My Love

I have the most wonderful eternal companion. I love spending time with her. She is my best friend. Love going on road trips. Love going to church with her. She makes me want to be a better person. I must say I am very blessed.

Happiness

Hello my loyal blog followers. What is happiness? Happiness is having the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. Knowing the plan of happiness which includes repentance and families being able to be together forever. Happiness is living each day with my wife at our home and enjoying the journey of education, formal and informal. Happiness is a state of being that needs to be nourished continually. Happiness continues as I read scriptures, play church hymns of piano, attend church and fulfill my church callings.

Ethics

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the question, “What makes a certain action right or wrong?” Consequentialists as described by Freeman (2000) deem that the good is determined by the consequences of the action; whereas the opposite is true for nonconsequentialists. I will describe the concepts of act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, and ethical egoism. I will then describe problems with act and rule utilitarianism. Lastly, I will apply the concepts of consequentialism in an applied theoretical orientation to counseling using the works of Virginia Satir.
Consequentialism: What makes an action right or wrong
Act Utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism is the concept that an act is right if it produces more good than harm Acts are evaluated on the consequences that it produces. Consequences may be good for the present time but how about the distant future? For example, the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Japan at the moment may have seemed like a good idea because of the immediacy of the reaction after Pearl Harbor. And more recently the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. created a rebuttal from the United States. I wonder what would have happened if the United States chose the diplomacy only route over nuclear arms and the current war on terrorism? Are nuclear arms a form of diplomacy? The act of using the nuclear bomb on Japan may have created the arms race between the Soviet and United States and the current terrorist countries that are building up nuclear arms. Are these consequences good or bad? I guess it is up to the individual to judge. Another example of act utilitarianism is the concept of duty to warn. If life is considered intrinsically good, then the praiseworthy character of certain acts such as duty to warn is good.
The idea of act utilitarianism is teleological which means it is intended to produce a good or bad result. Some things are intrinsically good, and other things are good or bad depending on their tendency to endorse or to obstruct that which is intrinsically good (Halverson, 1981). The question posed in the text, “Whom shall I be?” relates to the dichotomous answer of whether it is the act or the person acting that determines whom one may be. Dr. Freeman (2000) explains in the text that one may consider using both the actor and the act in answering the aforementioned question. My actions may be a reflection of the person I am. Because actions do not occur in a vacuum the contextual nature of certain actions may be considered. In judging the actor it may be important to understand the motivation of individual behaviors at any given moment. At the same time, there are actions that are filled with the best of intentions that do now work out for the good of all.
Rule Utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism implies performing acts that follow the rule that will bring about the greatest good for the greatest number (Freeman, 2000). The “rule” in rule utilitarianism implies justice as part of an ethical decision making process. Freeman (2000) describes rule utilitarianism as the relationship of the act to the rule that dictates the rightness or wrongness of an act. In looking at both act and rule utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism may be compared to following the letter of the law while act utilitarianism may be similar to following the spirit of the law. An example of rule utilitarianism would be following the rule of confidentiality. In the case of Abrams v. Jones, the Supreme Court upheld the confidentiality of the child because the parent was not acting on behalf of the child. Another example is the consequences of the Tarasoff case in which perhaps breaking confidentiality may have helped Tarasoff to avoid death. In the Tarasoff case, following the rule may not have been the best choice.
Ethical Egoism
Ethical egoism implies that one must act in ways that maximize one’s own personal good and happiness (Freeman, 2000). One of the assumptions of the Mental Research Institute approach is that people are doing the best they can at any given moment. Behaviors make sense given the contextual makeup of certain situations. Because as counselors we cannot read our client’s minds it may be wise to assume that clients are exercising hedonism which claims that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. Hedonism may have a negative flavor but in reality it goes without saying that people generally do things that are good for them.
Problems with Act and Rule Utilitarianism
The inherent problem with both act and rule utilitarianism in making a right choice whatever the choice may be is the requirement to have knowledge of all of the possible consequences related to the act (Freeman, 2000). One of the dilemmas in counseling is that by making a choice the counselor has naturally exempted the plethora of other options available. Another compounding effect is the pebble in the pond or ripple effect of making a choice or action (Freeman). Consequences of an act often extend far beyond the act itself as mentioned earlier in this paper. Who would have thought that events in the past would continue to have good or dire consequences? Who would have ever thought that by changing one small behavior in a client that it would impact a client’s life?
Virginia Satir
Virgina Satir does an excellent example of focusing on one change and hopefully brining about greater changes. In her work with families, Satir concentrated on clarifying communication, expressing feelings, and fostering a climate of mutual acceptance and warmth. Her great strength was to connect with families in terms of hopes and fears, yearnings and disappointments Satir had an ability to turn negative things into positive things.
Satir explains that communication is a process of giving and getting information. She described that people must communicate effectively in order to understand information from others. She further explains that we need to understand the nature of their relationships.
Satir demonstrates that people must communicate clearly if they are going to be able to give information to others. In addition, she describes the need to let others know what is going on inside us. She describes that different connotations and denotations make communication more clear. By eliciting clearer communications; group members may clearly express themselves in and out of session.
Therefore, verbal communication needs to be clear for both the sender and the receiver of the message. Satir explains that, “people need to have a means for completing their communication as much as possible if they are going to arrive at successful joint outcomes, from accomplishing the mundane work of everyday life and seeing that the bread gets on the table, to being able to enjoy mutually satisfying sexual relationships (Satir, 1962). Thus, communication plays an important role in making decisions especially ethical decisions.
ConclusionIn this paper I explored the question, “What makes a certain action right or wrong?” Consequentialists as described by Freeman (2000) deem that the good is determined by the consequences of the action; whereas the opposite is true for nonconsequentialists. I described the concepts of act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, and ethical egoism. I then described problems with act and rule utilitarianism. Lastly, I applied the concepts of consequentialism in an applied theoretical orientation to counseling using the works of Virginia Satir. Writing this paper made me think of virtue ethics. I believe that it may be wise to look at a person by his character rather than by an action that may deviate from his normal behavior. Pragmatically, it may be important to look at all variables both the consequences of an action and the motivation behind the action.

Kaselehlie Maing

Kaselehlie Maing!

This is my first thoughts of many to come. My day was awesome! My wife and I taught sunday school class today and it was a blast. I have an awesome little dog named Darla. My wife also has a blog which is so much better than mines simply because she has better writing skills. My mother in law is also awesome at writing and I also have other family members with blogs that do a phenomenal job of writing. I wanted to start this blog to kinda generate some thoughts, kinda like a muse for me to some how create something meaningful in my life.