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Deontology Vs Consequentialism

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Recommended: Consequentialist versus deontological perspectives

Throughout the field of philosophy, ethics play an extensive role. This branch of knowledge is significantly important within the area of moral philosophy, as the main concept touches on moral principles and behaviour of mankind as a consequence of such principles. LaFollette (2000) expressed his view that as a whole, humanity ‘should better understand ourselves, our place in the world, and our relationship to others’, from which I believe, can be derived through ethics. When studying the behaviour of humans and their proficiency to make decisions, I have learned that there are two leading philosophical positions which determine the way in which we think, both rationally and irrationally, and influence our decisions. These two principles consist of consequentialism and deontology. I intend to analyse how the views of consequentialists differ from that of deontologists and determine whether both views are tenable. …show more content…

An example of this could be a classroom of 20 university students held captive at gunpoint. The captor selects one student at random and tells another student to shoot him/her otherwise he would personally shoot the other 18 students. The condition is that the 18 students will go free if the selected student is shot by his classmate. In this situation, a consequentialist would see that by shooting one innocent person, he is saving the lives of 18 innocent people, so decides this is the best decision morally. Why allow 18 people to die and for 18 families to suffer when he has the opportunity to prevent this and instead minimise the suffering to just one death and one family’s torment? However, in situations of stress, fear or sheer terror, I feel that consequentialists do not always approach the problem having evaluated what is the morally correct way to act, and can deter from the option that will actually benefit more people and their happiness. Say, for example, that the randomly selected student was in actual fact the brother of the student who had been ordered to kill him. The thought of knowing that this is family, and having built an extremely close relationship, the ‘shooter’ student may not be able to live with the fact he killed his brother and choose to let 18 innocents die, whilst living knowing that he could have prevented it. Although a consequentialist, and always wanting to make decisions based on the greatest overall happiness, this can be affected at specific times in a person’s life, where they have overpowering feelings of emotion. Nevertheless, if he had shot his brother, the consequentialist view would have been that the expense to the shooter would be small in comparison with the benefit to the other students, which would have been great. Hospers (1997) also argued this point, stating ‘If you

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As we know consequentialism is the focus of an action that does more intrinsically good than bad, one kind of consequentialist theory is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an action that produces consequences that are more good over bad for everyone involved. In order to produce an action that is the best one a utilitarianist would consider both long and short term effects. Two sub categories of utilitarianism include act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. act utilitarianism bases an action on the overall well being produced by an individual.

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The narrator, Reuven Malter, describes his neighborhood that he’s lived in for 15 years. His neighborhood is heavily populated by the Orthodox Jews that included many Hasidic sects. He goes on to talk about the yeshiva¬ – a Jewish parochial school- in which the male children of the household “studied from eight or nine in the morning to four or five in the evening” (4). Later on, he mentions Danny, another kid in his neighborhood. Danny’s father ran his own yeshiva while Reuven’s dad owned his own.

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Ethical theories are ways of telling right from wrong and include guidelines of how to live and act in an ethical way. For example when faced with a difficult situation in your life, you can use ethical theories to assist you in making the right decision. One key theory is consequentialism, which says that an individual’s correct moral response is related to the outcome/ consequence of the act and not its intentions/ motives. Early writers on this theory were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, a modern writer is Peter Singer. For example Brenda Grey has asked for the asthma specialist to visit her weekly, and to decide if this is necessary the professionals involved have to look at how it would affect her wellbeing.

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Williams has an issue with the need to look at actions’ consequences to find any value in them. He believes that some actions have innate value regardless of their consequences. He compares the consequentialist’s position to that of a traveler who focuses only on the destination he is seeking to arrive at. Williams states that travelers don’t travel to arrive somewhere, they travel because they find value in the journey itself. There is something in this idea that can be applied to morality.

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When a person is going to make a moral decision based on consequentialism, he or she first look at the good and bad possible consequences of the action, then determine whether the total good consequences outweigh the total bad.

