1. Examine and state ‘HOW’ your moral predicament is one (what vs. what). Be specific and consider the influences of everything mentioned in #2 above. You should also review the Hedonic Calculus categories and resulting consequences when weighing and considering your potential choice of action.
Life requires personal choices to be made on a daily basis. These choice can often create a moral predicament. Personally, the predicament that influences the majority of decisions made is the responsibilities versus desire. In the Hedonic Calculus, the highest influence is intensity. This indicates how strong the feeling or how intense the pleasure of pain will be. The intensity has significant consideration in making the potential choice of action. The intensity of desire can greatly outweigh the responsibility that one is faced with on a daily basis. Recently I was faced with the opportunity to go to spring break with a group of friends. This was very appealing – a week away from work and school, just having a good time and forgetting about life. The issue with packing up and going was based on several factors. First, I was scheduled to work, which would require me to call off. Secondly, I had work due as soon as school resumed. And lastly, it would take my savings to be able to afford this venture, and it would leave me with absolutely no reserve.

Clearly, the desire is to go on spring break with my friends. However, the responsibilities that hang over my head plague my ability to go all in without consideration. Calling off all week of work could potentially jeopardize by job. My job works with my school schedule, and there is no guarantee that I could find another one that would be willing to comply with my personal needs. There would be no time to complete assignments, and upon my return, I would be exhausted and unlikely to complete. The assignments would be marketed down for being late. Additionally, I will spend all of my savings, miss a week of work, and have no guarantee of a job upon returning home. The responsible thing would be to stay home; however, the desired position is to pack my bags and head out on spring break with my friends.

2. Attempt to make a ‘wise’ choice that will resolve your ‘predicament’. State your course of action.
In more cases than not, the wise choice will coincided with doing what is responsible. The moral predicament is being faced with choosing responsibility over desire. The first thing that a ‘wise’ choice would consist of it to weigh the actions to the potential outcome. In this situation, the only positive effect is based upon personal pleasure, and the negative factors are significant. Another wise position would be to find out if there is any way to attend spring break without jeopardizing my job. Having a secure positon to return home to would be a responsible positon and validate the desire to attend spring break. In addition, a wise choice would be to complete the assignments prior to leaving on spring break, or taking it with me knowing it has to be completed within a time period. Taking care of my responsibilities allows for justification in acting on personal desire.

3. If you still cannot decide on a course of action. . . step aside (mentally) and imagine yourself as being someone you consider ‘wise’ (a real person), and state the choice the ‘wise’ advisor would probably make, and give ‘their’ reasons.

The choice of a wise individual would always be to do the responsible thing over what is desired. Therefore, as a wise person I would need to skip spring break and stay home. It would allow me to keep my savings in tack and earn my income from that week of work. I would have time to complete my assignments. The week home would also allow me time to rest and prepare myself for the upcoming week. It would still be a vacation, just not on spring break with my friends. A wise person would not risk their security for a short period of fun. It would not be beneficial for the bigger picture of what one is working towards.