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Theory Of Utilitarianism

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. According to the theory of utilitarianism, Rescue 1 is supposed to ignore the single person who is exposed to some disaster and move one to rescue the five people who are exposed to some danger due to the tides that are about to hit them. Utilitarianism indicates that best actions in life are those that are known to maximize utility. The utility, in this case, is a description of the sum total of the well-being of human beings (Lazari, Katarzyna, and Peter pg. 18). In his case, there is added utility in rescuing five people than rescuing one person. Five lives are more worth than one life and thus Rescue 1 should go ahead with their mission to make sure that they save the five people before the tides strike. It might seem inhuman to leave …show more content…

Mills explanation on utilitarianism is a bit contradicting in the manner it describes utility as a measure of whether something is good or not. The explanation that the best thing is the one that has maximum utility has the capabilities of producing devastating effects in the society as some people will end up getting involved in evil things to generate additional utility for their selfish gains. It does not work well when some people end up taking advantage of other situation to benefit themselves since because they are moral provisions that allow them to do so. Most touching is the case where the welfare of some people is overlooked for the purpose of making sure that the welfare of the majority is improved without paying attention to the suffering sustained by the minor category that is being oppressed. The categorical imperative explanation by Kant has some weaknesses in that a person is given the choice to determine what activities they should involve in their life to achieve their intended goals. This means that human beings are allowed to engage in evil activities so long as they will finally attain their goals in life. It should be understood that the evil deeds involved have far-reaching consequences that are suffered by some members of the society and thus this is totally unacceptable. It would have been good if the explanation is specific to indicate that human beings are only allowed to choose between the acceptable deeds in the society in all their efforts to make their lives successful. This is the only way to make sure that rights of all members of the community are taken care of and respected are required. This is also a good way to enhance co-existence within a society to make sure that conflicts are always

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1241 Words | 5 Pages

With this, he aims to sway his audience towards a different perspective, one that pushes the audience to resist against humanitarian impulses. He paints a picture of a lifeboat that seats fifty passengers and has a total capacity of sixty, allowing enough room to accommodate to ten more (para 6). Those in the lifeboat represent the rich, while those swimming outside represent the poor. However, the passengers on the boat are faced with the decision to admit only ten others when they are surrounded by one hundred people begging to get in. They cannot narrow down the pool to just ten people when everyone’s needs are the same, nor can they take in every pleading individual.

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This example of saving the child from drowning demonstrates the concept that “if it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening” then we should do so (p. 874). Singer also uses this scenario to explain that we should not be worried about trivial things when it comes to helping

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In the poem “The Changeling” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, I read it as she’s trying to get her father’s attention, she is acting to be someone else because she changes into her brother’s clothes, as a costume, until it’s dinner time and her mother asks her to take those clothes off, it’s then where everything is back to reality. In the poem “The Birthplace” by Cofer, she talks about her hometown and how it lacks features on the hills which will stop her from going places, she doesn’t go to churches that are full of the people who regret their wrongs, the roads just lead to other roads, and how towns are the same to other towns. In the poem “On the Island I Have Seen” by Cofer she talks about men who work hard in the sun while old men play dominoes in the shade, women in black dresses asking

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However, if the people on the voyage were to receive help from rescuers, others' lives would be put in jeopardy. In essence, any individual in a dangerous situation due to their actions should be responsible for the costs of their rescue because they inflicted the situation on

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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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In the “Cost of Survival,” an argumentative essay, in which; voices the opinion of Theo Tucker, an individual that believes that some people “willingly put themselves into life-or-death situations,” (126) also he explains, how if these risky decisions end in needed rescue missions. Therefore, said people should pay for the cost of their rescues, because individuals that do things like “mountain climb and base jump, knowingly face danger.” (126) The author stands on the side of the argument that, these rescue missions or “efforts, can cost a lot of money, and that “The adventurer should be the one to foot the bill” (126)

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The Republican Theory Thus far we have been uncovering different views and perspectives of the universe within the sociological studies. These have included the Utilitarian Theory and the Liberal Theory of Justice. Now our readings have taken us beyond these theories, and has introduced us to an entire new principle, The Republican Theory. Although the theory itself has the same name as a political party within the United States, it should not be confused with the same beliefs of those in the Republican party.

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Kant uses the Heternomous will; pointing out that if you were put in the rescue of I you are the rescuer, as that being said you have to help even if you didn’t like it but it is your duty to save as many as possible. By that maxim is brought deciding wether this action is refered to being right, wrong, or permissible. In rescue II is partially different, because you must move the man to proceed to save the rest. The duty in this situation is to be able to safe everyone, but is it morally right to run over one and save the rest? I believe that Kant in this situation will try to save the first one and try to possibly help the rest.

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Throughout history many great philosophers have attempted to unravel the origins of virtues by developing moral theories of their own. This document is designed to provide the reader with an overview of some of the more popular theories concerning morals. Three of the most popular moral theories are… Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Aristotelianism. Though Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Aristotelianism differ in many ways, they also share similar fundamentals. Utilitarianism is a highly acclaimed theory that is morally based on consequentialism.

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When discussing both act and rule utilitarianism, it is important to understand that both of them agree in terms of the overall consequence of an action, because they emphasize on creating the most beneficial pleasure and happiness in the outcome of an act. Despite this fact, they both have different principles and rules that make them different from each other. Act utilitarianism concentrates on the acts of individuals. Meaning that if a person commits an action, he/she must at least have a positive utility. The founders of utilitarianism define positive utility as happiness and pleasure and consider it to be a driving force of all positive and morally right acts.

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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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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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As it has been shown, the utilitarian view has its strengths and is certainly logical in some cases, however, Kantian ethics offer a more stable set of moral

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Utilitarianism believes that the rightness or wrongness of an action is completely based on just the consequences of the action. Utilitarianism can be defined at its core as the belief that choices should be made for the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people. A real life example of utilitarianism can be seen in the story of the wreck of the Mignonette. In 1884, a crew of four men were stranded at sea over 700 miles away from the nearest land when the ship they were

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What Mill means by utilitarianism is giving the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. According to Sandel's lecture Mill's utilitarianism uses consequentialist reasoning. Categorical means absolute for example, if someone asks you if you are hungry a you say,"no",

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