Utilitarianism Last class we had discuss and learned about three traditional ethical theories , which are : 1. Ethical Egoism 2. Utilitarianism 3. Ethical duties “People act for many reasons; but for whom, or what, do or should they act for themselves, for God, or for the good of the planet?” Each theory refers to the actions of human beings . Ethical egoism assign to that people act only for their self-interests , and don’t care about others as much as they care about their own benefit . Furthermore, utilitarianism is a theory points out that the aim of action should obtain the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number . moreover , the ethical duties refers to when someone recognizes …show more content…
The Philosophers had clarify the meaning of utilitarianism as follows : “ A theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest …show more content…
he agrees with what is mentioned above, that the right action is what brings pleasure, for the greatest number. Moreover, Mill argues that “we should be concerned with the quality of pleasure we produce, where pleasures that result from the exercise of uniquely human capacities are said to be superior to the that result from the capacities we have in common with other animals”. Thus Mill’s version of utilitarianism is sometimes characterized into maximizing happiness rather than pleasure. Utilitarianism clarifies that what makes us happy is not necessarily to be the right action. For example eating lots of unhealthy food it makes us happy but it could harm our body. In fact utilitarianism, a person performs the acts that benefit the most people, regardless of personal feelings. Rule utilitarianism, however, takes into account the law and is concerned with fairness. A rule utilitarian seeks to benefit the most people but through the fairest and most just means available. Therefore, added benefits of rule utilitarianism are that it values justice and includes beneficence at the same time. The supporters of this theory had a believe that actions can be considered ethically when it leads to achieve better results, in other words to make the greatest number of people happy. Which outcomes with other values , such as knowledge ,love and
Utilitarianism is one of the best-known theory under the consequentialism, and its idea is the Greatest Happiness Principle(GHP). According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Utilitarian believe that the purpose of morality is to
A Utilitarian will base his actions on the best end result or that which benefits the greatest number of people. The Utilitarian is primarily focused with the end result of an act. This view is a version of Consequentialism. For a Utilitarian believes that the morally right act is the one which tries to bring about the best possible consequence (i.e as much happiness as possible for the people concerned). Happiness for a utilitarian refers to a state of mind that is perceived desirable and in which a person feels pleasure and
The ethical egoist is not concerned with the overall good of others, or the results of their actions, they are only concerned with what is good for themselves. I think this applying this moral theory to the above-mentioned issues makes the most sense. The actions of the ethical egoist always benefit the individual first and may have a positive, negative, or neutral impact on others. For me, this is a logical way of thinking when dealing with life and death situations, like euthanasia or abortion. I also feel this is a good philosophy to apply to the issues of sexual morality involving consenting adults.
A man by the name of John Stuart Mill seems to be able to give us some answers to these questions. Mill starts our inquiring journey with defining what utilitarianism stands for. In short he states that it is the construction of utility, which claims that the actions that stimulate happiness in is morally fit and vice versa to be unfit. Happiness is something that we want for
The Evaluation of What Is Wrong with Slavery In the paper what is wrong with slavery, R.M. Hare argues that, according to utilitarianism, slavery is evil and should be abolished in every society. He discusses the definition of slavery, and after that shows imaginary cases to illustrate his ideas. However, does his argument make a cogent case? Is there any exceptions to his argument?
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.
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?
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
John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.
Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy that is credited to being created by Jeremey Bentham. Bentham believed that all humans make choices based on two feelings, pain and pleasure. Because of this, Bentham believed that motives are not good or bad in nature but instead on what feeling a human might feel more.
Mill states that a society where everyone attempts to obtain higher forms of pleasure is better than one that settles for the lower pleasures that are more easily available. Finally, Singer stated that utilitarianism should not be applied only to humans, but also to animals. Those with higher power and intelligence should use those qualities to benefit the beings weaker than them to allow for more pleasure to be experienced
Utilitarianism is a teleological ethical theory based on the idea that an action is moral if it causes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The theory is concerned with predicted consequences or outcomes of a situation rather than focusing on what is done to get to the outcome. There are many forms of utilitarianism, having been introduced by Jeremy Bentham (act utilitarianism), and later being updated by scholars such as J.S. Mill (rule utilitarianism) and Peter Singer (preference utilitarianism). When referring to issues of business ethics, utilitarianism can allow companies to decide what to do in a given situation based on a simple calculation. Many people would agree that this idea of promoting goodness
Utilitarianism is referring to sense of happiness or pain in layman term. The wrong and right statement is depending on end up subsequent of circumstances whether happiness or pain to human. In the morality way of utilitarianism describe, we should maximizing the happiness and minimizing or eliminate the pain. Based on the memo from Lawrence Summers, the utilitarian could accept are generate income for the poverty country and giving happiness to the people in the society as their living standard is increased.
In today’s world, many people tend to have a set of ethical principles which is one of the guidelines for them to follow on. The question is how he or she defines ethics? To answer, Ethics is best defined as knowing what is right or wrong in the action based on the moral principles. Moreover, it is also known as the branch of knowledge that deals with ethical issues. In relation, there are some ethical theories which deal with the ethical issues.
• Ethical Theories An ethical theory is a decision model .These theories depicts the viewpoints from which people seek guidance as they make decisions. Each theory highlights different points, different decision making style or a decision rule. Ethical theories are based on individual’s ethical ideology these theories allow a person to find an answer to an issue, to make a morally right decision or to justify a decision.