My parents were categorical in their decision I was under no circumstances allowed to go for the Rock concert. They were adamant about the company I kept, who happened to be the coolest of the cool. What was unknown to them was that I had told my friends, I was going to the concert. Here I was standing before my parents wanting an answer to the question. Are you going to that concert with those characters?
In my mind I did not have a Kantian categorical imperative to tell the truth. “The will itself, strictly speaking, has no determining ground; insofar as it can determine choice, it is instead practical reason itself. Insofar as reason can determine the faculty of desire as such, not only choice but also mere wish can be included under the will.” (Ellington, 1993)After all the Prima Facie Duties of my parents isn’t truly subject to utilitarian rules but rather fall on culturally inspired situational ethics of which their greatest concern is the consequential outcome of love and parental responsibility. My decision was a purely utilitarian one, “, the Virtue is as the Quantity of the Happiness, or natural Good; or that the Virtue is in a compound Ratio of the Quantity of Good, and Number of Enjoyers.” ( Schneewind, 2002)
I would sneak out come back before dawn and none would be the wiser. The consequential outcome of my decision would full fill my utilitarian goals. Concerning the lie that I told, “happiness, private happiness, is the proper or ultimate end of all our actions..”( Schneewind, 2002). The Outcome is that I was happy, my friends were happy and crucially I made my parents happy. This was truly a utilitarian outcome the only flaw in My utilitarian decision is that it involved one moral wrong. I had a good time and that is an ethical dilemma I can live with.
References:
Schneewind, . B. (2002) Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant, Cambridge University Press
Kant, Immanuel; translated by James W. Ellington [1785] (1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed.. Hackett.
