PHIL 334 HW 4
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New Jersey Institute Of Technology *
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334
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Philosophy
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Jan 9, 2024
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To Bey’ (Obey) Or Not To Bey’
I feel like when discussing whether Gioia was wrong to follow the corporate script and whether or not he bears responsibility for his part in the Ford Pinto crisis, the answer plainly would be “Yes, absolutely”. However, there’s more complexity than that when it comes to this manner. This is especially the case when it comes to the split of responsibility between all of the representatives of Ford. Is Gioia more at fault than other Ford employees or representatives higher up in the company? Ideally, no because those in higher positions at Ford put the system in place that allowed so much damage, destruction and death to be caused simply because it would cause them a lot of money to recall the faulty vehicles and repair/replace the gas tanks. However, if per say Gioia was convicted and given time in prison for his part in this situation, the
idea that he was “just following orders” and wasn’t in charge wouldn’t get him out of jail. There have been plenty of murderers who have used that excuse in court and yet they still have to serve their time because they were found guilty in the eyes of the law. Also, there’s the idea that
Gioia, at any point of working for Ford could have decided that enough was enough and that he wasn’t going to take part in vehicular manslaughter. He could have chosen to leave the company and found another job that more closely aligned with his ethical values. One doesn’t absolutely have to follow through with everything they're told by someone in higher authority, especially if they deem it unjust or unreasonable. This concept is explored in the Milgram experiments, where the test subjects were led to believe that they were shocking someone with increasing levels of volts of electricity, with the last one being the most severe. While some subjects followed through to the end, others refused to continue to participate without confirming
whether or not the person in the next room was okay. This emphasizes the idea that there’s always a choice, voiding the argument that Gioa’s actions were “just following orders' ', or anything along those lines.
Reply to Deep Jetani: I like the level of objectivity that you present in your answer, and the fact that you leave it up to interpretation. That’s a good point to raise because one’s moral standards
may differ on this matter. There can be people that argue that Gioia isn’t responsible for the system put in place by Ford, so he may not be as responsible as others make him seem. Then there’s the argument that I lean towards, that not only is Gioia responsible for his actions by understanding the severity of the situation and not calling for a recall of the Ford Pinto, that all of
those executives that he works with as well as the owner of the company are all responsible. Also, I like how you factor in conformity and obedience because those are two qualities that need to be looked at carefully especially when considering this case and its implications, Gioia adhered to both obedience and conformity by continuing to follow the orders of the higher-ups in
Ford.
Reply to Dylon Jamna: I agree with your standpoint, and you even include something that I wasn’t thinking about at first, how did this decision (at the time) reflect on Gioia in his mind? What was he thinking, fully knowing the scope of the damages that can be caused by not going through with the recall? The hypothetical that you present, the idea that Gioia may have been thinking to himself “this may not affect me as much directly” is pretty prominent in cases of negligence such as these especially preceding major laws and regulations being passed to regulate safety. This self-centered mentality causes a lot of problems within society in general, not to mention someone who’s responsible for ensuring the safety of a product they distribute in large quantities. Also, considering it wasn’t written into law yet that Ford would be liable for these deaths, they figured paying them off would be in their best interests from a financial standpoint.
Work Cited ●
https://archive.org/details/MilgramExperimentObedience
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