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Deontology Vs Utilitarianism

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Decisions about right and wrong fill each and every day. Turmoil exists due to deciding if Deontology, where one acts based on the right motives, or if Utilitarianism, where one should act in a way that would produce the best results and consequences, should govern decisions and their morality. However, I believe Deontology, which is reason and duty based, serves as the superior way to dictate morality. In this paper, I will explain both the principles of Deontology and Utilitarianism, discuss the superior aspects of Deontology as compared to Utilitarianism, as well as grapple with objections to Deontology. While both ethical frameworks contain parts of ideologies that could be seen as valid, Kant’s theory on Deontology holistically remains …show more content…

Rational humans should be treated as an end in themselves, thus respecting our own inherent worth and autonomy to make our own decisions. This part of Kant’s ideology may limit what we could do, even in the service of promoting an overall positive, by upholding the principle of not using people with high regard, thus serving as a moral constraint. Deontology remains as the stronger ethical framework as it explicitly lists out how one should act morally through absolute, universal laws, and also by promoting not using others as a mere means, but rather as an end in itself.
On the other hand, Utilitarianism, a consequentialist theory, stems from the idea that every morally correct action will produce the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. The morality of an action is determined by the outcome of that action. At an initial glance, Utilitarianism seems as if it would be a superior way to live a life full of good will, as it is focused on doing the most …show more content…

Humans are rational beings by nature. However, in all reality, we are also selfish beings, where the majority of people want the most good for themselves and then later consider the needs of others. Utilitarianism involves a higher incidence of making circumstantial especially personal exemptions and a higher chance of promoting selfish gains. Often times, people use others merely as stepping stones, so that they can first succeed. Far too often the mentality of members of society stems from the idea of after I am personally successful, then I will donate to the poor and do more charitable deeds, yet at this current time I need to focus on myself, not others.
A limitation of Deontology stems from the fact that it is so strict on how one should or should not act, but yet humans need clearly defined laws to serve as guides. Although laws are not followed one hundred percent of the time, the mere fact that there are laws telling us what is right or wrong result in a higher success of people acting morally good because there is a strict guide of how to act and how not to act. Yet Deontology provides a strong ethical framework that enables moral agents to act in such a way that is towards good will and ethically correct

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Deontology is portrayed as the investigation of the way of duty, obligation and commitment. The ethical quality of an activity depends on good intention, which is characterized by its adherence to a rule or set of guidelines. Such a rule is known as a maxim and if a man wills a maxim to wind up noticeably as a general or universal law with the end goal that everybody in any circumstance ought to maintain this adage, it is judged to be ethically or morally right. Immanuel Kant in his, 'Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, gives the focal idea of Kant's deontological reasoning. The downright basic incorporates three definitions that are utilized to judge the ethical pertinence of any goal or obligation.

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Utilitarian is a regularizing moral hypothesis that place the locus of good and bad exclusively on the result, the end legitimize the mean. Solving and taking care of the issue is most important. All matters is just the final products if the final products is great then what you did was ethically right. Considering things are at stake for both stakeholder involved. Utilitarian principles sates that proper course action maximize happiness and treat other how you would wanted to be treated.

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The ethical theory of utilitarianism judges an action to maximize happiness and diminish pain for those who are affected or involved. Everything that we do, or cause, will affect the outcome and we should think of how our actions and judgments can be carried out to promote happiness for us and those around us. One of the main ideas of utilitarianism is consequentialism, meaning to maximize pleasure through the consequences of our actions. Another important concept of utilitarianism is impartiality, that everyone’s happiness is equally the same. This accounts for everyone’s happiness that is involved in the situation, but it must maximize the most pleasure overall.

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This essay will reject the utilitarian claim as to always act as to maximize utility. In order to exhibit why this claim fails, this argument will be based on the most refined description of utility, namely, preference satisfaction utilitarianism, an action which is right, because it produces the most of what is intrinsically valuable, which is more than just the ultimate consequence of pleasure as suggested by the hedonistic utilitarian but instead, is the maximization of individual human preferences being satisfied in relation to the world and therefore, this action creates the maximum balance of happiness over unhappiness for all human beings concerned. This essay will present three objections against and three separate responses in defence

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory summed up by the phrase, the right action is one which creates the sum total amount of happiness for the greatest number. Therefore, utilitarians believe that morality’s purpose is to maximise the number of good things, such as happiness, and decrease the number of bad things, such as unhappiness, in the world. Critics of utilitarianism believe that this theory cannot accommodate moral rights since we go against our intuitions in moral dilemmas. However, utiltarians have a response to these criticisms which shows that utilitarianism is defensible. Utilitarianism was developed into an ethical theory by two philosophers named Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

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Two Interpretations Deontology (Immanuel Kant) Critique Deontology means the study or duty or obligation. Kant believed that we "are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules regardless of outcome" (sevenpillarsinstitute.org). This led to what we know as the Categorical Imperative: "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that will it should become a universal law" (csus.edu). A lot of time this is compared to the Golden rule, "treat everyone the way you want to be treated".

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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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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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Utilitarianism, otherwise known as consequentialism, is an ethical framework that considers actions morally correct or right is their outcomes or consequences: A person’s actions are considered moral if the outcome brings out the greatest and most amount of good. Even if a person has good intentions to conduct the action, a utilitarian would not consider this morally significant if the consequences are not positive. Something is “good” if it fulfills an entities base desires but their pleasures are also part of the equation; utilitarianism can become quite complicated when one must consider all the desires of everyone affected, equally considering each one individually. The Animal welfare philosopher Peter Singer, has several ideas regrading

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