Ethics - Paper 2
Utilitarianism vs Universal Ethics
Facts (150 words)
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.
The damaging nature of this so-called news concerns Luke. To complicate the issue, Owen told him that he received an offer to sell his house recently
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Utilitarians believe that whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the consequences it produces. An act that results in at least as much pleasure or well being as other alternative acts is right, and vice versa. In other words, any act that does not maximize pleasure is morally wrong. Even though utilitarian ethics often clashes with conventional norms, the conflict has no direct moral relevance to the action.
Universal ethics, defined by Immanuel Kant, is an ethical theory that applies to rational beings. An act is morally right when the will is perfectly aligned with duty. That is, an action has to be motivated by duty to have moral worth. The responsibilities of duty are universal; they are instilled in all rational beings and apply to all people, in all possible situations. To understand Kantian ethics, we have to understand its formulation, the categorical imperative. The imperative is an order that follows from the command of reason that tells a rational beings what they must do. It cannot be opposed, refused, or modified. In this sense, the categorical imperative is different from hypothetical imperative, which is the if-then structure.
Application (400 words)
The most common use of utilitarianism is by way of consequentialist moral theory. Consequentialists believe that an act’s rightness and wrongness depends solely on its consequences and nothing else. An act is right when the algebraic sum of total utility unit
In certain scenarios regarding Ethics, it is common to reach a conclusion through the concept of Consequentialism. This is said to have been accurate for centuries, as Consequentialism focuses strictly on the outcome and consequences of actions. The reason for this is the common belief by many that outcome is everything. Throughout the last three weeks, I have developed a better view on Consequentialism. Through the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Mill, I have learned basic methods of applying Utilitarianism and Consequentialism to ethical situations. As a brief overview, Utilitarianism focuses on maximizing the “good” and minimizing the “bad” in life. The broader concept of Consequentialism seeks the positive aspects and despises the negative.
Utilitarianism is one of the moral theories that literally only acts on gaining or developing the use for having utility, or what is also known as happiness. Pleasure is a helpful key word to define utility because it is the opposite of feeling pain. As long as there stands a high level of utility, there will be actions to obtain it and no matter how much morality is provided or taken away. Such pleasure can be from the act of the utilitarian in which... Add more examples to this paragraph.
Let’s start by gaining an understanding of what utilitarianism means. The definition given to us earlier in our textbook, Exploring Ethics, in the article, Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism, it defines act utilities as an act that, “is right if and only if it results in as much good as any available alternative”. This goes back to the tedious task of trying to analyze countless number of alternatives and figure out which one brings about the most
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that pivots around the belief that morality should be judged by consequence and the way in which an action can be deemed moral or immoral, depends upon the number to which it brings the greatest happiness. A decision can be defined as ethically correct under the theory of Utilitarianism if the moral choice provides the 'greatest good for the greatest number of people', proving that at the core of Utilitarianism are the ideals of pleasure and consequence. Although Utilitarianism provides a useful, simplistic way for making moral decisions,
Utilitarianism is a theory aimed at defining one simple basis that can be applied when making any ethical decision. It is based on a human’s natural instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory. It concerns how to evaluate a large range of things that involve choices communities or groups face. These choices include policies, laws, human’s rights, moral codes,
Utilitarianism is a practical doctrine that is widely accepted in modern society’s economics, politic, and ethics. Utilitarian is driven by the pursuit of happiness. For a utilitarian, everything that will be helpful in the pursuit is considered good. In utilitarianism, an action is good or evil based on its consequences on the happiness of an individual and the happiness of the community. Similar to other doctrine, utilitarianism is not without a flaw. Bernard Williams, in his paper Utilitarianism and Integrity, voices his primary concern in regard to utilitarianism by providing two concrete examples to demonstrate how utilitarianism is only concerned about the consequences of the action and not about the means used to get there. Williams argues that utilitarianism fails to acknowledge the integrity of a person because the ultimate goal of utilitarianism is to produce the greatest happiness overall.
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory that judges an action on its outcomes and aims to maximize happiness. This means finding the action that generates the “greatest good for the greatest number”.
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that seeks to define right and wrong actions based solely on the consequences they produce. By utilitarian standards, an act is determined to be right if and
Utilitarianism is a theory in which individual act in a manner that will produce a greatest happiness or pleasure and that yield lesser pain or negativity. It also consist theory of good and right. In utility ethical theory it is believed that whatever action we portray should always yield higher positive results than negative results. Example, if anyone wants to cut his hand and his action does not cause harm to anyone, if he derives pleasure in it than pain it is consider utility. The principle of utility is divided into action and rule utility.
Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that was initially formulated by Jeremy Bentham and later developed further by John Stuart Mill. It has gained wide acceptance even till modern times. This is the belief which declares that the foundation of morals is ‘utility’ or the ‘greatest happiness’ principle and contends that actions are right to the extent they tend to maximize happiness; wrong if they lead to the reverse of happiness. This theory states that the determination of whether an act is morally right depends on its consequences, thus giving it the name of consequentialism. There are several varying approaches that essentially come under the categories of act consequentialism and rule
In contrast to the consequentialist views of the utilitarian mindset was the ethical approach of Immanuel Kant. Kant suggested that the moral worth of an individual action should be based on its original intention. If the moral principal upon which the action was executed could be, without logical contradiction, willed to be universally accepted then the action is morally correct. He called this subjective moral principal a maxim. The simplest way of understanding what Kant described as the “categorical imperative” is captured in saying “do unto other as you would have them do unto
Utilitarianism is one of the best known and most persuasive good hypotheses. Like different types of consequentialism, its center thought is that
Before I discuss the theory of utilitarianism, it is imperative to explain and understand what it is. Utilitarianism is a moral theory, or a doctrine explaining why certain actions are right or wrong. It is the idea that moral
Utilitarianism comes from the word ‘utility’ or usefulness. The idea is that as long as something done is useful to society at large, it is moral no matter what had to be done to achieve it. It is the view of the best consequences for the most amount of people.