Making decisions about ethical matters can be a complicated and well thought-out process. To make things smoother and of a more efficient manner, there have been various systems put in place to provide rules and guidelines as to how to ensure that what is decided is morally right. Here, we will take a look at the view of utilitarianism, and discuss an important flaw it presents us with. Many articles include discussions that look at this in great depth, where it appears the once highly renowned system of utilitarianism has revealed to us various hidden flaws and complications. Under the wing of the utilitarianistic view, to determine something to be morally right requires that it minimises pain and suffering, while also having ideal or “good” consequences. Likewise, for something in this same sense to be frowned upon it usually includes more pain than pleasure or happiness and unpreferred or negative consequences (Robertson, Walter, 2007). This view has existed for only a few centuries, but evidently it has proven to be highly effective in making critical, practical decisions in many areas of society. The final decision is calculated and concluded by taking a look at the overall happiness and preference of individuals (Shoemaker, 1999). As will be discussed further in the latter, this totalling nature can pose problems. In the 1800s, Jeremy Bentham introduced the idea with regards to happiness, aiming for the greatest happiness in great abundance between people (Burns,
The three principles of utilitarianism are “1. All ‘pleasures’ or benefits are not equal, 2. The system presumes that one can predict the consequences of one’s actions, and 3. There is little concern for individual rights” (Pollock,
Classical utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory which holds that an action can only be considered as morally right where its consequences bring about the greatest amount of good to the greatest number (where 'good' is equal to pleasure minus pain). Likewise, an action is morally wrong where it fails to maximise good. Since it was first articulated in the late 19th Century by the likes of Jeremy Bentham and later John Stewart Mill, the classical approach to utilitarianism has since become the basis for many other consequentialist theories such as rule-utilitarianism and act-utilitarianism upon which this essay will focus (Driver, 2009). Though birthed from the same
The primary form of consequentialism used by the majority of individuals when making ethical decisions is known as Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism weighs the outcomes by whether they create pleasure or pain for the individuals involved. This creates a standard when evaluating the consequences rather than allow the individual to create their own (Kyte 108). Even though there is a plethora of different pleasures and pains of various forms and severities. Since we often choose familiar pleasure, only an individual familiar in both side can voice their opinion based on their understanding of both sides. However, it is not always easy to make accurate predictions on the outcomes and also consider the consequences of every individual that could be effected by the decision (Kyte 120, 122). Even though we understand the concept of consequences, it is not easy to think of every potential one, how they affect others, and whether they cause pleasure or
Policy decisions should be made based on whether the change is technically possible and politically doable, and sometimes whether it’s ethical. For example, chapter 10 of the Shane and Hunker book, talks about the proposal of having the government monitor private networks to protect them from malware. The government may have the technology available to protect or monitor private networks either to prevent malware attacks or to monitor any other type of malicious activity. It may also be politically doable. If there is a way of monitoring networks just by machines without humans looking at the network traffic, then it would not violate the Fourth Amendment. However, in this case, although it’s technically and politically doable, ethics also
The concept of Utilitarianism has been around for hundreds of decades with origins in ancient Greece, with Epicureanism. Modern utilitarianism was advocated by Bentham in the 18th century which drew other philosophers such as Mill to construct their own alternatives to Bentham’s original concept. In this essay, I will be analysing Rule-Utilitarianism (RU) and I will be comparing and contrasting it with Act-Utilitarianism (AU) to see if it has any advantages over the latter strain. Utilitarianism is the most common form of consequentialism, which is the theory that an act is morally right or wrong depending on the consequences it produces. Therefore, this concept treats the intentions or the act itself as irrelevant. Utilitarianism is a hedonistic theory which measures actions in terms of happiness or pleasure. Mill used the principle of utility in which he believed a right action is one that maximises utility for all, with every rational being regarded as equal. So, according to utilitarians, one ought to promote the “greatest happiness of the greatest number”.
The two problems with utilitarianism, one of which questions whether pleasure is the only important moral value, and the other that questions whether it can function as the authority in moral judgments. I believe utilitarianism does not accurately describe how we always make moral decisions; it is difficult to see how many people might be affected by a given course of action; it is equally difficult to know how to assign importance to the various good or bad consequences that come about as moral decision-making is the one area we cannot account for with a
Utilitarianism is widely regarded as the doctrine that the morally correct course of action consists in the greatest good for the greatest number and maximizes utility. Jeremy Bentham, which was the founder of utilitarianism, explained utility as the “aggregate pleasure after deducting suffering of all involved in any action” (Selfstudyhistory, 2015) and "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" (Selfstudyhistory, 2015)
The traps I am most likely to fall into when evaluating something or someone are trusting too
When making ethical decisions we as Christians use different sources to help us in deciding how we should respond to a given situation while staying true to our Christian faith and its values.
We make decisions for the better or for the worst. Everyday some are bigger than others. They affect our everyday lives more than we think. I remember one specifically I regret making. It was November of my freshman year of high school. It was a cold Friday night. Me and my friends decided it would be cool if we snuck out. So we did and we went and met up with a couple of girls. The whole time my conscience was telling me it was a bad idea but were teenage boys its normal to sneak out. So we did and we didn't get back to my friends house until two in the morning. When I went home the following morning I walked in to see my parents sitting at the kitchen table just waiting for me to come home. They were furious at me. I ended up being grounded
As a philosophical approach, utilitarianism generally focuses on the principle of “greatest happiness”. According to the greatest happiness principle, actions that promote overall happiness and pleasure are considered as right practices. Moreover, to Mill, actions which enhance happiness are morally right, on the other hand, actions that produce undesirable and unhappy outcomes are considered as morally wrong. From this point of view we can deduct that utilitarianism assign us moral duties and variety of ways for maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain to ensure “greatest happiness principle”. Despite all of moral duties and obligations, utilitarian perspective have many specific challenges that pose several serious threats which
1. Utilitarians believe that “one should so act as to promote the greatest happiness (pleasure) of the greatest number of people” (Angeles 326). However, within the utilitarian community there are major splits in how we are to determine which action brings us the greatest amounts of pleasure. Today I will be focusing on two ways to determine which actions bring the greatest amount of pleasure to a situation: act and rule utilitarianism. I will define both act and rule utilitarianism, give a situation where both can be applied, and respond to an objection of utilitarianism. I will also be discussing why I believe act utilitarianism helps more people than rule utilitarianism, in turn, becoming ‘superior’ to rule utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism is an ethical philosophy that West (n.d.) says is “an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness – not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it.” This includes future generations as well as those affected at the moment of the decision. The Utilitarian philosophy tries to simplify a decision as what a person ought to do. The fundamental differences between right and wrong are measured under Utilitarianism as the outcome that has the most positive consequence and all other outcomes are wrong.
Jeremy Bentham was one of the first philosophers to present a fully developed system of utilitarianism. He thought that we, as humans, should evaluate the consequences of our actions, determine whether each action is morally right or wrong, and tally the pleasure and pain that comes as a result of our actions. Is it right for me to donate to charity? Is it right for me to cheat on my government test? These questions we ask ourselves fall under Bentham’s theory known as act-utilitarianism because it focuses on the consequences of every action we perform. Bentham argues that the “greatest happiness of the greatest number of people” (Bentham) is how we should determine right from wrong. He also believed “mankind is under the
Many people from all walks of life have trouble making decisions in their everyday lives, especially on tough or critical situations that may even involve life and death considerations. To address this issue, there are four ethical models and four ethical principles developed as guidance in making decisions in an ethical way. One of the four ethical models is the Utilitarianism. This model is based on the principle that the best decision is the one that gives benefits to most or causes harm to