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The theory of utilitarianism
About utilitarianism
Utilitarianism and its flaws
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The theory of utilitarianism
About utilitarianism
Utilitarianism and its flaws
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
We shall explore these terms further when it becomes absolutely necessary to nit-pick, but for Foot’s argument they hold. In the Trolley Problem, the driver finds his trolley hurtling towards five souls on the track. His brakes fail. He has the option of diverting the train onto a spur, but will run over a single person on this track. Since he will kill
Howard Zinn- "YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN" The meaning of the title of Howard Zinn's documentary "You can't be neutral on a moving train" is that you can't be silent when the train is heading to disaster because the train will take you to that the destination as well. I agree with Mr. Zinn's opinion,based on the fact I believe if you remain silent, you have no voice and are being the sheep led to slaughter.
The number of people negatively affected by his choice is greater than the number of people who would benefit. Only Officer Jankowski and the potential other drivers Samantha may
Would you do the right thing even if it meant putting yourself in danger? Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were in a graveyard trying to get rid of their warts, with the help of a dead cat and a evil, rich man’s grave, and they came upon three men entering the graveyard. These men were Dr. Robinson, Injun Joe and Muff Potter. They were there to steal the gold in the very grave, but a fight busted out between them and Injun Joe killed Dr. Robinson after Potter was knocked unconscious. Once Muff Potter woke up, Injun Joe convinced the confused drunk that he had blacked out and killed Dr. Robinson.
What is the right thing to do? Ellie Wiesel believes people should do the right thing but more importantly choose a side. Indifference is worse than anger, rage, and hatred as Ellie said with those three sometimes good can come of it. With indifference you are only punishing the victim and helping to achieve the goal of the unrighteous. This idea is not only held by Ellie but also former president Theodore Roosevelt who stated “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing”.
Philippa Foot presented a series of moral dilemmas when she discussed abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect. One famous problem of her was the trolley dilemma: “..he is the driver of a runaway tram which he can only steer from one narrow track onto another; five men are working on one track and one on the other; anyone the tack he enters is bound to be killed.” (Foot, 1967, p. 2) What should the driver do? Despite what he does, he will harm someone!1
In retrospect, I can resonate more with Mill’s utilitarianism. I would rather kill one person than five. I believe if I chose to be selfish and save a loved one, I would be looked down upon. To carry the weight of knowing that you could have saved lives, would most likely be a haunting experience. I would not want the families of the victims to endure the pain of losing a loved one.
If they didn’t care about your safety, they would not have made these rules to keep you safe and alive. Next, you always need to yield to a train. Never cross the tracks when the crossing guards are down. Do not go around the crossing guards, they are to make you safer while crossing the tracks..
I think I will divert the train to the right killing one person because one person is less important than five. Sometimes it is important to do what is right than what is morally good to do. The utilitarianism is a moral theory that gives happiness to the number of people in the society and it has been considered greatness, an action is morally appropriate if its outcomes lead to happiness and wrong if it results in sadness. I will begin by describing what Mill might do in the Trolley situation. Next, I will contrast what Kant might do in this situation and lastly, I will be also going to give my opinion on this Trolley situation.
Some actions, like journeys, have value regardless of the outcomes they produce. Williams brings this point about to show how the utilitarian’s focus on consequences might not be the best way to assign value to actions, since it has no way of accounting for the intrinsic values actions may have. Here I have to agree with Williams. The manner in which consequentialist judge actions does not seem to allow any room for considering a person’s intent behind choosing to commit that act. Williams seems to be more open to such considerations than Smart ever was in his
As a college student, I am always keeping myself updated with different new university policies because many policies are impacting my college life. Although many policies are impacting me in school, college tuition is the most important to me. The increase of college tuition at U.C and CSU will cause many problems for students. The school administration thinks that is the time to increase student tuition, but students will not benefit from the increase. Therefore, my paper will offer a utilitarian evaluation of the recent CSU and UC increase in tuition, it will show that said policy is unethical from a business and social standpoint.
In healthcare, Utilitarian’s believe in everyone having equal healthcare, or moral proper care regardless of their issues. A few examples of this are smokers who have bad lungs because they smoke receive the same care as non-smokers with bad lungs, or who also receive the same care as a person with a genetic heart disease, or a killer receiving the same care as a non-killer. Consequentialism and non-consequentialism involve making judgements about a person’s moral actions and the reasons behind
Singer's theory of preference utilitarianism rests on the idea that everyone's preferences should be looked at equally. This means that all living and sentient beings have interests, can feel pain and pleasure. Preferences, in this case, does not mean happiness necessarily. Looking at happiness specifically, is another type of utilitarianism that will be discussed further in the later part of this essay. Singer includes people with severe disabilities, animals, intelligent aliens, and infants to the list of beings that need to be considered.
This is an act of what is morally right and an example of what you should do, which again, ties into utilitarianism thinking.
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?