Moray Compass Essay

My Moral Compass

Rensi Zhang

Johns Hopkins University

Course: Business Leadership and Human Values

Section: BU.131.601.W2.SU15 – Group 6

Individual Assignment 1: The Moral Compass Essay

Jun 21st, 2015

       A moral compass is a “sound” inside our hearts that tells us the right direction when we have to make decisions about right and wrong. It’s like a little compass that leads us in the challenging and demanding world through our lives.

       “When Heaven invests one with great responsibilities, it first exhausts her stamina, starves her body, leaves her destitute, and confounds her every endeavor”, this is the quote my father employed to name me when I first came to this world. Originated from the reputable Confucian Master Mencius thousands of years ago, these time-honored words have been encouraging ordinaries to undertake social responsibilities and treat hardship in life as means to train their patience and endurance so that they finally fear no obstacle through their path towards success.

Moral Vision

       “May you care about the society and be capable to take important responsibilities”, I think this might be the real incentive that advised my father to name me Rensi. In reality, my name, its origin and the genuine meaning, have altogether been inspiring me to become a kind, honest, and courteous person.

       Because of the story lying behind my name, I started to read other masterpiece of Confucianism since I was a child. As far as I am concerned, the core thought of Confucianism is humanity, altruism, and integrity.

Moral Code

       According to my moral vision, I made my own code of conduct.

       The humanity emphasized by Confucianism keeps reminding me of respect and understanding. Just as the famous line from , “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”, I believe that one should never judge other people.

       Furthermore, Confucianism also advocates altruism, which puts stress on giving and helping others.  I believe that nothing (can bring happiness more than) is happier than being happy of doing good deeds. As the old saying goes, “present rose to others with remaining fragrance at hand”, only a person who knows how to give can be truly happy. Born and grew under the enlightenment of my father, who is a Sociologist and remains engaged in community service for years, I enjoy some precious opportunities to take a glimpse at real social situations by serving as a volunteer in the Big Dipper Service Center for Social Work in my hometown, Guangzhou. Cleaning streets, visiting seniors, and caring single-parent children, although all these seemed small or even trivial, I felt huge pride and satisfaction when saw smile and gratitude from those received help and concern.

       My third code of conduct is acting with integrity. It seems that integrity and honesty somewhat go hand in hand and it’s difficult to differentiate the two. As far as I am concerned, honesty is about adherence to the facts; while integrity compares one’s behavior to her own self-definition and code of conduct. Wang Yangming, the most influential philosopher in the Ming dynasty, proposed “the unity of theory and practice”, which keeps reminding me of acting with integrity and always following my heart.

Moral Fitness

       While working through the moral compass workbook, I learned that “moral fitness is ritualized action that expresses and reflects the vision and values of moral identity and is the spiritual aspect of moral agency”. To be honest, my moral fitness regime is the aspect of moral compass where most improvement is needed. I should dedicate more time for self-reflection to see how I am living in comparison to my moral code and vision.

Defining Moment

       Defining moments, which shape the future of people and organizations, often involve deciding between paths that are both right. How to decide between right and right is an important issue requires more thoughts and consideration. I have never dealt with a moral dilemma like this in the past. But if I were caught in a dilemma where interests of different groups cannot be matched at the same time, I’ll first ask myself “whose good should I be serving?” I won’t try to evaluate whose interests are more valuable because I believe every individual deserves respect and should be treated equally. When caught in a moral dilemma, people tend to employ the Utilitarianism Theory, which is a theory in normative ethics holding that moral action is the one that maximizes utility. In a utilitarianism society, “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”. I think utilitarianism is overall a good way to act in a society, but the moral claim of a minority should not be ignored. Therefore, I believe it’s important to protect the disadvantaged groups when trying to maximize the majority’s benefits.