Case Study 2

Solution to Ethics Case Study 2

The Case

Vishnu has been recently appointed as the Principal of the local government

school in a small town. The majority of students in the school are from local slum

who cannot afford to buys books and notes at the market prices.

Soon after the joining Vishnu found that there are very few books in the schoollibrary. The vice Principal, a veteran teacher from the same school, tells him thatseveral requests to the local authorities and the government agencies to improvethe condition of the library have gone in vain.

He found that the students of the school are flagrantly violating the copyrights ofthe library books and getting them photocopied from the shop inside the schoolsince they cannot afford these books at the market rate.

He gets a letter from the publisher of one of these library books about theviolation of copyrights of the books. Publisher also asks him to take stern legalaction against those involved in the copyright violation.

What should Vishnu do?

Vishnu's dilemma

Quite often it happens that a person feels torn between two loyalties (as in the case of Vishnu) and he or shedoes not know which way to turn: how does one choose between two goods, each of which is making anabsolute demand on me?

On other occasions one as even more confused because one finds himself or herself obliged to choose betweentwo unavoidable evils. Which to opt for? Finally, granted that one cannot do evil so that good may come of it(the end does not justify the means), would it ever be permitted to do something good, from which some evil,more or less necessarily, will follow.

Notice, in none of these conflict situations are we dealing with a choice between what is perceived as evil andwhat is perceived as good. In such a case, what one should choose is clear: the good. This may not be easy andone might have to flight against all manner of inner revulsions and emotions. Fear of the consequences mayweigh heavily on one and he or she might well hesitate, feeling that unfair demands are being made of him ofher.

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Solution to Ethics Case Study 2 http://www.halfmantr.com/final-countdown/1379-solution-to-ethics-case-...

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Golden Rule to Solve Conflict Situations

Golden Rule 1: Choose the lesser evil

Of two necessary evils, choose the leaser one. That seems obvious enough except for the fact that it is notalways easy to decide which of the two or more evils concerned is the lesser one. Sometimes it is fairly easy tomake you choice.

For instance you are a pilot and, for some reason or the other plane is going to crash very soon. You have justtwo choices to crash the plane into either a maternity hospital or an old age home. For most of us, it would beclear enough: crash into the old age home.

In the maternity hospital, however, there would be scores of babies who deserve to be given a chance to liveand know the world: or again, if my brakes dont work and may car is hurtling down a narrow on my right (noother choice!), obviously I should turn left because, that way, Id kill one less person. However, let us notforget than in such moments of confusion and split-second decisions making one can hardly be expected tofunction reasonably and weigh up all the consequences. One could hardly hold it against the poor pilot (ordriver) if, in his confusion he turned the wrong way!

Golden Rule 2: Choose the Greater Good

This is the obvious principles to invoke when choosing between two goods. Most of the time, however, it is notclear what is the greater good. In that case, one could employ St Augustines practical dictum to this regard,ama et fac quod vis: love and do what you like or, to put it more clearly, choose either, but do it from aperspective of love.

In his Existentialism and Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre gives us an interesting case, where a young lad, early inWorld War II, when France was about to fall to the advancing Nazi hordes, had to make a difficult decision:should he signs up to fight off the invaders or stay at home to take care of his invalid mother? Applying theprinciple given above, the choice is the boys. No ne can tell him objectively what the greater good is. Let hedecide for himself.

Golden Rule 3: The Double Effect

This concerns the controversial and conflict situation where one and the same act produces two effects,one good and the other evil. Under what conditions it would be morally justified to allow such an act?

Authors generally list four such conditions. They are as follows, accord to the scholastic Celestine Bittle, in hisMan and Morals, Milwaukee, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1950 (pp.44-46). First, the action directlyintended must be good in itself or at least morally indifferent. The reason for this is that morality is a matterof intention. If Mr X do wrong unintentionally (e.g. injure someone in a game of football), he cannot be heldto blame for it unless, of course, he acted recklessly, in which case my fault would be reckless behavior, nothaving injured someone. Morality is not a mere matter of externals. Even a good action may be rendered lessworthy if it is done for a unworthy motive: for instance, a person makes a big donation to the poor, notbecause he cares for them, but because he wants to win votes.

Secondly, the good effect must follow from the action at least as immediately as the evil effect; or the evileffect may follow from the good effect. However, it is never morally right for the good effect to be producedthrough the evil effect. This follows from the above. Remember, good or evil is primarily in the intention.

We must always intend directly what is good or indifferent; if we intend what is evil directly, we are doingsomething evil. This would involve claiming that the end justifies the means.

The above-presented figures should make it clear why Case (I) and Case (II) are permissible and Case (III) isnot: it is the only one where evil is directly intended. In this last case, moral evil makes an entry into theintention of the agent.

Thirdly, the foreseen evil may not be intended or approved, but merely permitted to occur. The reason forthis is obvious enough and also follows from the first condition. In Bittles words, If the evil effect wereintended or, when it occurred, approved, then the will itself thereby would become evil in its inclination, andthe action would be morally wrong.

Finally, there must be proportionate and sufficient reason for permitting the evil effect to occur whileperforming the good action. Obviously, one could hardly justify an action which produced a minor good effectand a proportionately high bad effect

Vishnu's case would belong to the Case (III) if he allows the students to continue the photocopy as the immediate

evil effect would be violation of copy rights. Thus in no way he should allow the students to go for the photocopy.

