The defense industry is one of the largest recruiters of STEM graduates in the nation. Thousands of engineering students enter this industry and must justify the morality of their work. These engineers work on projects that affect themselves, the engineering profession, and the entire world population. This paper will look into some of the facts surrounding engineering in the defense industry, its intended and unintended consequences, and judge the work of these engineers by applying Egoism, Utilitarianism, and Kantian ethical theories.
The Department of Defense (DOD) was recently approved a budget of $582.7 billion for 2017. $112.1 billion of this budget was specifically to “develop and procure equipment, technology, and capabilities…” [1].
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The premise of this theory is that an act is right if and only if it produces the greatest possible average outcome for everyone. Egoism and Utilitarianism are similar in the fact that they both make judgements that are purely dependent on the consequences. The largest difference between the two theories is that egoism has no primary regard for how actions affect others, while utilitarianism is concerned with the overall outcome for all.
There are two main forms of this theory; rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism judges the rightness of an action by following a set of rules. These rules are set so that they provide the best possible outcome for everyone. For example, a rule utilitarian would say it’s always wrong to lie because, in general, telling the truth brings about the optimal consequences. A utilitarian applies these rules universally and without exception.
Act utilitarianism, on the other hand, judges each action individually and decides on its rightness by the resulting consequences. This approach can give situational leniency when needed as long as the action brings about the optimal results. As opposed to a rule utilitarian, an act utilitarian would say that lying is the right thing to do if it brings the best total outcome for those
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Often times there can be contradictions between maxiums or between how a maxium applies to an action. Another flaw is that this theory leaves no situational variance when judging right or wrong. These flaws make it difficult to complete a comprehensive judgement on a complex issue such as engineering in the defense industry.
One can make a few objective observations about this industry. Many technologies spurned from their original purposes provide a standard of living never achieved before. The high stakes of the defense industry drive innovation higher and faster than anything else in human history. These great achievements come at a great cost though. The introduction of new technology into the wars of the early 20th century caused loss of life on a scale never before seen. On the contrary, new technology has also transformed how we fight wars and steadily decreased casualties.
All of these theories have obvious drawbacks that keep them from producing an objective answer to the morality of defense engineering. They are only able to give a scaffolding that one must build judgement from. Each person’s judgment will be strife with personal biases that will put more weight on different sides of the issues and affect their moral
Utilitarianism is the most appropriate use in everyday life. Actions done by an individual are done with the well being of all involved. Even if the act is considered immoral the act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism justifies certain actions as morally right. It ultimately focuses on the maximization of everyone’s
Ethics matter in any kind of business or organization, but they are especially significant when it comes to the US Army (Blackburn, 2001). The reason behind this involves the chain of command and the risk to life and limb that are such large parts of military life. When a soldier in the Army has no ethics, he or she can cause trust and respect problems with other members of his or her unit. The US military is a stressful organization for most people involved with it, and people's lives are on the line frequently. Issues like PTSD and other medical problems are commonplace for those who leave the military and must adjust to civilian life, so it is very important that those who are in the Army work with their colleagues and higher-ups to get the help and support they need during and after their service. There is more to ethics in the Army than the problems that military individuals can face, though.
Two different forms of utilitarianism are described in our text. The first is called act utilitarianism. According to Shaw and Barry, act utilitarianism states that we must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in a particular situation will be for all those affected (p.60).
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 also known as the principle of utility is an ethical theory proposed by early philosophers. This theory implies that actions are only judged by its consequences whether they are good or bad. One should perform a particular action because it will yield the best results for all. This approach also analysis the cost and benefit relationship. The downfall with this theory is that not everyone benefits (Fremgen, 2016).
Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says an action is right insofar as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance
Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory that states something is considered to be right when it does the most good for most the most amount of people (Duignan 2015). This theory doesn’t consider the feelings of the individual; it considers the feelings of the majority (Duignan 2015). Utilitarianism is very different from relativism, which takes into account the totality of circumstances, this philosophical theory states that what is considered to be right or wrong can vary depending on people and society (Rachels 2015).
