Parable of the Sadhu: Analysis from Three General Approaches

Parable of the Sadhu: Analysis from three general approaches.

The "Parable of the Sadhu" presents a complex situation which action immediate action was necessary. Sadhu, an Indian holy man, was discovered naked and barely alive by a group of multicultural mountaineers during their journey. Each ethnic group did a little to help the Sadhu, but none assumed full responsibility. Their priority was in climbing the mountain rather than carrying Sadhu to the village where other people could help him. Although the conditions of the trip were so that once the mountaineers went down to the village they might not have been able to come back up, the author of this essay still feels guilty for what was not done for the Sadhu (Donaldson 280). There are three general approaches in examining a moral issue and making a decision, those being consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. The essay does not clearly indicate which method was used to assess the situation. In my opinion, the best method would be Kantian deontology.

Let us discuss consequentialism first. Consequentialism focuses on consequences as the most important factor in the decision making process (Donaldson 3). For consequentialists the motives of an act are not as important as what comes out of it. Utilitarianism is one of the branches of consequentialism. Utilitarianism believes in the greatest good for the number (Donaldson 3). This method along with egoist consequentialism was probably the one that was used subconsciously by the mountaineers. Leaving the Sadhu was fine because in the end the greater amount of people would have reached their goal and that would have made them happy. Egoist consequentialists who believe that the greatest good is their own would have done the same, satisfying their desires before helping someone else (Donaldson 4). This method, however, is not the best for this situation. One proving factor is that McCoy still feels guilty about this incident. Therefore, this method did not produce the most ethical response.

Virtue ethics, unlike consequentialism, focus on the kind of person each one of us should be. They focus on cultivating certain characteristics and look at every situation in terms of its potential influence on the morale of the person (Donaldson 10). This method, although much more helpful than utilitarianism, still produces an unclear response. On one hand, kindness and compassion are both virtues that would be cultivated if the mountaineers decided to help the Sadhu and carry him to the village. On the other hand, if mountaineers continue their journey virtues such as courage and determination would flourish. It is difficult to decide which virtues are more important than others and therefore, this method is too ambiguous to be applied to this situation.

Finally, there is deontology, also called non-consequentialism. Deontology, in general, focuses on the motives of the act and the concept of "duty"(Camenisch 2). Kantian deontology