Now applying the two branches of Ethics in this case:

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Teleological Ethics:

As discussed in the last case this branch of Ethics is related to the "Ends" and deals with "What is good". Thetwo golden questions that we ask in the case of Teleological Ethics are:

1.

What would happen to the society if everyone else in society starts doing the same?

2.

Would the ends be desirable in the long run or only in short run?

Now the answers to these questions in this context would be based on our assumption that Vishnu permits thestudents to go for photocopy:

1. What would happen if every body in the society would start voilating the copyrights? This would bedetrimental for the whole knowledge industry and discourage writers and publishers to come up with newbooks.

2. No doubt the permission for the photocopies would solve the problem in the short run, but it can createlegal issues in the long run. Also it will give the message to the students that law of land should be voilated ifthey think that end result would be good. (The same philosophy on which the Naxalite movement is basedwhich considers that law of land favors the elites thus the concept of State is coercive and should be destroyedfor the greater good).

Therefore at no cost Vishnu should allow the violation of copyrights in his premises.

Deontological Ethics

This branch of Ethics is based on the principle of "Duty" and "intentions". Thus here we are interested in"What is Right" irrespective of its end results. The following are the duties of Vishnu as a Principle of theSchool:

1. To ensure that school administration is carried out in an efficient and legal manner.

2. To ensure that the available infrastructure and the resources alocated to the school are utilized in the bestpossible and efficient manner

3. To mobilize resources for the school if he thinks that they are inadequate through proper channel

4. To ensure quality education to the students and in long run to make them good citizens.

Please keep in mind that final resource alcoation to the school is outside the purview and duty of Vishnu. He can

only send requets to the higher authority for this.

Keeping in mind the above duties Vishnu should do the following:

He should ban the photocopies of library books in the school premises. He should warn thephotocopy shopkeeper about the same and convey the message to the students as well.He should communicate the same to the publisher and request him not to esclate the issue to court oflaw or the police as he had already taken the steps on his end to ensure that copyrights are notviolated.Since he cannot himself allocate the resource, he should send requests to the higher authority andcan take the help of parents to pressurize the local leaders to take the steps about the condition ofschool library.Since it is his duty to utilize the school resources in the best possible manner for the benefit studentshe can take the help of teachers and senior students to develop the study material, circulation ofthese would not voilate the copyrights.

Do you find this article useful? Please feel free to post your comments andsuggestions

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Comments

# prem 103 2013-06-03 13:12Banning complete photocopier just for one Book copyright issue is not the right way because all books might notfall under the copyright time period.Instead of that Vishnu should tell the Teachers to prepare notes and get then xeroxed and distribute them amongthe students.

# ASHISH RANJAN 2013-06-03 14:37ya.....................its good

# Mukul Goyal 2013-06-03 16:11very good explanation.


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# Nirmal Singh 2013-06-03 16:36It is like seeing the situation only in black and white .The assumption that students interests conflicts withPublisher interests is ill founded.The immediate issue is to find a solution without compromising any interest.Onewin-win situation can be to make publisher and school enter into negotiations for paying a marginal fee for usingcopyrights (it happened in recent controversy in DU).The can be funded by levying marginal fee to students(much less than MP)

# Halfmantr 2013-06-03 17:17

Quoting Nirmal Singh:

It is like seeing the situation only in black and white .The assumption that students interests conflictswith Publisher interests is ill founded.The immediate issue is to find a solution without compromisingany interest.One win-win situation can be to make publisher and school enter into negotiations forpaying a marginal fee for using copyrights (it happened in recent controversy in DU).The can befunded by levying marginal fee to students (much less than MP)

Yeah True! This case is inspired from the recent controversy in DU.

# prashant gamit 2013-06-03 16:37but whatever illegal photocopies are made, for those at least vishnu's school & students have to pay without goingin court of law.

# djd2013 2013-06-03 17:28Very good explaination.thank you sir for such nice discussion

# ALOK MISHRA 2013-06-03 18:53Ok as we know that photocopy of the library books is the violation of copyright but i want to say one thing that inthe present case it is the moral responsibility of the authors to allow the slum students for the photocopy becauseit is a matter of education for the poor student and authors can exempt them until the library condition does notimprove.

# aakash777 2013-06-03 20:48what about the fact that the publisher is already getting good profit out of it after all its text books... which will besold in all the schools not like the litreature novels that sells in a very few numbers.And what if the last two suggestion of your's dont work out should the students quit school or keep failing due tolack of books.i still feel vishnu should do nothing until atleast the last two suggestions starts slightly implimenting. thank you

# ma17 2013-06-03 23:44can it be possible that vishnu stops students from getting just that book which the author asked for on phone andcontinue the photocopied versions of other books??

# Abhienav Mishra 2013-06-04 10:59explanation is brilliant but i am not satisfied with the conclusion from the point of view of practicality.on one hand we have the good of the publishing houses on the other, that of some disadvantaged children. thequestion is which one should be given preference? also it must be asked should 'compassion' play any role indecision making in such circumstances?if we ponder over these 2 questions then banning the stdnts frm photocopying seems outright unjust.publisherscan't treat stdnts as just like other consumers. they have to be given some leeway such as 'partial photocopying'or 'marginal fee' etc.(larger good of the society) and this is a lawful structure in countries such as US etc.school should talk with publishers, make them aware of the situation and take up the responsibility of paying up amarginal fee to them on behalf of the students till proper library structure comes up. both sides remain happy.

# Mohan 2013-06-04 13:25Thanks for the detailed and brilliant explanation of the case and solution. Very helpful for students new to Ethics.

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Case Study 2

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