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Example Of Utilitarianism

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According to Jeremy Bentham, utilitarianism is “the highest principle of morality to maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain” (Sandel, 33). Thus speaking, doing whatever possible to make sure people’s happiness is maximized and no infliction of pain taking place on the majority of individuals is Bentham’s view of utilitarianism. He believes that utilitarianism is individual based, but that finding the greatest good should be based on the greatest number. One example of utilitarianism in the book is whether torture is ever justifiable when interrogating suspected terrorists. Although the idea of utilitarianism is for no pain to be felt, using utilitarian calculation to recognize that torturing one individual to get information
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In the novel True Grit by Charles Portis, the mistakes made by Rooster Cogburn eventually lead him to the path of the good. While Rooster is speaking with Labeouf it becomes known that Rooster rode “with the Quantrill gang” and that they “were not soldiers but murdering thieves”. The atrocities that Rooster committed with the Quantrill gang are the first of many morally wrong actions that lead him to becoming a marshall. As a marshall, Rooster is a shoot first ask questions later type enforcer of the law and it is revealed that he is responsible for “twenty-three dead men in four years”(50). While some of these deaths were justified, the corrupt and lawless like nature of Rooster is ultimately what makes Mattie choose Rooster as the man to

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In Michael Levin's The Case for Torture, Levin provides an argument in which he discusses the significance of inflicting torture to perpetrators as a way of punishment. In his argument, he dispenses a critical approach into what he believes justifies torture in certain situations. Torture is assumed to be banned in our culture and the thought of it takes society back to the brutal ages. He argues that societies that are enlightened reject torture and the authoritative figure that engage in its application risk the displeasure of the United States. In his perspective, he provides instances in which wrongdoers put the lives of innocent people at risk and discusses the aspect of death and idealism.

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362 Words | 2 Pages

nature are hedonistic, this means that people given the opportunity would avoid painful situations at all costs, while vigorously reaching out for pleasurable moments. An example of reasoning in act Utilitarianism can be found in the biomedical ethics book (Mapes&Gaize pg. 10). A severely ill infant who has zero chances of survival has contracted a deadly virus, the physician and parents now must make the decision to treat the virus with antibiotics or allow the infant to simply die. In this case it is clear that those involved would be best served by allowing the child to simply die, since the infant has nothing to gain and everything to lose from a painful prolonged life. The anguish and distress of the parents cannot be eliminated regardless

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There is space for arguments to determine to what extent torture can be accepted as the right choice of action and to what extent this is not applicable. One of the core features of this essay is that here

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2016). Using this ethical framework to argue against torture, one needs to consider the violation of the terrorist’s rights. Utilitarians argue that under a scenario where thousands of people are in danger, the well-being of the larger community is more important than neglecting the rights of a single individual (Krauthammer 2005). The simple idea of taking away a person’s autonomy for the sake of others violates rights ethics. To comprehend the violation upon the victim’s rights, it is important to understand how torture feels, “Brian describes his body as having become an object… pain is the central reality; it dominates experience and expression (Wisnewski 2010, 81).”

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Bentham says that pleasures and pains have seven different ways of being measured. A legislator has to view all the pleasures and pains and their values before making a decision. Pleasure is valued through how long it lasts and the intensity of it. It is important to assess the problem through taking in account of who is being affected and what pleasure and pain it will cost. Another important point that Bentham makes is to see what kind of pleasure or pain will be caused from a decision.

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Utilitarianism is the moral theory that the action that people should take it the one that provides the greatest utility. In this paper I intend to argue that utilitarianism is generally untenable because act and rule utilitarianism both have objections that prove they cannot fully provide the sure answer on how to make moral decisions and what will be the ultimate outcome. I intend to do this by defining the argument for act and rule utilitarianism, giving an example, presenting the objections to act and rule utilitarianism and proving that utilitarianism is untenable. Both act and rule utilitarianism attempt to argue that what is right or wrong can be proven by what morally increases the well being of people. Act utilitarianism argues that

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Exactly, you would want your child to be saved as well. That 's one of the major flaws I see in utilitarianism. The rule of utilitarianism is that the decision that brings the most happiness should be made. I 'm not saying the disabled child wouldn 't bring any happiness, I 'm saying in this case the neighbor 's four kids would bring more happiness to society rather than the disabled one. The act of utilitarianism is a cruel system, but if one wants to incorporate into society then they should incorporate it completely rather than

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The kidnapper was prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment; however the officer ‘was also prosecuted and convicted of violating the kidnappers rights’ (Sandel, 2011). This presents an interesting moral dilemma, can torture ever be justified? And was the officer acting in a morally respectable way? In this essay I will answer these questions by analysing the arguments which justify or condemn his actions, from both the utilitarian and deontological perspectives.

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Brave new world - Essay I look at this from a utilitarian perspective were the moral thing is to do the most good for the most amount of people. The individual, while important in any sense, is only relevant in terms of the community as a whole. It is very similar to the question of individual versus collective happiness. The happiness of the most amount of people is better than letting the individual decide for oneself.

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1259 Words | 6 Pages

The Act Utilitarianism is Judges an act in terms of the consequences

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Suppose a conductor is driving his train and the breaks are defect. The rails lead directly into a cluster of five people who would all die if the train will go this direction. However, the conductor can change onto another track where only one person is standing hence only one person would die. How should the conductor react (Hare, 1964)? Is it possible to condense the problem to a rather simple maximization problem in example that the action is taken, which would kill the least people?

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Title: Philosophy of Development Name: Jitendra Kuldeep Roll No: 13110044 Word Count: 1659

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Consequential Ethical theory It is a part of normative ethical theories and it means that the consequence of ones behavior is an ultimate mean for anyone to judge the rightness or wrongness of that behavior. So, from the perspective of a consequentialist an ethically right act is the one that will inherit good outcome or consequence. It usually explains the saying “the end justifies the means” which means that in order to achieve a goal, take any route which leads to achieving it.

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The hedonic calculus has seven different criteria that must be considered to evaluate the balance between good and evil. This appears practical and easy to use in any situation; however, it has its issues. For example, Bentham suggested that all pleasure and pain should be measured equally. This causes a major problem when put into the context of business ethics, as it suggests that the pain experienced by a child forced to work in a factory is equal to a shareholder in a business gaining a little more profit – surely, this is unethical. J.S. Mill noticed this issue, introducing rule utilitarianism, in which he recognised the differences in different types of pleasures.

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