My Criterion used to achieve my value of morality is MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Moral responsibility is the responsibility of conscience that justifies claims and ascriptions of praise and blame, reward and punishment. This applies to when a person performs or fails to perform a morally significant action. It is a prime importance in this debate because it is precisely what motivates moral actions. Without moral responsibility there would be no way to judge morally significant actions; thus, any objective moral action would be done unintentionally.
Contention one: Our moral responsibility requires us to be altruistic.
Moral responsibility is a natural and direct component of moral agency; these actions have a capacity to have a moral quality. Moral responsibility demands altruism as an essential component of morality. Altruism is showing a regard for the welfare of others, and since moral responsibility warrants action based on this, morality will be achieved. When we see a kid who has fallen off of his bicycle and injured himself, we feel a moral obligation to assist him because of this altruistic quality inherent in moral agency. The assistance we would offer this child would be medical aid, assurance, and comfort. We are morally obligated to assist him because of our moral responsibility. This assistance does not limit our own abilities or sacrifice any major resources. Dale Jamieson, (Prof., Philosophy, New York University) JOURNAL OF ETHICS, 2005, 151; in his classic article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Peter Singer claimed that “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought morally to do it.”
All major religions denote the moral importance of charity, benevolence, and altruism to people in need. Confucianism teaches five virtues that an individual should practice every day to live a virtuous, moral life: Ren is the virtue of benevolence, charity, and humanity; Yì comprised of zhong, conscientiousness, and shù , reciprocity, altruism, and consideration for others; then there’s Zhi, knowledge; Xin, integrity; and, Li, correct behavior. We see examples of numerous codes, religions, and traditions throughout history and dispersed globally which developed the same pillars of altruism and benevolence for people in need. This is an extraordinary paradigm of just how pervasive this most essential concept of morality is. This moral norm was discovered in light of an unchanging and objective set of moral principles that find their source in the realities of human existence. It is clear that morality is a universal concept of which people adhere to base upon their deepest integrity.
Contention two: The innumerable ways individuals can fulfill their moral obligation to assist people in need ensure morality.
The common misconception about assistance for the needy is that it is always financial, and thus, fosters dependence and self-defeating behaviors when misapplied. However, assistance is extremely varied, thus fulfilling the moral obligation we have to assist people in need can always be moral, can always be feasible, and can always be compatible with our moral responsibility. People can be in need of food, water, shelter, clothing, medical treatment, love, and life saving assistance. Accordingly, the ways in which individuals meet the needs of others is widely diversified to amply suit the requirements of moral action. Encouragement, love, advice, volunteering, charity, benevolence, rescue, and many other forms of assistance constitute moral actions for corresponding needs. Therefore, assisting people in need is moral despite one’s predicament.
Contention three: Assisting people in need is obligated by Universal Morality.
Universal Morality is a crucial attempt to exercise the basic principles of a moral system that would apply to every individual and every sub-group of every advanced civilization in the universe, to every advanced civilization as a whole and to its interactions with other civilizations.
As Immanuel Kant synthesized, “Act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be willed as a universal law.” Our actions are simply rational, we are consciously aware that we should act in ways that are universally valid and moral ways. Actions are wrong if the success of the proposed action depends upon making an exception for yourself. The act of assisting people in need passes the seven tests for ethical decision making: Harm test, Publicity test, Defensibility test, Reversibility test, Virtue test, Professional test, Colleague test, and Organization test. However, when the act is avoided, tests are scored negatively. Thus, morality obligates assistance to people in need.
"Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions." Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. <http://ethics.iit.edu/index1.php/Programs/Ethics%20Across%20the%20Curriculum/Ethical%20Theories>.
