ipl-logo

Ethical Ethics Vs Utilitarianism

1200 Words5 Pages
Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question. Velasquez (2006) posited “Utilitarianism is a general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society”. This belief goes all the way back to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill who we consider to be the founders of the philosophical concept of traditional utilitarianism. These two were of the belief that once our actions were right we tend to project happiness whereas if the action is wrong the outcome is unhappiness. Happiness was just not felt by the doer but also by everyone affected by the action and vice versa for the wrong action. Bentham "An action is right from an ethical point of view if and only if the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total of utilities produced by any other act the agent could have performed in its place." However, whereby other ethical theories make the rightness or wrongness of an act dependent upon the motive of the agent, with the Utilitarian theory bad actions or motives can produce right outcomes as sometimes the best consequences are produced from actions. It is best then that for every action that we take, consider choosing the actions that produces the greatest net benefits or the lowest net costs. With this theory, moral conduct is rated and regarded very highly as the measure of consequences of alternative acts comes into
Open Document