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Risk Taking - Research Paper

Risk Taking


In our lives, it is important to exercise self-command. However, we
should not be so concerned with the future that we stifle the present. The
question becomes what balance should we strike between self-command and risks?
What kinds of risks are acceptable or unacceptable? In this essay, we will use
two examples of risks to show the distinction between the two and arrive at a
conclusion as to the balance one should have between risk and self command. The
first example we will use is of a person who spends his life savings on a
lottery ticket and does not win the lottery. The second is of a person who
spends his life savings on a hunch regarding a cure for AIDS, a hunch that is
false. ...

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is one where the aggregate
happiness is increased, thus increasing the moral good of the risk, an idea
which is based on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism. Finally, we might define a
morally good risk in a Kantian way by saying that the only acceptable risk is
one which is rationally thought out (Thomas, lecture).
Now that we have several definitions of acceptable risks, we may ask how
these definitions, which seem piecemeal and unrelated, can all combine to form
one definition of acceptable risk. The best way to do this is to examine the
two cases that lie before us and relate the definitions to them. In the process
of doing so, we will determine which risk is acceptable and which is not.

Risks in the example: the lottery and the AIDS cure

If the average person on the street were presented with the case of
spending one's life savings on a lottery ticket and losing or spending the same
sum on a false hunch regarding an AIDS cure, he or she would probably come ...

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Risk Taking. (2008, December 5). Retrieved March 29, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Risk-Taking/94149
"Risk Taking." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Dec. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Risk-Taking/94149>
"Risk Taking." Essayworld.com. December 5, 2008. Accessed March 29, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Risk-Taking/94149.
"Risk Taking." Essayworld.com. December 5, 2008. Accessed March 29, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Risk-Taking/94149.
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 12/5/2008 12:34:01 PM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 975
Pages: 4

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