Utilitarianism Vs Consequentialism

First, it is important to define ethics and how its components play an extensive role in our society. The term ethics is defined as “Moral principles that govern a person 's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.” (Oxford); ethical decisions are the ones that per se determine whether or not murder is wrong. Likewise, ethics consists of different ramifications and perspectives from many philosophers. Moreover,

Ethics, or sometimes referred to as "moral philosophy" is the discipline which studies questions of what is right and what is wrong. When one is involved in the study of right and wrong, it is inevitable that one will be forced to make a choice between the two, and assign this choice to actions and behavior. When discussing the ethical treatment of prisoners, one is forced to decide what is right and what is wrong, not only for the prisoners involved, but for society in general. One theory of punishment is called the "utilitarian" philosophy, and generally assumes that whatever is best for society in general is the best course of action. The idea of utilitarianism, when applied to the criminal justice system can benefit those involved because what is best for society is an ethical question, one that must be answered within the bounds of ethics. This means that ethics must be applied to the question of the treatment of prisoners, and therefore can ensure that prisoners will be treated decently by society.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, ethics is defined as “moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior.” Therefore, in an ideal world, ethics should play the ultimate role when making a decision. If ethics are the principles which guides one’s behavior then, ideally, all decisions should be made entirely based on ethics. Unfortunately, such is not always the case.

Essentially, consequentialism tries to rationalize a situation by saying that the right action would be the one with the most number of good consequences and most beneficial for the individuals involved (youtube.com) (bbc.co.uk). Reason in consequentialism, does not differentiate the right and wrong, but rather it crafts out the different consequences and options. Thus, people are able to reach a conclusion as to what to do through deductive reasoning, where they deduce the right action (conclusion) from consequences

Calculating percentage and probability of happiness in utilitarianism might seem daunting, conflicting, somewhat useless, and bluntly absurd. In some situations, such as one described in the scenario above, application of utilitarianism principles might look illogical and contrary to traditional human values, such as the sanctity of life and disdain to murder. However, the ideas of utilitarianism leave room for interpretation, and with much consideration could be more valuable than they appear at first.

Critics of utilitarianism often claim that the theory is too permissive, or something that we ought to do because it is the obvious thing to do for maximizing happiness. Opponents of utilitarianism will argue this by explaining that what creates maximal happiness for some might also impose the complete opposite to others. An example of this is where ten people are in desperate need of organ transplants and we can find one person off the street to fulfill all of those needs. Thus, the obvious thing to achieve maximal happiness would be to kill the individual and give the organs to the ten, or the whole. Although this does seem to infringe upon the moral guidelines of what it is to live in accordance among one another. On the others hand

What is ethics? Ethics is how one acts and is based on what a person feels is morally wrong (Ethics, 2017). Since everyone has their own basis of what is right and wrong, ethics is hard to describe. What one person deems as unethical another person may not see it that way. Each person has an innate feeling that they follow regarding what they consider to be honest, true, and worthy to fight for. Ethics does not involve a specific law that is broken; only one’s belief that something is right or wrong. Therefore, there can be circumstances that are ethically wrong; however, morally right. An example of this is a woman is raped and then becomes pregnant. Perhaps this person’s ethics are against

As John Mizzoni explains, “Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” Essentially, he is stating

Good, bad, right, wrong…how do we know? Ethics is the study of how we determine what is right or wrong, good or bad (Mosser, 2010). While there are many ethical views, I focused on the three classical approaches for this paper. Utilitarianism states when given a choice between two acts, the one that creates the greater happiness for the greatest number of people is the ethical choice. Deontology stems from obligation or duty. This view takes the position that one has a duty to choose the right or moral act. Virtue ethics focus on the character of the individual rather than the act. If the individual

Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, utilitarianism is “a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences; specifically: a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number” (Webster). The idea of utilitarianism is founded from the Principle of Utility which has three simple ideas. The first idea is the belief that our actions should have the best possible outcomes. The second idea is the belief that our actions will bring the most amount of benefit and cause the least amount of harm to people. The last idea is the belief that everyone’s happiness is just as

Consequentialism: The overall outcome of our actions compared and contrasted with societal constituents, which in term is rule abiding, with the clear intent of only good, similar to perfectionism.

Consequentialism names a type of ethical theory that judges human practices, like actions or rules, based on their consequences. Human practices that produce good consequences are morally right, while ones that produce adverse consequences are morally wrong. For example, a consequentialist says that you should do certain things, because those actions produce good consequences. The most common historical variant of consequentialism is Classic Utilitarianism. Classic Utilitarianism was promoted philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

Ethics is a moral branch of philosophy that asks basic question about the good life, about what is better and worse, about whether there is any objective right and wrong. Some philosophy are optimistic about our ability to answer these questions, while others are more skeptical. But if we look deeply into the worlds of ethics and moral, ethics refers to the society because society says what is the right thing to do, while morals refers to personal character because person believe what is the right or wrong, in the assignment I am going to talk about two philosophy ( Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill).

Ethics is defined as beliefs about what is right and wrong or good and bad in actions that affect others.( Therefore, unethical behaviour is behaviour that is believed to be bad or wrong actions or decisions. Other definition about ethics is ‘the activity of examining the moral standards of a society, and asking how these standards apply to one’s life and whether these standards are reasonable’ (Velasquez, 1998; pg 11). Ethics are based on personal or social beliefs. Furthermore, these beliefs are our moral standards, and moral standards differ among individuals. Thus, no one can say with certainty that a particular action is right or wrong and good or bad.

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles correlated to human behavior concerning the rightness and wrongness of specific conduct, and to the good and bad that influences and ends those actions (Ditonary.com, 2011). In other words, ethics is the choice people effect in regards to a decision they need to achieve. Without ethics directing the choice an individual makes, moral preferences of what should or should not be done becomes irrelevant. While ethical decisions are made every day there are two different regions in which these choices are made.