Consequences Of Utilitarianism And Universal Ethical Theories

Luke is an employee of ABC Company. He has been assigned to a construction of an adult entertainment retail store within a neighborhood his brother, Owen, lives in. The development of the retail store has not been made public yet and will be announced one month from today. This announcement will decrease the property values of the surrounding areas significantly. Owen is trying to sell his house. He told Luke that he recently received an ‘okay’ offer. However, in hopes that a better offer might be present itself in a few years after the real estate market improve, he has not taken the offer yet. Luke is very close to his brother, which makes him concerned about his confidentiality obligation to ABC Company.

Libertarians reject Utilitarianism’s concerns for the total social well-being. While utilitarians are willing to restrict the liberty of some for the greater good, libertarians believe that justice consists solely of respect for individual property. If an individual isn’t doing something that interferes with anyone else’s liberty, then no person, group, or government should disturb he or she from living life as desired (not even if doing so would maximize social happiness). They completely disregard concern for an overall social well-being. Using a libertarian’s perspective, a state that taxes its better-off citizens to support the less fortunate ones violates their rights because they have not willingly chosen to do so. In that same context, a theory that forces capitalists to invest in people and natural capital is immoral. Nevertheless, libertarians encourage that people help those in need, as it is a good thing.

In order to support the right answer to crucial moral problems, certain philosophers use theory. Theory is an abstract statement formulated to predict, explain, or describe the relationships among concepts or events. Theory is developed and tested by observations and research, using factual data. I’m currently studying the following theories: Intuitionism, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Divine Command Theory, Virtue Ethics, Cultural Relativism, Moral Nihilism, Ethics of Caring, Kantian Ethics and Social Contract Theory. I’ve read each one of them and have noticed their flaws. I was impressed with utilitarianism, which shows the most logically believed theory. I have no doubt utilitarianism is the best moral theory. I chose to defend utilitarianism because it has a major influence on the types of assessment methods. As a health care giver, I believe utilitarianism will be useful in deontological concerns and to evaluate alternative solutions in the health care system. Giving an overall explanation of utilitarianism, defining and contracting act utilitarian and rule utilitarian, and listing some reasons will prove that utilitarianism is the best theory yet.

Utilitarianism as an ethical theory is seen as 'an act that is morally correct if it results in the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people affected by the act'. (Crane, Matten, Chapt. 3). It is a principle that concentrates on the outcome of an act and compares the good outcome with the bad outcome and supports the outcome that brings the greatest amount of good for all stakeholders involved.

(6)You should not kill an innocent (friendless but healthy) person EVEN IF by doing so (and giving his organs to several others) you could increase net happiness.

Luke, an employee of ABC Company has an ethical issue that makes him go and look for advise at the Ethics Department of ABC Company. The department of Ethics Department is dedicated to advise employee and prevent any risks of losing their jobs because of unaware immoral decisions. Now that the company has decided to build an adult entertainment retail store, Luke has come across a big decision. The Department of Ethics needs to help Luke decide to whether, obey his commencement with ABC Company and keep confidentiality until they make it public, or to warn his brother, Owen (who lives in the neighborhood that would be affected) that his house would substantially depreciate and he may lose money if he does not sell the house now

The current issue involves Luke, an employee of company ABC (ABC), and his conflict between obligations to work and to family. Luke is responsible for developing land purchased by ABC to construct an adult entertainment retail store. The future building is located at the corner of the neighborhood near where Luke’s brother, Owen, lives. Being an insider, Luke knows that the presence of the business will diminish values of surrounding houses considerably. The company plans to announce this plan publicly a month from today.

Luke’s ethical dilemma is clear: The conflict that Luke faces is between disclosing confidential information about his company to his brother and being 100% and/or remaining loyal to his close family member. Luke is faced with the dilemma of choosing whether or not he should disclose workplace sensitive information about project plans of ABC. In conjunction with such, Luke must also decide if he should revile insider information, against company obligation policy, that the in expectation of the property value in the area is expected to go down drastically to his brother Owen.

There are several ethical theories used in environmental issues. Two such theories are utilitarianism and the natural-law theory. Each of these theories have, in turn, sub-theories which include hedonistic utilitarianism, preference utilitarianism, teleological natural law, and divine natural law theories. Utilitarianism is a pragmatic theory which emphasizes the amount of the resultant. It wants the best result for the most people or to produce the largest amount of “good”.

In chapter 9, I found utilitarianism the most intriguing lesson. It is a theory of ethics that assesses actions based on maximizing benefits in reducing the negatives; based on bouncing human interests. It was developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, it is a socially conscious approach to hedonism that holds that the greatest good is to promote happiness and alleviate suffering for the greatest number of people. ( Chaffee, 9.3) Utilitarianism is the most common moral theory practiced in the business world today, to break down what it is basically is morality of an act is judged by it's utility. The greatest utility that it has for the most people;

Utilitarianism is the ethical belief that the happiness of the greatest number of people is the greatest good. Jeremy Betham and John Stuart Mill are two philosophers that were leading advocates for the utilitarianism that we study today. In order to understand the basis of utilitarianism, one must know what happiness is. John Stuart Mill defines happiness as the intended pleasure and absence of pain while unhappiness is pain and the privation of pleasure. Utilitarians feel the moral obligation to maximize pleasure for not only themselves, but for as many people as possible. All actions can be determined as right or wrong based on if they produce the maximum amount of happiness. The utilitarian belief that all actions can be determined as right or wrong based only on their repercussions connects utilitarianism to consequentialism. Consequentialism is the belief that an action can be determined morally right or wrong based on its consequences. Just like any other belief system, utilitarianism faces immense amount of praise and criticism.

The theory of Utilitarianism states that actions should be judged as right or wrong depending on whether they cause more happiness or unhappiness. It weighs the rightness and wrongness of an action based on consequences of that action.

Utilitarianism is one of the most commonly used ethical theories from the time it was formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill in the nineteenth century. In his work, Utilitarianism, Bentham “sought to dispel misconceptions that morality has nothing to do with usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 53). To simplify the utilitarian principle, which is one of utility, one can surmise that morality is equated with the greatest amount of utility or good for the greatest number of people (MacKinnon, 2012). Also, with its orientation to the “end or goal of actions” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 54), Utilitarianism thus, espouses the consequentialist principle, e.g., the evaluation of any human act lies not so much in the nature of the act or the drive behind the act but rather the result of the act (MacKinnon, 2012).

Numerous moral theories have surfaced in the past years. They have been widely debated by philosophers and social reformers. It is important to understand what these theories are because of their influential tendencies in the way people act, especially in making morally right or wrong decisions. Utilitarianism is one of these many moral theories. Upon further analysis, problems with utilitarian thoughts are revealed. It has been widely debated by many philosophers, including G.E. Moore and Immanuel Kant. Like these two philosophers, I argue that utilitarianism is inadequate because of its contradictory nature as a moral theory. It highlights the principle of utility in seeking the greatest pleasure, allowing egotistic and hedonistic actions to be considered moral.

Utilitarianism is a limiting ethical theory that fails to grasp ethically reality. “The greatest good for the greatest number” is not ethically right in every situation. Although the majority would benefit, the minority will heavily suffer. Considering the overall consequences of our actions, the good may not always outweigh the bad, but this does mean that the good will be the ethically right thing to do. One may think they are “maximizing the overall good,” but in reality, harming many.