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Ethical theories in general
What is utilitarianism? Is utilitarianism the correct moral theory
What is utilitarianism? Is utilitarianism the correct moral theory
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Utilitarianism tells a person to choose the option that will be of the greater good/ happiness and last longer. For instance, in the medical field if pharmacist has ten patients that need a specific pill to survive. However, the pharmacist only has nine pills. The only thing the pharmacist knows about the patients is that one patients needs three pills to live and all the other only need one to like. In this type of situation, the utilitarian choice would be to give the nine patients one pill to live.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that focuses on outcomes and consequences. When one considers the theory of utilitarianism, it must be understood that the pleasure is a fundamental moral good and the aim is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. So, when a human is going through the decision making process it is of the utmost importance to look forward at the consequences of the decision and determine if the decision will maximize pleasure and minimize pain. John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth century philosopher focused on the theory of utilitarianism or the Greatest Happiness Principle and claimed that the maximization of happiness for the greatest quantity of people is the ultimate goal. One issue that we face in modern day America that
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
A Utilitarian will base his actions on the best end result or that which benefits the greatest number of people. The Utilitarian is primarily focused with the end result of an act. This view is a version of Consequentialism. For a Utilitarian believes that the morally right act is the one which tries to bring about the best possible consequence (i.e as much happiness as possible for the people concerned). Happiness for a utilitarian refers to a state of mind that is perceived desirable and in which a person feels pleasure and
Utilitarianism is one of the best-known theory under the consequentialism, and its idea is the Greatest Happiness Principle(GHP). According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Utilitarian believe that the purpose of morality is to
A Utilitarian would never say that the argument proposed above is correct, because even though Utilitarianism is a hedonistic theory, it is not an egoistic theory. In the argument above, becoming a corrupt politician would only maximize my happiness and minimize my pain, therefore this argument is egoistic, and it would cause harm for more people than the people it would make happy. In other words, the principle of Utility proposes that an action is morally correct as long as it maximizes happiness and minimizes pain for the greatest amount of people. However, there are different points of view on what exactly make an action morally right among Utilitarians. an Act Utilitarian would say that what makes an action morally right is if it causes
To compare utilitarianism to enhanced interrogations and find out if they are ethical or not, one must apply the 4 steps of utilitarianism. First, one must identify all the options (Banks, 2013). An example of this would be “one has the option of interrogating a suspected terrorist in an enhanced manner or to just ask questions in a calm fashion.” Second, one must identify all affected by the decision including individuals, organizations, and the community (Banks, 2013). An example of this would be “Those likely to be affected by the decision are the suspected terrorists or detainees, their friends and family, the military, and the whole country.”
In this paper, I will define what pure utilitarianism is, as presented in Jeremy Bentham’s “Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” and argue that there is a problem with utilitarianism. I will provide a counterexample to Bentham’s utilitarianism to highlight the flaws with Bentham’s reasoning. I will present an alternative to utilitarianism that avoids the counterexample by slightly revising aggregation. Lastly, I will claim that my revised alternative is still flawed and another counterexample can still be provided.
The main principle of utilitarianism is happiness. People who follow this theory strive to fulfill the “ultimate good”. The “ultimate good” is defined as ultimate pleasure with out any pain. It is said that the pleasure can be of any quantity and any quality, but pleasures that are weighted more important are put at a higher level than others that are below it. This ethical theory also states that if society would fully embrace utilitarianism then people would naturally realize their moral standing in the
Utilitarian theory is a choice between two acts that can maximize utility for the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people (Mossier, 2013). Utilitarian takes the right proportion of utilities to promote happiness and prevent pain (Mossier, 2013). People are not happy working in an environment where people cannot read or write because it sometimes requires more work. Utilities are the expressed quality of happiness or satisfaction one gets from something (Mossier, 2013). Happiness comes in many levels of preference (Mossier, 2013).
It states that an action which is deemed right is one that has not merely some good consequences, but also the greatest amount of good consequences possible when the negative consequences are also given due considerations. According to the utilitarian principle, the righteousness of an action is solely judged on the basis of its consequences. Classical utilitarianism determines the balance of pleasure and pain for each individual affected by the action in question as well as the amount of utility for the whole
A man by the name of John Stuart Mill seems to be able to give us some answers to these questions. Mill starts our inquiring journey with defining what utilitarianism stands for. In short he states that it is the construction of utility, which claims that the actions that stimulate happiness in is morally fit and vice versa to be unfit. Happiness is something that we want for
The main principle of utilitarianism is “the right action in any situation is the one that tends to produce the greatest possible balance of happiness over unhappiness for the greatest possible number.” (pg. 128). In other words, which course of action is going to produce the most happiness. For example, if a person does the right thing it will lead to their happiness, if the person chooses to do the wrong thing then it will cause them to be unhappy. The “Utility Principle which is also known as the Greatest Happiness Principle.”
As per this theory the outcome of any action should minimize the pain and maximize the pleasure. The utilitarianism have two groups one is the Act utilitarian’s focun on the effects of individual actions (Such as Nathuram Godse’s assassination of Mahatma Gandhi) and another is rule utilitarian’s those focus on the effects of types of actions (such as killing or stealing) Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things (such as pleasure and happiness) in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things (such as pain and unhappiness). They reject moral codes or systems that consist of commands or taboos that are based on customs, traditions, or orders given by leaders
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
