moral issue

Moral issue

Ryan Hicks

Moral issue: Cheating

When tasked with a worksheet our subject (not to be named) felt that the best way to get through the worksheet would be to do it with a friend. This may be an action that would benefit both the subject and his friend however when caught; the teacher decides to half the mark of said students.  This puts both students in a perdiciment as the subject is left with what would still be considered by many as a high A for a class grade, but his friends grade slipped below to a mid B in the class. There are many ways the student could deal with the reception of such a poor grade. However the way the said student chooses to deal with the situation could impact the final mark of the student.. One looks to philosophy for answers in time of need. The existentialistic way of dealing with the situation would be to accept the low mark as it will not impact my grade that much. The friend however would have his grade lowered but in this philosophical view you have “no morals” and you are supposed to do what is best for yourself. This is one outlet to look at taking however the subjects morals are too strong to accept letting a close friend suffer for his mistake. Utilitarianism means you are to do what is best for the most people for that is in your best interest. The best way to apply this is to ask the teacher to give the subject a zero and give the friend full marks. In this way the teacher gets to exact punishment for what is considered as cheating, the student with the high A gets to lower his grade a miniscule amount and the friend of the student who got a very low mark on the worksheet will get a better mark on the worksheet and as a result won’t pull down his class grade as much. This may not benefit the subject but it does benefit more people in the end which is the concept behind utilitarianism. This is the view that could be taken so that more people benefit from an awkward situation and could help our subject out of his situation