...John Stuart Mills a famous utilitarian obeyed Bentham’s idea of utilitarianism but he redefined this to iron out these objections and make the theory more acceptable to the Victorian middle classes. His father was a friend of Bentham’s and, like Bentham he was preciously bright, he was reading Greek by the age of three and by the age of ten he had read all the classical authors usually required of undergraduates. Unlike other Victorians he argued strongly for equal rights for women. As well as being one of the most important of all moral philosophers, then, Mill is also one of the great political theorists, and still valued by many as the father of modern political liberalism. Mill’s theory originates from only part of Bentham’s theory which states that utilitarianism is a teleological theory, which involves looking at the future effects or consequences of an action, which therefore implies that it is the consequences which are right or wrong, not the actions or motives. This means that an action should be chosen because it creates the right consequences and not the wrong ones. Mill also agrees with the idea of hedonism, which refers to the idea that naturally everybody experiences pleasure or pain. It claims that pleasure should be maximised as it is intrinsically good where as pain is intrinsically bad and therefore should be minimised. In addition to this the principle of Utility, also an idea of Bentham’s, judges an action by how useful it is in bringing about good consequences...
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...question to answer and is still up in the air. We have to discover the best economic and political systems for ourselves by seeing the effects they produce (90). Utilitarians often advocate for social welfare because everyone’s well-being is of moral interest and social welfare seems like a good way to make sure everyone flourishes to a minimal extent. On the other hand utilitarians often advocate free trade because (a) free trade can help reward people for hard work and encourage people to be productive, (b) the free market allows for a great deal of freedom, (c) freedom has a tendency to lead to more prosperity, and (d) taking away freedom has a tendency to cause suffering. One conception of utilitarian justice can be found in the work Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill (91). Mill said that justice was a subset of morality—“injustice involves the violation of the rights of some identifiable individual” (ibid.). Mill suggests, “Justice implies something which is not only right to do, and wrong not to do, but which some individual person can claim from us as his moral right” (ibid.). Morality is larger than justice because it’s plausible that we can be heroic or act beyond the call of duty to help others and such acts...
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...How does Singer attempt to justify our obligation to help distant others in need? Does he succeed? Peter Singer is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century and this has to do with his ideas on poverty, animal rights, abortions and euthanasia. This question is about aid from wealthy countries to poorer ones and therefore is concentrating on his views on poverty and generally, global justice. I will start by outlining what Peter Singer says about helping others in need in far off countries and how he justifies the points he makes. I will then comment on whether I believe this to be a persuasive argument and will critique and support what he believes with my own opinions and justifications. This question is about global justice, which is the allocation of advantages and disadvantages between governments/states or between individuals of different countries. Therefore, global justice is not something that individuals worry about and the governments do not. Nor is it something that governments strive for but the individual does not value. They should be both working towards the same goal and this is where global justice theorists like Singer have their say. Singer in the article Famine, Affluence and Morality (1972) says that “Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad” (p. 231) which I think and he thinks that you can take as a granted assumption. No one wants people to suffer from lack of basic amenities like that when most people...
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...According to Michael Voytinsky, (2011) he stated that Utilitarian theory have the concept that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall happiness. It is therefore a form of consequentialism, which means that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can only weigh the morality of an action after knowing all its consequences. So in other words the consequences in utilitarian includes all of the good and bad produced by the act, whether arising after the act has been performed or during its performance. According to John Stuart Mill, Bentham’s successor which is the leader of the utilitarians, he stated that Utilitarianism is often described by the phrase "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", and is also known as "the greatest happiness principle". This is in the view that no action is in and of itself bad or god, what is important is the state of the world that the action brings about. If the overall happiness is good result, then the action is good. For example, a healthy person walks into a hospital with broken fingers; however in the same hospital three different persons with the same blood type happens to be dying due to organ failure, but with different organs in each case. In this case the utilitarian theory says that it would be justify and more favorable to kill one healthy person for their organs, which therefore can be transplanted into several people dying for an organ which will save...
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...Act Utilitarianism Act Utilitarianism defines moral right and wrong in terms of specific acts. To determine the right action for a particular situation, we must consider our possible choices of action and determine which choice would produce the greatest overall utility in its outcome. In assessing an act’s effects or outcome, we must consider both the utility and disutility as these relate to the scope, which includes all those directly or indirectly affected by the act, the duration or length of time of each effect, the intensity or strength of each resulting experience and the probability of each effect Act Utilitarianism has several advantages. It is objective, giving a single answer to moral problems without creating more problems and offering a kind of scientific approach to ethics. It is also impartial in that it does not distinguish between individuals. It allows for flexibility based on circumstances, and it has important implications for the moral treatments of animals. Act Utilitarianism, however, encounters several objections. These include the calculation problem, meaning it is difficult to accurately predict and evaluate all possible consequences in terms of scope, intensity, duration, and probability. The moral saints problem, which places heavy moral demands upon us. Everything becomes a matter of moral importance, including our choice of clothing. The moral permissiveness objection, as it can approve any sort of action, breaking promises...
