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John Stuart Mill's Theory Of Utilitarianism

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Ethical Theories Ethics is a really simple topic that people decided to make really complicated. All ethics is, by definition, is “moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior”. Aristotle said that ethics is the attempt to offer a rational response to the question of how humans should live. Immanuel Kant believed that the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty. John Stuart Mill believed in Utilitarianism, which said that the right choice is the one that will benefit the majority or whichever choice is for the greatest good. All of these theories talk about humans and how we should or shouldn’t interact with each other. John Stuart Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism states that actions are right if they are useful or benefit the majority. All this is saying is that when someone does something that affects other people, they should do that which will be best for the majority even if it isn’t best for themselves. For example, the United …show more content…

For his theory, there are two questions that you must ask whenever you decide to act. The first is: Can you assume that everyone acts as you propose they act? If the answer is no, then you must not perform the action. The second is: Does your action respect the goals of humans rather than merely using them for your own purposes? Again, if the answer is no, then you must not perform the action. This all basically means that if you want to do something and you can’t predict how people will react to it, or if it violates anybody’s personal rights (then what?). I am not really sure what this means or how it relates to anything in the modern day. From what I understand about this theory, it just means don’t do anything that will affect others negatively or cause them to react in an ill

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