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Examples Of Utilitarianism

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Donovan J. Greening
Dr. Young
Intro to Ethics 1020
March 26th, 2017
Tobacco and Morality
Though a public health and political economy issue, tobacco control policy has also been termed a morality issue. The tobacco control issue has been part of the morality concern since the early twentieth century (Studlar, 2008). To date, focus has been put on emphasizing the health and social concerns of substance abuse, in an attempt to counter the perceived psychological benefits of use and peer pressure. Results from a study carried out show that use of substances was directly related to moral perceptions with those against use less likely to be users while those who considered it alright were users, Amonini and Donovan (2006). This essay will be …show more content…

It focuses on outcomes rather than intentions. Two of the most noted utilitarian advocates; Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill held that the good the best action is the one maximizes utility, utility being defined in terms of well-being of sentient entities like human beings or animals- to benefit as many stakeholders as possible. Evidence suggests that utilitarianism is the preferred ethical theory of health economists and economists working in other fields. Robertson, Morris and Walter (2007) define utilitarianism as a ‘measure of the relative happiness or satisfaction of a group, usually considered in questions of the allocation of limited resources to a population’ Journal of the European ethics network …show more content…

Kant advocated for application of a formal test to morality called categorical imperative, categorical meaning that this ethical principle is the supreme and absolute and true test to morality, and imperative meaning that at times one must command oneself to be moral ad do the right thing, even when one’s self-interests may be contravened by acting rightly. Thus, if an action produces a greater good, such as discussed in the utilitarian views, and is nonetheless disrespectful and demeaning and treats people as mere means, things or instruments, then the action is not moral. The goal should be for everyone to be treated as a worthwhile human being with dignity and respect (Cavico & Mujtaba,

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Manipulation Haman manipulates the king into approving his requests of committing genocide of the Jews. Hadassah (Queen Esther) manipulates the king into doing the right thing and to not kill Mordecai. A man manipulates a girl to thinking if she poisoned the other girls then she could be queen. Struggle for Power

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Kantians believe that the rightness or wrongness of an action does not depend on the consequences, but on whether they fulfill a duty. They must act in a way that will produce the greatest overall amount of good in the world. In this view there is no obligation to give money to a homeless person, but it is the right thing to do. Kant’s supreme moral principle is the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative is a moral law that is unconditional for all agents because of intrinsic value.

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This essay

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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

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The essay will

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Utilitarianism as explained by John Stuart Mill is a principle that is defined as “The greatest happiness for the greatest number of people for the greatest length of time.” Mill explains that we are happiness seeking individuals but at the same time, so is everyone else. So if I am in an ethical situation, I should always choose the path that has the greatest happiness for everyone, including myself. According to Mill, happiness for him is just pleasure and the absence of pain. In reality, I should think about my choices, think how many people will be “happy” with the least amount of pain as a whole.

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Because of their desire to know truth, philosophers rightly scrutinize the ideas they come across. However, the conclusions that philosophers arrive upon after dissecting a theory tends to be a bit extreme. They tend to discount entire theories if it has poor support of if it cannot hold its ground during edge cases. If a theory isn’t 100% sound, the atmosphere around the conversation makes the theory seem 100% wrong. Although Dworkin is correct that unrestricted utilitarianism cannot account for equality, his argument that neutral utilitarianism on its own is self-contradictory is wrong due to his misunderstanding of his own definition of utilitarianism.

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1. Utilitarian focus more on the present because it focus on the consequence of the evil act the harm themselves. If you are wrong in the present it will focus on too much evil. 2. Act utilitarian, good, harm for the greatest number of people, so they tend to look at societal benefits, not just those, such as family member, who are most impacted.

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317 Words | 2 Pages

The principle of utilitarianism is to maximize utility, so the actions are useful and beneficial to generate the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Both Bentham and Mill support different type of utilitarianism. While Bentham supports the act utilitarianism where one focuses on the act in order to see if it promotes pleasure, Mill supports the rule utilitarianism because rules and laws can help promote happiness. For example, if a hungry person gets an apple from an apple tree, Bentham will say that is totally fine because he or she is maximize pleasure and minimize pain. However, Mill will say that is wrong because he or she does not follow the rules.

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316 Words | 2 Pages

Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative is essentially that you should act how you would want everyone else to act towards all other people. It says to act according to the maxim that you would wish all other rational people to follow, as if it were a universal law. This is similar to many maxims held by different religions: do unto others as you would have done unto you. Although, Kant does not justify his philosophy with religion, but rather with reason and logic. He believes that it is logical to want to do good always.

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The theory of utilitarianism is usually a prominent issue for discussion to many self-proclaimed wise philosophers. But is the theory itself wise? This question can be thoroughly assessed by examining the juxtaposition of wisdom and utilitarianism. By definition, utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical doctrine holding that the happiness and successfulness of the greatest number of people in a population is considered the greatest good of the population regardless of the status of the fewer. Two of the most well-known proponents for utilitarianism are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

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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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Utilitarianism states that, actions are right if they tend to promote happiness to the majority and wrong if their consequences don't bring forth happiness. it stipulates that actions should be classified either morally right or wrong if their results are of such significance that a person would wish to see the other person suffer. They argued that human actions are purely motivated by people’s pleasure and pain. For this case, modern organizations tend to use social networking sites to screen job applicants, and this leads to the development of many issues. This has become an increasing trend in the corporate world today since most of the employers need to know all about their employees before incorporating them into the industry.

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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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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

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