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Ethics Journal Essay

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Ethics Journal The definition of ethics inspired many theories to come up with their own theories to define the controversial term. When learning about the influential theories presented by the most influential theories I was able to further my understanding of the different approaches to ethics. Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Bentham, Rawls, Cohen, and Epicurus all enriched my understanding of ethics with then allowed me to make create my own opinion on the topic. Plato’s theory of ethics both extreme and unrealistic play a significant role in the study of ethics as one of the founders of the theory of the forms Plato’s theory influenced many future theorists. Plato’s late work “goes on to argue that we can answer questions about ethics… …show more content…

“Utilitarianism fundamental goal of ethics is to ensure happiness”() we must produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. As a people pleasure myself I understand the demand to please the greatest number of people. I also completely agree with the felicific calculation, the idea that pleasure can be measured oddly satisfies me as a calculative personality I Believe that anything and everything can be translated to a numerical value. Jeremy Bentham’s theory of Utilitarianism was the first philosopher I was introduced to and the one to spark my interest in …show more content…

Epicurus then goes on to argue that pleasure that can be controlled such as friends, peace, and art is the one things we can call ‘good’. Epicurus also emphasizes the importance of living a simple life because that is the only way we are able to truly enjoy life. I do agree with him because I believe living a simple life among other thing is not the sole indicator of happiness Epicurus’ idea of a simple life consist of minimal existence with this math among friends near to strive for power and or money. As a competitive person who turned any opportunity into a competition, I strongly disagree with Epicurus’ definition of a simple life because completion and desire for power and money are what drives people out of bed each day to be their best possible self, without that motivation nothing would force us the change or

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Bentham founded utilitarianism and developed the principle of adding pleasures and subtracting sufferings to promote a happy nation. However, one of the critics is that it only makes most people happy but leave a minority by itself. According to Eric Weiner, happiness is also a business of the government. Fifteen years

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I agree with Epicurus’ teachings on desire and happiness. In today’s society people make decisions based on unnecessary desires in an attempt to find happiness. You could even go as far as to say that this is the root of society’s problems. Today, money equals happiness. This leads to corruption and a majority of our population living a materialistic

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Letter to Meneoceus Epicurus’ views are the views of a hedonist; the only thing that is intrinsically good is pleasure. By pleasure, Epicurus did not mean a sexual pleasure, but the “absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul” (Epicurus, n.d., p. 3), which meant that pleasure is the absence of pain, so removal of pain equals pleasure. Epicurus believed that living a calm life was better than living a thrilling life. However, a calm life would be boring and without purpose compared to a thrilling life. A thrilling life does not necessarily mean creating excitement in everything one does, but living a meaningful life without being too precarious to avoid pain.

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“He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks, it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct, if wrong, as a beacon to warn.” Jeremy Bentham believed that each individual should be able to speak their own opinions whether they were right or wrong as long as they didn’t harm anyone. Bentham was a British philosopher, who was believed to be the founder of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is based on the principle of having ethics towards the morally right action, which would benefit everyone’s life and well-being.

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory summed up by the phrase, the right action is one which creates the sum total amount of happiness for the greatest number. Therefore, utilitarians believe that morality’s purpose is to maximise the number of good things, such as happiness, and decrease the number of bad things, such as unhappiness, in the world. Critics of utilitarianism believe that this theory cannot accommodate moral rights since we go against our intuitions in moral dilemmas. However, utiltarians have a response to these criticisms which shows that utilitarianism is defensible. Utilitarianism was developed into an ethical theory by two philosophers named Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

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Jeremy Bentham proposed in his writings of Utilitarianism that an action is deem good if it promotes the greatest good for the greatest amounts of morally significant beings. He believed that we should act in accordance to this principle--Act Utilitarianism. Bentham defines good as "pleasure" and "pain" as lack there of. Bentham goes further in his writings to establish a guideline for measuring pleasure and pain--the Hedonistic Calculus, an attempt to quantify the amount of pleasure and/or pain of the consequences of an action.

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that declares that what is right or good is that which brings the greatest happiness for the most people. This view is often known as the “Greatest Happiness Principle,” since it focuses on what brings the most happiness to the most people. The two founders of Utilitarianism are Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). With Utilitarianism, the focus is upon the potential consequences of an action. When faced with a dilemma in which there are two or more choices, Utilitarianism instructs us to choose the course of action that would produce the greatest amount of happiness for the most people.

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Epicurus’ ethics is one of egoistic hedonism, i.e. “the theory that one ought to only pursue one’s pleasure as an ultimate end” (Larveson, L7). He proposes that since sensations are what define us, which include pleasure and pain, learning how to maximize pleasure and minimize pain is how to live a virtuous life or the good life (Epicurus, pg. 59). Thus, our actions that we do lies in that it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain for us. Although he did say only rightfully act if it would result in pleasure, he did not recommend living extravagantly. This is pointed out in Larveson 's lecture notes; debating the pros and cons of a passionate love affair.

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Utilitarianism promotes happiness as the greatest good, and the maximization of happiness as the highest duty. The history of the theory of utilitarianism begins with Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Bentham determined that people should base their actions and decisions on the principle of maximizing utility, or happiness. In short, “Utility is understood first in terms of happiness and then as the balance of pleasure over pain,” (Wolff 126). Happiness itself is abstract, but the physical balance of pleasure over pain is something that can be felt.

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This theory was developed by Jeremy Bentham. Bentham argued that morality has nothing to do with pleasing god. He feels morality should be about manufacturing a world that has the greatest amount of happiest. At first glance this theory seems to be a wonderful idea, however throughout this paper I will argue that Utilitarianism is not a successful account of morality. I will explain the flaws with utilitarianism, such as not caring about actions, and not having bias to other individuals.

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If I held a utilitarianism belief I would be looking at maximizing happiness (Sandel, 2009). Jeremy Bentham states we are governed by our feelings of pleasure and pain. The utilitarian approach uses this for the basis of maximizing the pleasure of the community as a whole. Sometimes individual rights can be sacrificed to save the happiness in the majority of the community. According to the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, the utilitarian view would seek to maximize the overall good.

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Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy that is credited to being created by Jeremey Bentham. Bentham believed that all humans make choices based on two feelings, pain and pleasure. Because of this, Bentham believed that motives are not good or bad in nature but instead on what feeling a human might feel more.

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• Ethical Theories An ethical theory is a decision model .These theories depicts the viewpoints from which people seek guidance as they make decisions. Each theory highlights different points, different decision making style or a decision rule. Ethical theories are based on individual’s ethical ideology these theories allow a person to find an answer to an issue, to make a morally right decision or to justify a decision.

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