M2-(Liam Cassell)

While reading about the key concepts in this chapter I could not help but think about the political landscape that the USA is in right now. It seems there are two groups of people who don’t share the same ethical beliefs. The Right seems to have more of an Egoism/ Utilitarianism view. Whereas, the Left hosts more of a Noconsquesnatlaist school of thought. A good example of this would be the proposed Pebble Mine and its negative impact on the Native Alaskans in that region. A lot of Republican’s argue that the resulting jobs and boost to the state’s economy would greatly benefit the majority of the people in the state. This would cause a lot more happiness for the entire state and would outweigh the slight against the indigenous people because they are just a fraction of the state populous. However, the Left would argue that there is a moral law to not have a negative impact on the Native Alaskans way of life. They believe that we as a state have an obligation to uphold this moral law no matter how much potential growth there is for the state’s economy. These arguments reflect the ethical reasoning mentioned expressed the book and have affected many people in Alaska including myself.