Ethics of justice or ethics of care

This is a small personality quiz called "Ethics of justice or ethics of care"


First please take this small quiz:

1. Which is worse?
A. Hurting someone’s feelings by telling the truth.
B. Telling a lie and protecting someone’s feelings.
2. Which is the worse mistake?
A. To make exceptions too freely.
B. To apply rules too rigidly.
3. Which is it worse to be?
A. Unmerciful.
B. Unfair.
4. Which is worse?
A. Stealing something valuable from someone for no good reason.
B. Breaking a promise to a friend for no good reason.

5. Which is it better to be?
A. Just and fair.
B. Sympathetic and feeling.
6. Which is worse?
A. Not helping someone in trouble.
B. Being unfair to someone by playing favorites.
7. In making a decision you rely more on…
A. Hard facts.
B. Personal feelings and intuition.
8. Your boss orders you to do something that will hurt someone. If you carry out the order, have you done anything wrong?
A. Yes.
B. No.
9. Which is more important in determining whether an action is right or wrong?
A. Whether anyone actually gets hurt.
B. Whether a rule, law, commandment or moral principle is broken.
The answers fall in two categories, J or C. Count your number of J and C answers using this key:
1. A=C, B=J 2. A=J, B=C 3. A=C, B=J 4. A=J, B= C 5. A=J, B=C
6. A=C, B=J 7. A=J, B=C 8. A=C, B=J 9. A=C, B=J
The higher your J score, the more you rely on ethics of justice. The higher your C score, the more you rely on ethics of care.


Ethics of care and ethics of justice are two ways of differentiating right from wrong and making moral and ethical decisions. None of these two is better than the other. Even though ethics of justice and ethics of care may seem very different from one another, actually they are connected. People generally depend on both to making ethical decision. The more you are able to mix these two ethics, the better you are in making the right decisions. Actually, very few people score 9 Js or 9 Cs. Most of the people have a combined result.

ethics of justiceEthics of justice relies on principles like justice, fairness, equality or authority. The advantages if this approach is that it looks at a problem logically and impartially. People who follow this style hope to make a decision based on certain principles which are higher than any individual’s interests. Disadvantages of this approach are that people who rely on it might lose sight of the immediate interests of particular individuals. This style is more common for men than women.

ethics of careEthics of care is based on sense of responsibility to reduce actual harm or suffering. The advantages of this approach are that it is responsive to immediate suffering and harm. The disadvantage is that, when carried to an extreme, this style can produce decisions that seem not simply subjective, but arbitrary. This style is more common in women than men.

So, what is your style of making ethical decisions? Do you rely more on ethics of care or ethics of justice? What was your score? How do you feel about your score?

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Source of the quiz: Discovering Philosophy by Thomas I. White

12 comments:

  1. Strangely my score was 9 Js and no Cs. I was a bit disappointed to see this result. I dont want to be a too strict person. i thought that i had the combination of the both at least a little. But i guess i depend on ethics of justice more.

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  2. I got four Js and 5 Cs. I find that pretty balanced. Because there are instances wherein one must rely on ethics of care, and on other times ethics of justice. This was really interesting! I learned some new insights. Thanks so much!

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  3. I've got 7 Js and 2 Cs! I've hurt in my life too many people while trying to do the right thing. I don't regret at all!!!

    Very interesting post. Keep posting things like this.

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  4. @Uprinting, that's a very good combination. combining these to ethics is important to make the "right" decisions.

    @MW, I think it is better to hurt someone by doing the right thing than making someone happy by doing something bad.

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  5. I got 7Cs and 2Js I guess I care too much, sometimes to my own detriment.

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  6. Wow this post definitely had me thinking. I had almost the same C's as J's but depending on the situation I could definitely see myself choosing differently. Very interesting and fun post.

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  7. How can you say that "none of these two is better than the other"? The word "care" is a warm word and the word "justice" is a cold word. By naming these two categories, this system prejudges which was better!

    Clever? Yes. Deceitful? Yes.

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  8. Wow, I got all C's and one J. So I went back to see if I would answer anyting differently and I could not think of any answer I would change.
    I don't think being caring is a bad thing, but it may be the reason I get hurt more often...I never used to care at all

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  9. The test is really a better indicator of if you think the world is influenced by individuals, or if individuals are influenced by the world. Other than that, most of these questions are satisfactorily answered in Ethics 101-201.

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  10. The last three anonymous commentators really explained a lot better than i did in the post. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it :)

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  11. We all do some thing worse or better every day,but all we do represent our personality if we are negative than we cannot do anything positive for others, some good points, thanks for sharing

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  12. i dont want to hurt someone, coz care to someone lose of sight.. thanks for sharing,, i realy appreciate it.

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