Compare And Contrast Singer's Argument Against Utilitarianism

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1. Singer’s argument states that if you can prevent suffering without sacrificing “too much” then it is wrong not to do so. You can prevent suffering without sacrificing “too much”. Therefore, it is wrong to keep your luxuries while others are starving, suffering etc. An objection to this argument is that “too much” is too general. The argument does not define too much and can differ from person to person. The same goes for suffering. The way a person’s suffering differs from person to person. 2. The principle of utility states that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and they are wrong as they tend to promote happiness and they are wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. A utilitarian would say …show more content…

The best argument against Utilitarianism is, If Utilitarianism is true then bearing false witness is right. Bearing false witness is never right, thus Utilitarianism is not true. 4. The Pope’s argument against abortion states that it is wrong to kill innocent humans. A fetus is an innocent human. Therefore Abortion is wrong. Warrens criticism to this argument is the word “human” is an ambiguous word; making the argument an equivocation. He states that there are 2 senses to the word human. A creature can be a human genetically by DNA or morally by “personhood” (consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated, communication, self-awareness). An example of equivocation is “Doritos are chip. Chips go into computers. Therefore Doritos go in computers. 5. The first formulation of the categorical imperative is Act only on that rule you can will to be a universal law. This formulation basically says that if you make an exception to a universal law such as lying for yourself, than it has to be an exception for everybody. For example lying to get something that you want. If you make that exception for yourself, then it is okay for everyone to lie in order to get what they want under the categorical imperative. This will lead to nobody believing what anybody

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