“I feel like buying beef jerky would go against why I became vegetarian,” I told them. Once that statement left my mouth, I saw all of my friends faces scrunch up in confusion. Believing that they didn’t understand where I was coming from because they ate meat, I looked over at my fellow vegetarian friend, Lani. Where I expected to find support, I just found another scrunched up face.
“Personally, I don’t think it would go against our views, Rachel,” Lani whispered to me as everyone else started to talk about whether or not they …show more content…
However, as a logical person, I wanted to have a clear cut reason for why not buying the beef jerky was justified, other than just a feeling. Thus, I went to my junior English teacher, Dr. Culbertson, who taught a unit focused on morals and ethics. During our conversation, Dr. Culbertson said that neither decision was right or wrong. It all depended on whether I looked at the situation with a utilitarian perspective or a deontological perspective. Together we decided that as a utilitarian, it would not be okay to buy the beef jerky in this specific scenario. This is because the amount of happiness Jackson would feel when he ate the beef jerky would not outweigh the negatives feelings I would experience from buying it. Therefore, it was not ethically justified according to the utilitarian perspective. Looking at things from a deontological perspective, every action made is supposed to be ethical without thinking of the end result. We also decided that from a deontological perspective, if my views were accounted for, it would not be ethically justified. When I left Dr. Culbertson’s office, I better understood why I made the decision I did from an ethical view, but I wanted to talk it over with someone who looked at things from a very logical