What would a rule utilitarian say about John Smith’s behavior?.
PART I:
Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus had a happy marriage and enjoyed living at the North
Pole. They met at St. Nicholas High School in the 1960’s, and they have been together
ever since then. Obviously their lives are very busy during the holiday season, but they
get time to relax and take a vacation during the summer months. Last summer, they went
to Miami, Florida, and that’s when all the problems began.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus were very excited to visit Miami for the first time. They took a
tour of Star Island, went on a three day cruise to the Bahamas, and relaxed by the pool at
their hotel. Mr. Claus had put on some weight, and he did not look or feel very
comfortable in his bathing suit. However, Mrs. Claus looked great, and she enjoyed
hanging out by the pool and meeting new people. Mr. Claus would often fall asleep and
start snoring. Embarrassed by Mr. Claus’ behavior, Mrs. Claus would shake him and
make him go to the room.
Mrs. Claus made a lot of friends last summer, and she continued to stay in touch
with them on Facebook. As you can imagine, it gets lonely up at the North
Pole. Facebook provided a way for Mrs. Claus to stay in touch with the real world. Mr.
Claus didn’t know anything about Facebook. He considered it nonsense.
Mrs. Claus befriended a handsome young man named John Smith. John Smith was
a businessman in Chicago. He was starting up a toy store in Chicago. Mrs. Claus and
John Smith had a lot to talk about. John Smith seemed especially interested in the hot
toys Santa and the elves were making for Christmas 2010. Mrs. Claus tried to not reveal
anything confidential, but John Smith asked a lot of questions. She figured he was nice
and her friend, so it wouldn’t matter if she let some private information slip out.
Right before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Claus decided to visit Chicago. She had a friend
from high school, who had moved there. They had not seen each other in years. It was
also an opportunity to visit John Smith. When Mrs. Claus arrived, John Smith picked her
up from the airport. He drove her around Chicago. Then, he took her to his
apartment. Mrs. Claus knew she had to check in at the hotel, but John Smith kept
insisting they could do that later.
John Smith had a nice apartment downtown with a beautiful view of the city. Mrs.
Claus asked to use the bathroom to freshen up. John Smith showed her to the bathroom
through the guest room. He then left her alone, and he shut the door to the guest room
behind him.
When Mrs. Claus tried to open it to return to the living room, it would not
open. She screamed to John Smith, but he did not reply. She screamed and panicked, but
no one came to her rescue. She reached in her purse for her cell phone, but it was
missing. Her wallet with $1,000 in cash was missing too. She didn’t know what to
do. She sat on the bed and cried.
A few hours later, John Smith knocked on the door. He brought in some food, and
he threatened to tie her up and rape her if she didn’t stop screaming and crying. Mrs.
Claus was hungry, so she ate the food. However, John Smith didn’t know about Mrs.
Claus’ serious allergy to nuts. About a twenty minutes after she ate the pasta, she choked
and died. Later on, John Smith checked on her, and he panicked when he realized she
was dead. With the $1,000 in cash he stole from Mrs. Claus’ wallet, he escaped to the
airport and got a flight to China. He started up a toy business, and he lived happily.
Please answer the following questions about the above referenced scenario.
1. Please analyze John Smith’s behavior using the five moral principles that we discussed
in Module 4 and the author of the textbook describes as Humanitarian ethics in chapter 8
of the book. Analyze them in order of importance. (15 points)
2. What would a rule utilitarian say about John Smith’s behavior? ( 10 points)
3. What would an ethical egoist say about John Smith’s behavior? (10 points)
4. Should John Smith get the death penalty? Why or why not? (10 points)
PART II:
Eventually, Mr. Claus was notified of his wife’s death. Her body was sent back to
the North Pole where they had a huge funeral. Mr. Claus was sad, but he was surviving,
until he found out John Smith had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from Santa’s
Christmas account. If Santa didn’t have that money, children everywhere wouldn’t get
gifts for Christmas.
Santa went on a mad search for John Smith. Santa found him in a warehouse in
Beijing. John Smith denied hurting Santa’s wife, and he denied taking the money. Santa
had been lied to for years by little children, but he couldn’t stand to be lied to by an
adult. After everything he had been through, Santa was so angry and frustrated that he
took off his boot and started beating John Smith. The Chinese Police arrived. John
Smith was near death, but they didn’t want to take Santa Claus into custody. The
Chinese were already getting bad publicity about their human rights abuses. They surely
didn’t want the whole world to hate them for putting Santa Claus in jail. Instead, they
sent Santa Claus back home to the North Pole where he lived happily ever after. And, all
the children of the world were able to enjoy their Christmas.
Please answer the following questions about the above referenced scenario.
5. Please analyze Santa’s behavior under the five principles discussed in chapter 8.
(10 points)
6. Please analyze the Chinese Police/Government’s actions under Kant’s categorical
imperative. (10 points)
7. Please analyze Santa’s behavior under the virtue ethicist theory. ( 10 points)
8. Please describe a current event. Please analyze it from the following
perspectives: universal ethical egoist, rule utilitarian, virtue ethicist, Kant’s Categorical
Imperative, and your own theory as a student of ethics. (25 points)
What would a rule utilitarian say about John Smith’s behavior?
