Philosophy Paper

Philosophy

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Kant’s Categorical Imperative is one of theories that have been used for a long duration to try and determine if it if morally right or wrong to do a certain thing. This is a school of reason that does not categorize anything as either wrong or right. Kant believes that one has the ability to convince people about a certain topic depending on the statement that will follow the command. He states that most of the statements that can be defined as ethical statements are left hanging and one can easily manipulate them to get another meaning altogether. There is no universal way of doing things in this case. One only does the things that he or she believes that will offer the best returns. On the ethics of duty, he states that one can formulate more reasons not to follow a certain way of thinking as long as it does not affect other people. This is a free way of doing things and does not constrain people within a given line of thought. It gives every person the opportunity to decide what it good for them. There can be a universal and functional way but it does not imply that it is the universal way of doing things. There can still be other ways that people can use to reason and ensure that they are able to convince other people.

For this case, we have to look at the gains that the children will get in case they get vaccinated against the diseases. I believe that it will be important to vaccinate the children because it gives them good life in future. These are diseases that have been proved to be able to cause problems to the development of a child. It is therefore important that they get the vaccination so that they can avoid the deadly diseases in future. The method that I use to reach my final decision is by looking at the benefit of the whole process. It is common knowledge that vaccination is the act of preventing attacks that might occur in future. Measles and other diseases for which one is vaccinated when they are young have the tendency of attacking people when they are still young. I believe that what is good for the population is the vaccination because it ensures that every child can grow up well. It also ensures that every child does not have problem with development when they are attacked by the disease. The decision that I have made mainly relies on the benefits that the children will have when they take part in the vaccination. According to me, it would be morally upright for the children to get the vaccination because it will of great importance as they grow. I believe that Kant would also agree that it is morally right for the children to get the vaccination as a result of the benefits.

For those people who are opposed to the vaccination, it will important that they are educated on the benefits of the process. They will also have to be taught the problems that come with diseases such as measles. This will show that it is morally wrong to deny the children such things that will secure their future. This is the line of thought that can easily help in changing their views so that they allow the children to get the vaccination.

Analysis of the case by making use of the utilitarian law

Secondly, it would also be important to analyze the situation using the utilitarian law which states that one will choose to make use to make use of the decision that ensures a larger part of the population will gain. It is mainly based on the number of people who will gain from the decisions that are being made in this case. Decisions that are to be made in this case must look at the number of children that will gain from the process. It is based on the merit that there are people who will gain from the decision that will be made. To make the decision it is important to come up with the benefits of the process and whether it will be of great help to the society. If you are sure that majority of the children will gain from the process then it is important to make is a law. It is also important to have a look at what other people are saying about the vaccination and whether they believe it will be of great help to the children.

According to me, it will ethically right to make it a law that all the children must be vaccinated against mumps and measles because it will help to keep majority of the children safe from such diseases. There have been many cases of children dying just because they did not get the vaccination that they were supposed to get when they were young. To solve this problem, it is important to come up with ways of ensuring that you can take your child for vaccination. In case the vaccination is not carried out, it implies that there are many children who might end up dying. The vaccination will definitely save many children from the diseases and the risk of dying at a very tender age. It is a step that definitely has many advantages for majority of the children in the society.

Using this school of thought, it will be quite easy to convince the other people that this is the right step to take. Once you tell that once majority of the children get vaccination that they need then it will be easy to save them from the problems that come with missing out on the vaccination then they will easily change their minds. There are many cases when people have ended up joining into a certain course because they found out it is good for majority of the people. People always tend to avoid the things that will only benefit few of them. Once they learn that most of them will get the advantages when they decide to go for the vaccination then most of them will opt for it. You only need to convince the people that majority of the children under this rule. They will then see the important of ensuring that their children are vaccinated and will hence try and make an effort of taking their children for the vaccination. Under the utilitarian perspective, it I important to convince that the steps will of great importance towards ensuring that majority of their children live a healthy life that is free from the many diseases. To the people who are against the vaccination, they need to know that most of the children who do not get the vaccination always develop such diseases in future. The children will eventually gain from the process and this will ensure that they are able to stay long lives without any health issues. There are many of them who will change their minds because every person always wants the best for their children

On third way that can be used still to explain this situation is the cosmopolitanism as proposed by Kwame Apia. In this case, it is important to consider what other people feel about their culture and the history that they have. For the case of vaccination, a small community can decide to have their own way of doing things. According to him, it is important to respect the view of every person. There is always a tendency of the bog communities threatening the smaller communities with economic sanctions just because they have refused to follow what the other big communities are doing. In this case, they might not be interested in the whole thing and should therefore be left to go ahead with the practices that they would like to have. This is an accommodative type of reasoning that allows every person to go ahead with their practices. It is important o respect the culture of such small communities because they also do not interfere with the things that the big communities are doing.

The theory also suggests that just because a big part of the community engages in a certain practice, it does not mean that it the best thing that every community will have to follow. The small community should not be forced to practice the things that they do not really feel like doing. Just the same way the big communities have their own reasons of believing that their practice is the best, they should also be accommodative to allow the others to practice the things that they really wish to practice as a community. I believe that it is morally wrong for any big community to threaten such small countries just because they have decided that they are not going to follow the things that the big communities are doing. They should be left to do their own things until they feel that it is time to start practicing such things. Vaccination is one of the controversial things that require countries to be left to make decisions on their own. In most of the cases, the problems that countries have to deal with are always related to the sanctions and other things that the bigger countries impose on them.

References

Plato. 1991. The Republic, trans. Allan Bloom. Basic Books. ISBN–13: 978–0465069347

Kwame Anthony Appiah. 2007. Cosmopolitanism. W.W. Norton. ISBN-13: 978-0393329339