for
murder, and you will become a murderer. According to his values and his mindset, he doesn’t want to be a
murderer. He presents himself in a way that he respects himself too much to be a murderer, and he’s not
thinking about what other people will think about him. If he were thinking through the consequentialist
framework, he’d be spending his time being preoccupied about what people would think about him as a
result or consequence of pushing the button, but he is thinking about himself in the present, focusing on
his virtues. Given these points, it should now be explicitly clear that Arthur Lewis makes decisions upon the
virtue framework in this story. No matter the situation, he will examine it and decide what is the best
decision to make according to his values, not according to the consequence or reward. He wants to be a
good person and do the right thing.