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Why Is Utilitarianism Wrong

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Utilitarianism is defining an action as wrong if there are other available acts that benefit everyone affected more. Utilitarian’s decide whether an action is right or wrong based on how much joy or happiness it brings to an individual and everyone else. This can be tricky because an action may not actually be considered right just because it brings you joy. Robbing a bank could bring someone a lot of joy and money but that does not make it morally right, and it would affect those around you in a negative way witch would cause an unequal balance of happiness. They believe that the standard of right or wrong comes from happiness or pleasure, so if happiness is good then it must be right. Let’s say you have 3 different choices for an action, …show more content…

In an Egoistic society it says that you should do whatever is best for you and disregard others around you. The action is considered right if it affects you positively and brings you happiness. Unlike utilitarianism every decision you make is selfishly only about your happiness not anyone else. For example, if you wanted to cut all of your worker’s salary in half in order to increase your salary verses not cutting them and keeping your salary where it is, this would be wrong to not do what would benefit you more regardless of how it affects those around you. In the eyes of an egoistic society cutting your workers would seem morally right because you are benefiting greatly from it, thus increasing your happiness and joy. Some strengths of this theory is that every time you make a decision you won’t have to worry about others because it doesn’t matter, as long as you are happy that’s beneficial enough. In the end this type of society will crash and burn because when everyone is just focused on their self, there is no real reason to follow any type of rules because the justification for right and wrong is according to how much happiness it brings you and only

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1673 Words | 7 Pages

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong when looking at the outcomes. It believes that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. Consequentialism is found in utilitarianism; consequentialism is largely thought about during war. When you fight for your life in war, you end up taking another person's life. While this may be good for your country, it is hurting a different country.

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262 Words | 2 Pages

They do not take into considerations the moral qualities and values in which an action comes from. Individuals don't allow what they see as right and wrong be affected by the quality of the person doing the right or wrong action. These misconceptions are what make people think that utilitarianism makes men "cold and unsypathizing" towards others because the quality of the person

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889 Words | 4 Pages

Utilitarianism is stated as, “Utilitarianism is the theory that an action is right if and only if it results in at least as much well-being as any alternative action.” While Kant described Kant’s moral theory as, “ right actions have moral value only if they are done with a ‘good will’.” Both theories attempt to reach positive results that benefit others; however, Kant focuses on doing whatever it takes to help others and not use them. While utilitarianism is when someone may do whatever it takes to earn or increase happiness. It does not matter whatever the action is as long as there is a result of happiness Most utilitarians think that sometimes people are not to blame for performing actions that we generally think of as very

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337 Words | 2 Pages

The flaws of utilitarianism lie in the possibility of measuring the utility of different behaviors as well, i.e., it is difficult to compare the utility of certain actions. Everybody’s subjective judgment on utilitarianism is possibly to be different. In the case of torture for suspects, when people from different cultural backgrounds, and different educational environment determine the utility, they will possibly make very different judgements. More importantly, measure ‘utilitarian’ with a similar unit of money may result the abandon of moral and human rights. If you think justice means, happiness maximization, pain minimization, then you are likely to support the Robin Hood type of robbing the rich to feed to poor.

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92 Words | 1 Pages

Exactly, you would want your child to be saved as well. That 's one of the major flaws I see in utilitarianism. The rule of utilitarianism is that the decision that brings the most happiness should be made. I 'm not saying the disabled child wouldn 't bring any happiness, I 'm saying in this case the neighbor 's four kids would bring more happiness to society rather than the disabled one. The act of utilitarianism is a cruel system, but if one wants to incorporate into society then they should incorporate it completely rather than

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531 Words | 3 Pages

This idea of consequence is one of the most central ideas in the theory. The author then provides examples of three arguments that attack the theory. The first example talked about whether you should bear false witness to stop more people from being killed. Additionally, the second example talked about whether it was right or wrong for the police to distribute illegally obtained photos of a woman because it brought more pleasure than harm. Lastly, the final example was about whether you should meet up with a friend or

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

The main principle of utilitarianism is happiness. People who follow this theory strive to fulfill the “ultimate good”. The “ultimate good” is defined as ultimate pleasure with out any pain. It is said that the pleasure can be of any quantity and any quality, but pleasures that are weighted more important are put at a higher level than others that are below it. This ethical theory also states that if society would fully embrace utilitarianism then people would naturally realize their moral standing in the

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304 Words | 2 Pages

III. The Concept of Utilitarianism Utilitarianism refers to the ethical conduct which maximizes the largest number of interests and reduces harm or costs (Landry et al. , 2004). This is ingrained in the aspiration to generate the most favorable outcome, in a way to balance the gain attained and the degree of damage endured through the process. Furthermore, Karande et al.

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What is wrong with the utilitarian conception of beneficence? Utilitarians base morality on the maximisation of utility, hence the concept of beneficence, trying to produce the most pleasures and suffer the least pains. Bentham, the founder of the doctrine of utilitarianism, recognised the fact that every moral argument will eventually fall back on the idea of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. In this essay, I will mainly focus on the aspect of individual rights and the inaccessibility of the concept.

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Utilitarianism is a philosophy which states that an action, a law, or a rule is right only if it produces the best outcomes which is established in the Happiness Principle. It states that ethics must bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This creates many problems for management. Primarily, management is not concerned with whether an action, a law, or a rule is right but with whether it delivers profitable outcomes for the company. Also, management’s best outcome is not geared towards the greatest good for the greatest number of people but towards products delivering on ROI (return of investment).

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676 Words | 3 Pages

Utilitarianism deems every act that produces overall happiness as good so according to this there is no act that is immoral or. For example, if molesting a child produces the greatest happiness, then it is right to molest a child. Suppose a group of paedophiles only find and molest abandoned children. Only the child suffers pain and no one else knows about their activities. From these actions they gain a lot of happiness.

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1564 Words | 7 Pages

Utilitarian suggest that we make our moral decisions from the position of a benevolent, disinterested spectator. Rather than thinking about

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1515 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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1239 Words | 5 Pages

The utilitarianism is common approach to make ethical decisions. The main point of this approach is that you have to make that decision which comes with the most utility. The utility in this approach can be described as „The good”, and the opposite of this is „the bad”. This means that in Computer Science you have to produce a computer programme or a hardware, which produces the largest amount of good , and during the producing phase, it makes the least amount of bad, for all who are affected: customers, employees, and even the enviroment. With the utilitarian viewpoint people can make right, and ethical decisions, for instance if you produce a programme which can make life easier for millions of people, you should not sell it for extremly

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453 Words | 2 Pages

Year 7 shouldn’t be the first year of high school because year 7s might not be confident to be in high school. Its better to wait another year so that they can get more confedent and they might not be ready to be in high school with all the older kids. They might not be able to do the work that has been set for and the school would have to make the work easier for year 7s and they shouldn’t have to do that just for one year. Year 7s might get scared or bullied in high school. If you send your kid to high school in year 7 they might be scared to be around the year 12s and other year levels, it wouldn’t be a fair to send a year 7 to school because they wouldn’t feel confedent about themselves because they would be the youngest, in high school they are youngest but if they were still in primary

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