Dawn Riley at American True Student: Professor: Course title: Date: Dawn Riley at America True This paper analyzes the story of Dawn Riley at America True from an ethical perspective. In particular, the ethics in the story is analyzed from the utilitarian ethics perspective. Utilitarianism is a well-known moral theory. Its main concept, just like other types of consequentialism, is that whether the action of a person is morally wrong or right depends on the effects of that action. In other words, the only effect of an action that is relevant is the bad and good outcomes it produces (Henry, 2011). It is notable that people who uphold utilitarianism believe that morality has the purpose of making life better by way of increasing …show more content…
Due to her actions, Riley developed strong ties between the shore and sailing crews, something that was essential for the overall integration of the syndicate/team. As one member of the group pointed out, Dawn Riley was trying to ensure that the whole personnel in her syndicate actually felt as part of the team (Doughty, 2000). She also encouraged many people of the onshore to go and sail on the training boat at least one time. Furthermore, whenever the sponsors asked for autographed posters, Riley always ensured that everybody in the syndicate/team signed, that is, both members of the sailing crew and members who were onshore such as retail, finance and public relations people. One of the sailmakers even pointed out that Riley is the type of person that commanded respected (Doughty, 2000). The consequences of Dawn Riley’s actions resulted in a syndicate/team whose members were contented and happy, and who worked together in a very collaborative fashion toward the attainment of team goal, which in this case was to emerge victorious amongst all the 11 teams and win the Louis Vuitton Cup. As such, basing upon utilitarianism ethics, the actions of Dawn Riley could be considered as morally right; the consequences or outcomes were
In Julie Beck’s informative article, “This Article Won 't Change Your Mind,” she explores and challenges the phenomenon that belief and choices are often influenced by a person’s moral characteristics and their environment. Beck first uses a short anecdote explaining how people often chooses to only believe the things that they want to believe. If a subject matter is too uncomfortable to discuss, people often become dismissive and choose not to acknowledge the unbearable truth. Beck then continues to pursue her argument by applying reliable studies in order to strengthen the ethicality of her beliefs. She uses sources such as T Leon Festinger’s study and Stanley Schachter’s book, When Prophecy Fails, in order to imbed undeniable facts into
The Doctrine of Double Effect often refers to actions that have two relevant effects, in which they include: people whom we bring about, and those that we see but do not have a set goal for. This refers to the following, “Provided that your goal is worthwhile, you are sometimes permitted to act in ways that foreseeably cause certain types of harm, though you must never intend to cause such harms” (Landau, 2015, p. 224). Consequently, many people are lured by absolutism, since it is the one and only way to overcome consequentialism. To bring good in, absolutists need to portray their side and grant people the vision of previous arguable cases, without counting on hidden ‘consequentialist assumptions’. According to Alison Mclntyre, “According to the principle of double effect, sometimes it is permissible to cause a harm as a side effect (or “double effect”) of bringing about a good result even though it would not be permissible to cause such a harm as a means to bringing about the same good end” (Mclntyre, 2014, p. 1).
Larry May describes what he calls the “communitarian self” to be based on certain criticisms of liberalism. Two main theses May takes from his criticisms are that the self is socially constructed, and that responsibility is at least as important a moral value as is justice. May uses these propositions to argue for what he calls a communitarian perspective on professional ethics and applies it to a series of case studies such as the dilemmas of legal advocacy. Each of the cases is considered as a way to illustrate his argument; representativeness is an unaddressed issue. I will analyze Hannah Arendt, a movie about a philosopher covering a mass murder case, through May’s communitarian approach.
The context of the paper is discussion of why utilitarianism is consistently appealing. As Foot
An article posted in May 2015 to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, written by Peggy Connolly, Ruth Ann Athaus,
In regards to ethical and moral decisions for those who commit crimes, there are multiple factors that can determine what the most appropriate verdict should be. In scenario three, a man has been convicted of armed robbery to serve time in prison, and admits guilt for the deed. The man pleas that he will not commit any crimes again, and is not a danger to society. He claims that he and his wife are expecting a child, and that going to jail would be detrimental to the future of his wife and children. Based on the information given, it is evident that there will be difficulties in making a final decision that will determine this man’s fate.
