ETHC445 Principles of Ethics
Week 2 Discussion
Majority Who?
What do numbers have to do with conscience?
American writer Mark Twain warned, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
These approaches to majorities aren’t news. Your parents probably warned you when you were young to follow your conscience, not the crowd.
So, the United States is a “hybrid” democratic republic. In a democracy, what is the role of a majority group in regard to any related minority group? Is it to defeat? To protect? To maintain dialogue? Something else? Why? And consider how a “representative democracy” differs from a “constitutional republic,” too… (Links to an external site.)
Please do a little research to support your points. Identify a situation in American society or politics today that concerns at least one majority group and at least one minority group. How does this situation illustrate, positively or negatively, the role of a majority group in regard to any related minority group as you see it? Links are great, and remember to explain why you’re choosing what you’re choosing! (P.S. This does not need to be a racial or ethnic minority.)