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...Situation Ethics * Situation ethics was most famously championed by Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). * He believed that we should follow the rules until we need to break them for reasons of love. * It is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation. * Fletcher rejected following rules regardless (legalism) and also the idea that we should not have any rules (antinomianism) and said that we need to find a balance between the two. Four working principles When establishing his version of Situation Ethics, Fletcher used four key principles which he aimed to fulfil in writing his theory: 1. Pragmatism (it has to work in daily life - it must be practical) 2. Relativism (there should be no fixed rules) 3. Positivism (it must put faith before reasoning – "I am a Christian, so what should I do?") 4. Personalism (people should be at the centre of the theory) Six Fundamental Principles There are six fundamental things that underlie Fletcher's Situation Ethics: 1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good) 2. Christian decision making is based on love 3. Justice is love distributed 4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are 5. Only the end justifies the means 6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptivally Advantages of Situation Ethics The key advantage is that it uses rules to provide a framework but allows people to break rules to reflect life's complexities...
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...Famine, Affluence, and Morality Terry Simmons PHI 208 Instructor: Stephen Carter January 28, 2013 Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer opens his argument by introducing the reader to a famine in Bengal setting up his first premise stating “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad”. (Singer, 1972) Singer elaborates to say this is merely one point of view and that some “people can hold all sorts of eccentric positions, and perhaps from some of them it would not follow that death by starvation is in itself bad.” (Singer, 1972) He continues to say that for this discussion it will be assumed all accept the above argument. The next argument continues with “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it” (Singer, 1972). Singer gives an example of what this would entail, “if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing.” (Singer, 1972) He then points out that there are flaws in our way of thinking (Singer, 1972). The socially acceptable standard is that we would offer help to one who is physically near us, simply because of the close proximity. The flaw lies in the fact that we are less motivated to help someone who is further...
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...Jeremy Bentham was a British philosopher who has been regarded as the founder of utilitarianism. He was born in London in 1748. Bentham was known for not being very social and he was known for not liking to make public speeches so he spent most of his time writing papers and books on philosophy, economics and politics. In 1830 Bentham wrote a book called the Constitutional Code where he determined that the all-comprehensive object, or end in view, is, from first to last, the greatest happiness of the greatest number; namely, of the individuals, of whom the political community, or state, of which it is the constitution. Bentham wrote the Principles of Morals and Legislation in which he proclaimed that Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think”. (Wikipedia) Principals of Morals and Legislation focused primarily on the principle of utility and how this view of morality ties into legislative practices. The idea of utility regards "good" as that which produces the greatest amount of pleasure and the minimum amount of pain and "evil" as that which produces the most pain without the pleasure. This concept of pleasure and pain is defined by Bentham as physical...
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...The In Dr. Michael Sandel’s video, “The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number”, the issue of utilitarianism in regards to policy making is discussed. In particular, the philosophies of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are called into question and applied to modern day scenarios that illustrate how difficult it can be to create a policy based on utilitarianism alone. Several issues arise throughout the course of the discussion that create doubt as to its effectiveness as well as convincing evidence in support. In the opening segment, Dr. Sandel speaks about Jeremy Bentham’s idea of utilitarianism. Benthem believed that a society must maximize happiness (utility) in order to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. He argues that a community is the sum of all its parts and so in deciding on a policy or law for that particular community, all the benefits of a decision must be compared with all the negative impacts of the decision and whatever maximizes the balance of pleasure over displeasure is the correct decision to make. In order to put this in a more modern perspective, Dr. Sandel introduces two cost-benefit analysis’ created by two major American companies that were used in making important business decisions. They did this by placing a dollar value on utility. The first analysis was done by Phillip Morris, a cigarette manufacturer, on a decision of whether or not the Czech Republic should increase the tax on smoking. In the study, Phillip...
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...Utilitarianism: * Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. * The Utilitarian tradition is often summarised as “the greatest good for the greatest number” * “The Classical Utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, identified the good with pleasure”. Therefore pleasure is the ultimate goal that will lead to an ethical society, according to the Utilitarian approach. John Stuart Mill: * was an English philosopher, political economist and civil servant. * He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century Theory of liberty: * Mill states that it is acceptable for someone to harm himself as long as he is not harming others. * On Liberty involves an impassioned defense of free speech * The individual ought to be free to do as he wishes unless he harms others. * Individuals are rational enough to make decisions about their good being and choose any religion they want to. * Government should interfere when it is for the protection of society. * Freedom of speech Harm principle: * The harm principle holds that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals. * John Stuart Mill articulated this principle in On Liberty, where he argued that, "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised...