Deciding what is morally right and wrong has been a question for centuries. At first, most moral theories related to religion, but as time went on theories drifted to other concepts. Throughout the years many different philosophers have tried to develop different theories to prove what actions are moral or immoral. Each of these theories frequently bounce off of one another sometime sharing similarities, while other times completely contradicting each other. One of the first theories that separated from religion to explain morality is Utilitarianism.
Bernard Williams’ essay, A Critique of Utilitarianism, launches a rather scathing criticism of J. J. C. Smart’s, An Outline of a System of Utilitarian ethics. Even though Williams claims his essay is not a direct response to Smart’s paper, the manner in which he constantly refers to Smart’s work indicates that Smart’s version of Utilitarianism, referred to as act-Utilitarianism, is the main focus of Williams’ critique. Smart illustrates the distinction between act-Utilitarianism and rule-Utilitarianism early on in his work. He says that act-Utilitarianism is the idea that the rightness of an action depends on the total goodness of an action’s consequences.
The main argument of this article comprises theories and social concepts of justice and defines implicit human obligations. Normative beliefs are sculpted by the idea of prerogative rights, which overlook the human responsibility to the well-being of all people in society. Simone Weil infers that the use of human rights objectifies what is given and allocated to an individual instead of reifying human accountability and impartiality to one another. Human rights that are specified to the individuals based on status in a community sets a negative framework of selfishness and unjust behavior that ultimately involves the absence of pure justice. According to Simone Weil, justice should be united with responsibility and obligation, which can be
In this paper, I will refute Jeremy Bentham’s principle of utility by showing that it overshadows the importance of the courses of action taken when making decisions. Bentham discusses, in “ Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation”, the principle of utility which says that, “By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness” (Bentham, 31). According to the English philosopher’s morality, this principle requires the approbation of actions if and only
Introduction on Rawls & Sandel Rawls stated his Principles of Justice in his essay as a body comprising two main principles, namely liberty and equality; which was then revised in Justice as Fairness: A Restatement . Equality is then subdivided into Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Difference Principle. He arranges these principles in ‘lexical priority’, prioritising in the order of Liberty, Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Difference Principle . The order of these principles work together when they conflict in practice and first principle is given priority over the second . Moreover, they are intended to work as a single conception of justice – ‘Justice as Fairness’.
Utilitarian suggest that we make our moral decisions from the position of a benevolent, disinterested spectator. Rather than thinking about
After reading, “A Critique of Utilitarianism” by Bernard Williams, answer the following questions: 1. What are Williams’ main objections to utilitarianism? Williams main objections to utilitarianism is that it points out that it may require us to do wrong. He reconciles ethical behavior with our feelings and emotional responses to moral problems.
Utilitarianism is a teleological ethical theory based on the idea that an action is moral if it causes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The theory is concerned with predicted consequences or outcomes of a situation rather than focusing on what is done to get to the outcome. There are many forms of utilitarianism, having been introduced by Jeremy Bentham (act utilitarianism), and later being updated by scholars such as J.S. Mill (rule utilitarianism) and Peter Singer (preference utilitarianism). When referring to issues of business ethics, utilitarianism can allow companies to decide what to do in a given situation based on a simple calculation. Many people would agree that this idea of promoting goodness
The one factor augmenting the dichotomy between what is morally right or wrong is the situation presented; while an idealist, contingent upon their morality not being compromised or questioned, may agree that maximizing net well-being is a valid endeavor, the inner mechanizations of the problem finds an inconclusive credence--what if morality were compromised? Would the idealist, in turn, reduce themselves to turning a blind eye? Let 's just give a scenario--if a person were running late to their father 's funeral, would it improve their net well-being if they were to cut traffic by driving on the side of the road? An active utilitarian, considering the situation, would most probably say yes as long as it improves the well-being of