Assignment task: You are at your friends' house visiting over the holidays and they have a very nice, small Christmas tree decorated with a lot of delicate artistic ornaments they have collected over the years. The tree rests on a tall, slightly unstable table. You sit down in a chair next to it a little too hard and accidentally knock it over and, in a thunderous crash, most of the ornaments shatter on the floor. Right then, their hyper dog walks up to the tree sniffing at it. Your friend is in the other room and coming quickly. You have a long relationship with this friend and it is based on the fact you always tell the truth to each other. Your friend would be so furious with you breaking the ornaments, even on accident, that your friendship might end over it, which you really do not want. You have only a few seconds to make up your mind on what to do: confess to what happened or blame it on the dog clumsily running into the table. You are a practiced Utilitarian and you determine that blaming the dog would result in significantly more overall happiness for all involved as opposed to telling the truth, as the dog would just be mildly punished, you would be free, and your friendship would continue - and only you would know the truth. What would you do and why? What is the reason that you chose that option? Does the reason that you chose that option pose a serious problem for or does it support the Utilitarian viewpoint of using happiness as the most important guiding principle in ethics? Why? Are other moral principles made less or more important by your decision? If so, which ones and why?