Swetha Balaji
Phil 186, Section 2
6/22/15
Undoubtedly, businesses make a statement in today’s world. Businesses affect a wide part of society from technology to food. In order for businesses to run efficiently and properly, rules must be met. Managing and working with several groups of people are not easy jobs, it takes commitment and motivation to take on various roles. In general when people make decisions, it comes from their morals, and what they consider right and wrong. A number of moral theories are behind the final decisions made in businesses.
Specifically, Utilitarianism, founded by John Betham in the 1800s was one of the normative moral theories that was used to basically maximize utility and increase happiness. Under the branch
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Utilitarians look at the entire picture and the whole outlook of their actions. They take an interest in the positive results of their actions and as well as the overall outcome. Happiness and satisfaction is what most utilitarians center their actions and morals behind around. They believe that when it brings about joy, it is the right thing to do. Just as utilitarians look at overall outcome, they also consider the long-term effects of their actions. The example in the lecture that helped me understand this concept is the one where it talks about lying might seem like easy and convenient way to get out of hard situation, but if the people that that were lied to found out, your reputation will most likely be spoiled. There are no better words to describe “utilitarianism” other than it being “universal, maximizing and aggregative” for the following reasons. The theory of utilitarianism is universal because it tries to understand everyone’s interests. I think this is great since everyone can equally receive the chance to be heard. This system is not based on ranks nor is priority given to a particular class. There needs to balance in a society but in this case everyone is an equal. It is associated with being aggregative because not only is happiness the one that is measured but also unhappiness of each person affected by the action establishes its whole value. The negative consequences are taken into account but in the aggregate, the undesirable
Utilitarianism considers the pleasure and pain of every individual affected by an action. It also considers everyone to be equal and does not permit an individual to put their interests or relationships first. After this it attempts to provide an objective, quantitative method for making moral decisions. Utilitarianism is not able to assign quantitative measures to all pleasures and pains, and does not address the issue of some pleasures and pains that cannot or should not be measured-such as human life or human suffering.
Utilitarianism, in the contrary, is based on the principle of utility or usefulness. Utility is what encourages an agent to act in a particular way (Tuckett, 1998). Utility can be explained as maximizing the good like pleasure and happiness and minimizing the bad like pain and evil, all leading to the greater good for all parties involved. It weights the consequences of the actions equally between the ones involved, and the ethical solution would be to follow the greater good for most if not all the parties involved.
153). In essence, utilitarianism is maximizing everyone’s happiness, which can almost be considered a universal acceptance (Boylan, 2009, p. 154). Jeremy Bentham is one of the proponents of modern utilitarianism and states, “nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” (Boylan, 2009, p. 154). In business utilitarianism shares the nonmoral views that the best decision that had no moral conflict would be to maximize profit, which would be the greatest good of the company and its employees (Boylan, 2009, p. 162). Utilitarianism does not always hold true in some minds. Utilitarianism does not take into account motives of the people (Boylan, 2009, p. 165). “If one acts in accord with the general principle and its corollaries, then one is moral” (Boylan, 2009, p. 165).
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.
Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics supporting the idea that the morally correct course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing totally benefit and minimizing suffering. By ‘utility’ in this sense we mean ‘happiness’ or ‘pleasure, or similar. Although there are many varieties,
Utilitarianism can be generally defined as a way of thinking where one chooses an action based on the amount of happiness that it would produce. In the book Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, by Barbara MacKinnon and Andrew Fiala, the authors state “Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism,” and that “John Stuart Mill explained it as ‘actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.’” (MacKinnon 95). This means that utilitarianism focuses on result of an action based on happiness and that decisions can be taken made by looking at possible outcomes of that decision. What Mill stated would be defined as “ the principle of utility or the greatest happiness principle.”( MacKinnon, 95). This principle is one in which could be
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.
Journal #11 Ethical Frameworks Directions: In your journal, define the following positions, outline criticisms/ counterclaims, and then evaluate from your perspective. Moral Relativism: Diversity Argument: It wasn’t long ago that people really started becoming aware of the essence of moral diversity. It was discovered that affiliates of different cultures very often have completely different beliefs about what is considered wrong and what is considered right and usually act according to their beliefs.
Basically, in defining the perspective of a utilitarian focuses on the concerns that actions or policies could possibly have on the good fortune ("utility") of all persons directly or indirectly affected by the policy or action. The standard makes the following point: "Of any two actions, the most ethical one will produce the greatest balance of benefits over harms." (Bonnie Steinbock, 2005) Many would probably look at it as a way of taking advantage of happiness and plummeting suffering
Utilitarianism is a theory that has many contrasted or combines virtues of rules that are seen to be ethically important. There are many critics who don’t agree with the theory. An example s Karl Popper, who believes that it's dangerous to attempt to maximize pleasure, which can lead to totalitarianism. I however I don't believe that the world is nothing but pleasure existed, because it not only contains beauty and love, but crudeness and hate. I believe utilitarianism is a imaginative theory, where we wish to believe everything is happy, but in reality there is war, crimes, and a lot of
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 basically says “who is affected by my actions”. It is pleasure in the absence of pain. It is an ethical theory that says that the right action will result in the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people for the greatest length of time. When choosing what the greatest pleasure is, then that’s when qualified judges come to play. For utilitarianism we need qualified judges. These are people who can experience all pleasures under consideration. We need many different qualified judges for utilitarianism. Everyone experiences something different because we are all different. When you don’t have any qualified judges, then the theory is abstract. Whatever the majority of the qualified judges says is the better choice, then that is the greatest pleasure. People need to realize
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.
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, as explained by the philosopher Mill. Given several choices, a utilitarian would pick the morally correct choice by using the Greatest Happiness Principle (487). By looking at whether the consequences of an action will produce the greater happiness for the greater number of people than another action would, one can
The idea of Utilitarianism, and the greatest happiness principle were developed by philosophers John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham in the 19th century, and even has lineage back to Epictetus, utilitarianism coincides with the greatest happiness principle. The idea is that you should act in a way that would generate the majority of overall happiness, and focus on the consequences of your actions rather than the action itself (Driver, 2009), this goes along perfectly with the definition to be wise of maximizing benefit, because being wise means maximizing benefit. Furthermore, this means that good actions have good consequences, regardless of the intention of the action. This way, we can ensure that we ensure that we, as a society and individuals, make as many people as happy as possible, and through knowing that you are promoting happiness for others, you yourself can find happiness through that. Therefore, because we as sentient beings, do what we do as we think it will promote our happiness, thinking and acting like a utilitarian will ensure that our actions