Answered>Order 6350

Ethical Subjectivism – an example (from Boss, ed., Ethics for Life, 5th Ed.)

Khalil Sumpter, a high school sophomore in Brooklyn, New York, was afraid that two other students were planning to beat him up. These two students, Ian, a senior, and Tyrone, a junior, had had a falling-out with Khalil that had escalated into picking on Khalil and making threats against him. So, Khalil brought a .38 caliber pistol to school one morning, and he shot and killed both Ian and Tyrone at point-blank range in the school hallway.

Discuss whether this shooting was morally justified. Would it have made a difference if Khalil had shot Ian and Tyrone simply because he felt like it or because he didn’t like the way they dressed? Discuss how an ethical subjectivist might respond to this case.

Make a list of general guidelines that you use to make moral decisions, including those you used to determine the morality of Khalil Sumpter’s actions in the previous exercise. Where did you get these guidelines? How relevant were your personal feelings in coming up with these guidelines?

250 words