Ethics Journal Entry/self-interest Theory

The youth center is a place where teenagers should come together and have a time in their schedule in which they can hangout with their friends and family as well as socialize with new people from the community. Is it an ethical thing to do to open a center for younger teenagers to enjoy themselves? It is indeed selfless to put in hard work for the benefit of others, means, that it was a caring act to create a huge project that will pay back to the community which is the whole idea of CAS; humans receive hidden benefits by being nice to others, according to the self interest theory humans only do good will for their own sake, so we can still be selfish. CAS is a project that pays back to the community somehow, but why do this? Despite the idea of this project paying back to the community, it is still a selfish project! IB’s main requirements in order to pass is a creating a CAS project, and if it isn’t completed then you will not pass IB. No student that is part of the IB curriculum, would want to fail so in order to pass they will proceed to do complete the CAS project so they can achieve the IB requirements. CAS may be a caring, selfless, generous and humanitarian act but at the same time the main point that we, students, complete this task, is to pass the IB so we, individuals, can pass for the benefit of ourselves which is the main idea of the self-interest theory. The self-interest theory is all humans will always be selfish, and selfish behavior is considered as the opposite of moral behavior, according to this theory, even if there are objective moral values, humans are not able to live up to them. Relating back to my specific project, working collaboratively is something that I struggle with generally in any sort of project, in this case, this project is all about teamwork and communication, which are strengths I have developed through the process of this project. Being independent, making my own decisions and always striving to being the best are factors that I’ve always focused on, and I don’t focus on anyone surrounding me but myself and that has been the way I have acted in the beginning of this project. When I would have ideas, I would apply them without the consent of any of my team members which is a selfish act. This has created conflict and I have learned from those mistakes and realized that this is a group project and I can’t go ahead and move forward with my ideologies and apply them without the consent of team members. That’s when one of the main arguments of the self-interest comes into place which is the fear of punishment; The main aspect that prevents humans from making bad decisions is the fear of being punished. Even though some people want to do the wrong for the benefit of themselves, the fear of punishment prevents them from doing it. Why don’t I go ahead and make my own decisions, this is my project isn’t it? I don’t want to create conflict and make people unhappy because then that could cause trouble with myself and others within my project; this is why I prevent myself from making decisions on my own due the fear of punishment. I have grown and learned from these mistakes and from these learning outcomes, I have educated myself on realizing that this project isn’t individual and communication is required in order to be successful in a group project.