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Consequentialist believe that morality is about producing the right overall consequences, and that the action brings about either happiness, freedom or survival of species. Utilitarianism is an example of consequentialism that maximizes utility (happiness). The difference between utilitarianism and consequentialism is that a utilitarian overlooks justice, as long as an utilitarian can maximize pleasure they would do whatever it takes. Consequentialist enjoy maximizing pleasure like a utilitarian, but they also take into account autonomy and justice. A consequentialist believes that determining good by measuring the outcome, if the good for all in the act is greater than the bad for all in the act, it is deemed morally good.

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Deontology which is derived from the Greek words Deon (meaning obligation/duty) and logia (science/study) combined to be also known as duty or rule-based ethics or the study of duties or obligations. It is a branch of ethical theories that deals with ethics of conduct, which theories are based on the sort of actions people must perform. It is based on non-consequentialism where the ends do not justify the means and thus deontology is an approach to ethics in which a sense of duty or principle prescribes the ethical decision (Preston, 2007). Deontology affirms duties must be obeyed regardless of the consequences. The theory of Deontology has its flaws as well and this essay will present three criticisms of deontology namely that deontology relies on moral absolutes, allows acts that make the world a worse place, two permissible duties that are right can conflict with each other and will demonstrate these flaws with relevant case studies and dilemmas.

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Explain how the movie deals with consequentialism and non-consequentialism, particularly in the role the “Pre-Cogs” play in the movie and the idea behind Pre-Crime. Consequentialism can be defined simply as being concerned with the consequences of an act or event. The consequences are of greater priority than the act itself. This is a means justifies the end view of things. There are two main forms of consequentialism, egoism and utilitarianism.

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However, even though these are two opposing philosophies, with very different ideas governing their conclusions, we should look to learn from both and apply the knowledge we identify with, thus creating our own philosophies. In this essay I wish to do exactly that; to compare and contrast these two ideologies in order to better understand them and help others do the same. First we must understand what is Deontology. The word deontology when broken down to its roots literally means, the study of the nature of duty and obligation.

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The consequentialist theorist can be taken as an example. Consequentialist theories are a theory in which it is based on the consequences of an action. Based on the movie assignment, The Island, there are some major views that the consequentialist theories have on the movie. One of the major

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In this essay, I compared Utilitarianism and Deontology, and argued that Deontology is a better ethics system than Utilitarianism because, while Utilitarianism focuses solely on results, Deontology considers humans as more than just a means to an end and provides for a system of generally accepted

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The theory of deontology states we are morally obligated to act in accordance with obvious set of principles and rules regardless of results. Deontological ethics focuses on duties, and rights. The term deontological was coined by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who described it as “knowledge of what is right or proper” Bentham thought that deontology points in the direction of principle of utility. But contemporary philosophers use the term deontological to indicate a contrast with the utilitarian focus on the consequences of action. Instead of focusing on consequences, deontological ethics focus on duties and obligation: things we ought to do regardless of the consequences.

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Margarita Rodriguez Philosophy of Nursing Millers College of Nursing October 16, 2015 How does deontology relate to an individual nurse?s professional practice of nursing? According to the American Nurses Association, Deontology, an ethical theory founded by Immanuel Kant, applies judgments based on the underlying morality, or the rightness or wrongness of an action. It is based upon adherence to rules.

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It judges the rightness or wrongness of an action based on properties intrinsic to the action, not on its consequence. A non consequentialist won’t think a lot while taking a decision, all they think while taking a decision is that whether this decision will benefit anyone or if it will harm anyone they forget the outcome related to it. He/ She can be selfless while

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Consequentialist theory followers. Consequentialist theory followers focus mostly on the consequences of the decision and the action. The most famous consequentialist theory is Utilitarianism. This theory follows the principle of utility which assumes that the decision is ethical if it maximizes benefits to the society and minimizes harms.

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