After reading: “When Is “Everybody’s Doing It” a Moral Justification?

” In the text, consider "How

common is it for people to try to justify their conduct with the argument that “Everybody’s doing it”?
Provide examples from your own experience. How does the justification of “Everybody’s Doing It”
align with Kant’s Categorical Imperative? In your responses to other students, consider how your
answers and experiences compare with others.

I believe that it is quite common for people to justify their conduct with the argument that “Everybody’s
doing it”. This is a way of thinking that people will jump to when they are faced with a situation where
they have to make a decision or take an action where they do something that is morally correct or
choosing to “go with the flow”. It seems like people will use this justification when the action that they
are doing is an action that is wrong or frowned up, but feel it is justifiable because others are doing the
same thing.

One of the first things that comes to mind for me as an example of people using the “everybody’s doing
it” justification for their action is regarding employees or coworkers work hours. Our area moved to a
4/10 schedule a couple of years ago and since that time, I have seen coworkers come in later and leave
earlier consistently and have heard the comment “others are doing it so why can’t I?”. While initially it
doesn’t seem like a big deal, over the course of a week, when they are coming in 15-20 minutes late and
leaving 15-20 minutes early, this ends up being over 2 hours a week of time that is being lost by the
organization. When 15, 30 or more employees are doing this, that ends up being a significant amount of
lost time and productivity for an organization. This also makes me think about situations where policies
and procedures have been ignored or cut and referred to as “streamlined” to finish a project or mission
quicker. Some of the actions could be questioned as whether they are violating the moral requirement.
Unfortunately, this is something that I have seen the most within the financial sector meaning there has
likely been a violation of fiscal responsibility associated with the action.

Kant’s Categorical Imperative states that “we should always act in such a way that we can will the maxim
of our action to be a universal law” (Barry, 67). This has been interpreted that people should act as they
would want other people to act towards other people. The justification of “Everybody’s doing it” aligns
with Kant’s Categorical imperative in that using the justification that everyone else is doing it so you can
act as the other people are, thus making it justifiable as a “universal law”. Categorical Imperative
indicates that all people would act in the same manner, in the same situation so when people utilize the
justification, they are implying that they are following the action of “all people”. I don’t believe that
either Categorical Imperative nor “Everybody else is doing it” indicates or implies that the action is
morally right or wrong, but imply that the action is universally accepted.

Barry, W.H.S. V. (2015). Moral Issues in Business. [Columbia College]. Retrieved

from https://ccis.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780357231265/