The utilitarian faces many problems because he loses any ability to live a personal life. By this is meant that in making decisions the utilitarian must consider the steps which lead to the highest level of goodness in society. The utilitarian reaches for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Two main aspects dominate the light of utilitarian beliefs. The consequentialist principle explains that in determining the rightness or wrongness of an act one must examine the results that will follow. The utility principle is that you can only deem something to be good if it in itself will bring upon a specific desired state, such as happiness or fulfillment. There are two types of utilitarians: Act utilitarians and Rule
Utilitarianism is also divided into two sub-categories called Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism. While these both agree with the core principle of Utilitarianism, they differ in their ideas of the utility of individual actions. Act Utilitarian theorists agree that every action we do should create the greatest utility, and the principle of utility should be used depending on individual cases. Rule Utilitarian theorists focus on the possibility of moral rules, and using these rules to judge the morality of actions.
Utilitarianism is a theory which I can agree with, mostly. I would like to do what makes the majority of people happy, however, it might not always be the correct decision. An example would be people at a workplace each decide to steal five dollars and not tell (no one gets caught), this would make everyone happy but is it really morally correct. It also depends on the outcome, if the consequences outweigh the happiness then the act is not ethical. There are also other factors which can come into play, one scenario about the train going down the tracks. You can save a bunch of people by switching the train to another track, but the person on the other track is someone you love. This one person means more to you than just one unit of happiness which does not follow the rule, everyone’s happiness is the same. Utilitarianism brings a great way to make ethical decisions, but it cannot be used in every situation which is why it only needs to be applied when
As an organizational- level leadership, he will confront many thorny problems and missions that challenge their moral criteria and military profession. In particular, when they receive the order from the upper- level, how he employ his expertise to exercise his moral leadership and undertake the tasks. Actually, both of the profession and ethic are interdependent, and inseparable. Thus, a professional commissioned officer should understand how to fit ethic into his expertise. Moreover, people would face the dilemmatic situation between the obedience of rules and the consideration of the consequence. When it comes to the moral or ethical, should I follow the deontology or consequentialism? Which one is the most critical priority to the stewardship
Ethics can be defined as "the conscious reflection on our moral beliefs with the aim of improving, extending or refining those beliefs in some way." (Dodds, Lecture 2) Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism are two theories that attempt to answer the ethical nature of human beings. This paper will attempt to explain how and why Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism differ as well as discuss why I believe Kant's theory provides a more plausible account of ethics.
In order to determine how different, the act and rule utilitarianism are, I will analyze it by applying them in the following scenario. Let’s imagine, you are a doctor in an oncology ward in a major city that is strapped for financial and material resources. One evening, two patients are admitted to the hospital. One patient is suffering from a seemingly incurable form of
2. To begin, I will be defining both act and rule utilitarianism. In act utilitarianism, you determine the morality of an act by measuring the pleasures and pains for a specific situation Angeles 326). Act utilitarians take into consideration only those affected in the specific situation. However, rule utilitarianism determines the morality of an act “according to the good or bad consequences that ensue from following a general moral rule of conduct…” (Angeles 326). Good examples of those general moral rules are phrases like, never steal or never tell a lie. In any situation, people can use either act or rule utilitarianism to determine the correct course of action.
Utilitarianism is based on maximizing human welfare, it is seen as the only way to determines the rightness of actions (Duignan, 2015). Furthermore, theory is in opposition to egoism, the view that a person should pursue his own self-interest, even at the expense of others, and to any ethical theory that regards some acts or types of acts (Duignan, 2015). Utilitarianism is said to be a strict relationship between the rightness of an action and the amount of pleasure it promotes and pain it prevents. However, in utilitarianism the only thing that gages morality of an action is whether it produces the greatest happiness ( McMillan, n.d.). Furthermore, utilitarian’s think that the moral rightness of an action is dependant of weather it promotes rightness. Rule utilitarian’s on the other hand, favor moral actions that are backed by moral rules. Utilitarianism is seen as morally demanding, as it requires increased moral choices. Rule utilitarianism down side is that it can be seen as rule