BUNSOY, JADEN SHAKIR E.

GEED 10093
BAIS 2-1

Ethics Activity #2

A. What role do ethics and morality have in a world that is socially stratified? (Note:
Answer in not more than 150 words for this question.)
B. Write a 350-word essay on Does Anything Matter?

ANSWERS:

A. Ethics and morality do not have a role in a world that is socially stratified. Social class,
income, educational attainment—whatever it may be, we all have the capacity to make
ethical choices. The social class to which people belong does not have anything to do
with ethics and morality because the ability to perceive what is right or wrong in
accordance to one's rational choice is not reflective of their class. Moreover, ethics and
morality is for everyone and that we are all innately capable of understanding it. It is just
that everyone has their own perception of good and bad that differs them from each other.

B. In the essay of Peter Singer, "Does Anything Matter?" on Derek Parfit's book entitled On
What Matters, it is explained how ethical subjectivism, objectivity, nihilism, and
skepticism are incorporated into ethics. Normally, these concepts are difficult to
understand for a person who has just read them, causing confusion about what they really
mean. However, an in-depth analysis of the essay would make you question: what really
is truth, what is reality, and what makes reality true? It brings forth questions that even
anyone finds difficult to answer because there is no definitive answer to these questions.
It makes you ask the titular question: Does anything matter? If anything does matter, how
and why does it matter? What makes anything matter if we ourselves are unable to
distinguish the truth behind these questions? For centuries, philosophers asked these
questions and argued about the truths of the world we live in. In particular, ethical
subjectivism provided a much better explanation of what can be considered true and false
and what can be considered right or wrong.

If only our interpretation and attachment of correctness to a concept is what we

consider right, then that is right, subject to our perception of right and wrong. To say that
is to be relativist, yet to believe that something is absolutely true can be false in the sense
that every conscious mind has the capacity to understand the "right" and "wrong" choice.
On the contrary, Parfit offered an argument concerning the objectivity of ethics, wherein
he made a claim that is more audacious than his defense of objectivity in ethics. He draws
from three leading theories on moral ought and argues that these theories must be
changed to give a better understanding of the nature of ethics. Yet in relation to the
question, "Does anything matter?", Parfit obviously believes that what matters is that we
fail to do anything with the concerning issues that are happening in this world, such as
poverty. It does not stress the fact that we are obliged to give away our material
possessions and be responsible for the poor because they are ours and that we legally
earned them. But a question remains unwillingly answered: if we have the capacity for
wealth, "do we deserve this wealth more than those who are inherently poor?"