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...Business Ethics, A Ceaseless Battle I have chosen to evaluate the following rules of ethics as they apply to the world of business: utilitarianism, moral rights and the justice rule. In this paper, I will define each approach and provide the strength and weakness of each as well as compare and contrast the theories I have chosen. UTILITARIAN APPROACH When employed in the use of making business decisions, the goal of utilitarianism is to maximize the greater good for the greater group of people or on the contrary, minimize the negative effects of a decision experienced by a group of people. (See essay by John Stuart Mill, Utilitarism, 1863) While it forces you to consider how the actions of a business could affect its employees, consumers, shareholders, etc., the problem is that it is often very difficult to give value to and measure the benefits of a decision versus any negative result of said action. As an example, you could look at a business’ decision to outsource jobs on a global level. The decision to outsource would benefit the business, shareholders and consumers if it increases the company’s profit margin. However, this decision would no doubt result in layoffs of domestic employees which would also affect that community. Although the business may dislike the effects of outsourcing on the community, they have to consider certain outcomes resulting from resident production such as the bankruptcy or liquidation of the business. The utilitarian approach...
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...Utilitarianism— A Flawed Moral Theory Utilitarianism is an ethical theory founded by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. This theory stresses the greatest happiness principle. Actions that promote happiness are seen as morally acceptable while things that fail to promote happiness are seen as morally unacceptable. The pursuit of happiness is the key concept in utilitarianism. Rachel’s further explains this idea in The Right Thing to Do, “Utilitarianism is the theory that we should always try to bring about as much happiness as possible”(Rachels, 40). The term happiness when used by Rachels means the absence of pain or the presence of pleasure. I will argue against the theory of utilitarianism simply because it is too demanding and directly conflicts with moral common sense. At first glance, utilitarianism seems like an acceptable theory. The idea of promoting happiness is simple and widely appealing. Unfortunately, utilitarianism is not as simple as it seems. The concept should be rejects as it is not morally plausible. The first objection with the theory stems from the general structure where it directly conflicts with moral common sense. Using utilitarianism, when there are two different options being considered, moral common sense is one option, while utilitarianism is the opposite option. An example of this is seen while riots occur. Suppose riots are occurring in a town because citizens are being killed by an unknown suspect. As the person in charge, there...
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...Ethical issue: Is it ethical for the hotel to organize trips to the “Red Light” area for the purpose of boosting occupancy rates? According to Act Utilitarianism, The affected parties are: * Hotel Management (CEO – Jeronimo) * The Red Light package may boost the occupancy rate of the hotel, giving the hotel a significant source of revenue, which will ease the pressure from the shareholders. (Pleasure) * It may damage the hotel’s reputation since it is likely, that from this moment onwards, the hotel will somehow be associated with the Red Light in the minds of potential guests. (Pain) * It might affect the work ambience in the hotel, as some employees might not agree with the strategy implemented. This might even serve as a potential danger to the female staff.(Pain) * Guests * The Red Light package may provide some of the guests with a more convenient means to visit Red Light district who would like to engage in such activities. (Pleasure) * But this might lead to some guests contracting sexually transmitted diseases, should they not know how to protect themselves. (Pain) * But this might be a problem to the other guests who have no interest in such a service and could be doubted on their intentions to stay in such a hotel. Hence, loyal customers might avoid the hotel due to its new reputation. (Pain) * This is also not good for those guests who book as a family, especially those with young children. They may get...
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...Theory of Justice Analysis Michael Lemke 532 February 20, 2012 Scott Schoellkopf Theory of Justice Analysis People need to know what crime analysis is to ensure that the current justice analysis is in place to discuss the theory of justice. An emerging field in law enforcement is crime analysis. A criminal justice agency new to criminal analysis may have difficulties in determining its main focus. Crime analysis is the breaking point for people who commit acts in violation of laws. Philosophy and ethics comes into play to deal with fairness in the theory of justice analysis. This paper will begin with an explanation of some of the principles in how the theories differ from traditional utilitarianism. The second part of this paper will continue with the explanation of how modern criminal justice agencies and other entities define justice. This paper will conclude with how security defines justice. The state of nature from the political theorists of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau states that men were under the assumption of only thinking about themselves, and they did dedicate themselves to their own interests. “Hobbes proposed an autocracy that protects its citizens through its very existence, leaving them no enforceable rights; Locke advanced a liberal regime in which life, liberty, and property are kept safe from governmental discretion, as they are seen as natural human characters; and Rousseau saw politics itself as a remedy for the discontents of private...
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...After carefully going through the ethical philosophies we looked at I found that I can identify myself with utilitarianism. Utilitarianism refers to how one come to choose an action or choice based on what is right and what is wrong. It refers that a person chooses something to be right if what is chosen brings or increases happiness to that person and to other people. Utilitarianism is against the idea of being selfish. Something is wrong if it brings pain to the person or if it causes pain to others. So with utilitarianism there is emphasis on the interests of others as much as there need for the person making the decision to benefit. On top of what have been said utilitarianism is also based on the principle of utility. The principle of utility states that a rational person does something that brings the most satisfaction or benefit. In my life I like to do things that please not only me but others. I avoid things that are likely to bring displeasure to other people. As a religious person I grew with the idea of putting other people’s interests as much as mine. I do not like to do things that hurt other people. The question of utility to me is very important. I did Economics at high school, where we learned about the essence of maximising satisfaction. This satisfaction can be to me, to my family, to other people in the community or to my country When you use utilitarianism, there are basic steps a person may take in making decisions or on choosing what one has to do or not to...
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