1. Shaw and Barry distinguish two different forms of utilitarianism. What are these two forms? Briefly describe each and use examples.

The two forms of utilitarianism that Shaw and Barry refer to are act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism.

The 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. If its consequences bring more net good than those of any alternative course of action, then this action is the right one and the one we should perform. Shaw and Barry talked about the theory of a woman on her death bed. She had $25,000 in cash under her bed and her dying wish was to give that to her nephew. Her nephew was a known drunk and would have squandered the money away. Another use for that money would be to give it to an orphanage where the money would have benefited the children for many years. If you use the act method, giving the money to the orphanage would have been the best thing to do because the most people would have benefited. But if you did this, would it be morally correct? This was not the dying woman’s wish.

Rule utilitarianism maintains that the utilitarian standard should be applied not to individual actions but to moral codes as a whole. With the moral code, you would have to determine right from wrong. If you look at the sample given above about the dying woman’s wish to give her nephew the money, and you used the rule method, you would see that the moral decision to make would be to give it to the nephew regardless of how he chose to use it.

2. What do economists mean by the "declining marginal utility of money"?

The phrase “declining marginal utility of money” means that the successive additions to one’s income produce, on average, less happiness or welfare than did earlier additions. The more disposable money that people have, the more they spend. With the economy declining, people have less to spend so therefore they have a declining marginal utility of money.

3. Robert Nozick presents his entitlement theory as a function of three basic principles. What are these three basic principles?

Entitlement theory is that people are entitled to their belongings whether it be personal products, stock, money, as long as they obtained it legitimately. There are three theories to this. The first being that you are entitled to your belongs as long as they are acquired legally. An example that they referred to was that if you make something from the land, you are entitled to that because you produced it. An example would be if you took some minerals from the ground and made jewelry out of it, you would be entitled to that jewelry. The second being that if you acquire something by transfer of title, you are entitled to it as long as you received it legitimately. The third principle being that you can only acquire something through the first two principles. The old saying, what’s yours is yours….as long as you’ve gotten it legally. You have no moral obligation to do something with your property other than what you want to.

4. Two main features of John Rawls's theory of distributive justice are particularly important. What are these two features? Describe them

John Rawl’s theory of distributive justice had two principles: fairness and moral equality of people and social and economic inequalities are to be justified. Fairness and moral equality is treating people the same regardless of the circumstances. This holds true for many issues but then there are the economic inequalities. People may have a different privileges or social status’ that would give them different roles in society. This can be acquired in many different ways, but all people should have the opportunity to obtain this status. An example being, that there may be economic inequalities in the work force. Some people hold higher titles or positions within a corporation. They will be compensated more for things such as experience, education, knowledge, etc. Fairness and moral equality would cover our equal rights. That people should not be discriminated against regardless of their race, religion, gender or disabilities.

5. What is the MAXIMIN rule for making decisions?

The maximin rule for making decisions, you should select the alternative under which the worst that could happen to you is better than the worst that could happen to you under any other alternative—that is, you should try to maximize the minimum that you will receive. My opinion on this is that if you are faced with making a decision, you should make the best decision that has the least amount of consequences. This is said to be one of the most widely used rules for making decisions.

6. What is the role of the "veil of ignorance" in Rawls' theory of distributive justice?

The veil of ignorance is when the laws/rules are governed, that there is no knowledge of who or the what the situation is that the rules will be administered to. Once the rules are made, the veil will be lifted and they will know who the rules will regulate. Having this is supposed to make the decisions fair and that there be no favoritism when the rules are made.

7. According to Shaw and Barry, deciding what sort of economic arrangements would best promote human happiness requires the utilitarian to consider many things. What are the five considerations mentioned by Shaw and Barry?
Shaw and Barry believe that you must consider many things to be able to decide what economic arrangements would best promote human happiness. They are (1) the type of economic ownership (private, public, mixed); (2) the way of organizing production and distribution in general (pure laissez faire, markets with government planning and regulation fully centralized planning); (3) the type of authority arrangements within the units of production (worker control versus managerial prerogative); (4) the range and character of material incentives; and (5) the nature and extent of social security and welfare provisions.

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[ 1 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 2 “Normative Theories of Ethics”, 60
[ 2 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 2 “Normative Theories of Ethics”, 62-63
[ 3 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 2 “Normative Theories of Ethics”, 77
[ 4 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 3 “Justice and Economic Distribution”, 112
[ 5 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 3 “Justice and Economic Distribution”, 114
[ 6 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 3 “Justice and Economic Distribution”, 119-120
[ 7 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 3 “Justice and Economic Distribution”, 122
[ 8 ]. Shaw and Barry, Moral Issues in Business 12e, Chapter 3 “Justice and Economic Distribution”, 111