Scenario: “Ethan, Umeko, Keisha, Vakar and Ramon are neighbors, and all are driving together to the local city toxic dump drop-off to dispose of old chemicals, paints, etc. Ethan is told that he has too many items. Normally you are charged a fee for exceeding your residential quota, but the employee at the drop-off site gives Ethan a break, and lets him dispose of everything with no fee if he promises to not dispose of anything else for the next year at any of the other county drop-off sites. Ethan promises and they all head home. The next day, Ethan is spotted by Ramon loading up his car with more chemicals and paints, and tells him that he is going to a different county dump site to get rid of his last remaining items. When Ramon tells Ethan that just yesterday he had promised not to do this, Ethan is not deterred, states that it is in his best interest to not honor this particular promise, and drives off.
Now Umeko is a utilitarian, Keisha is a kantian, Vakar is a virtue ethicist and Ramon lives by W.D Ross’ ethical theory. How would they each assess the morality of Ethan’s egoistic action according to the principles of their individual ethical theories that they themselves live by? Lastly, how would Ethan defend his ethical egoism? In other words, for all the neighbors, including Ethan, what criteria and/or insights would they each respectively use from their ethical theories in the evaluation of promise breaking in this situation involving the dump site? Would Ethan’s conduct be right or wrong? It is important to include in their assessment of this situation, the respective ethical principles/terminology/jargon embedded in their respective ethical theories that they live by.
Divide your essay into separate paragraphs corresponding to each representative of the ethical theories. A separate paragraph each for Umeko, Keisha, Vakar, Ramon and finally a paragraph for Ethan’s defense. Do not have a long Intro paragraph describing the scenario. Save word count by assuming that the reader (teacher) is familiar with it.