Premium Essay

Normative Ethics (Plan)

In:

Submitted By Themansg
Words 521
Pages 3
Can actions be judged to the extent to which they maximise happiness?

Define utilitarianism: Is an ethical theory in normative ethics that has a core belief that the actions can be judged as right or wrong if they lead to a good consequence.

Define: Act utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism created by Jeremy Bentham. Act utilitarianism is a theory that states happiness can be calculated via the 'the hedonistic calculus'. This included factors such as profundity, intensity, duration and others. Each of these are used in relation to the action and then one can calculate the best outcome. This led to Bentham arguing that every action can be deemed right if it leads to maximising utility. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that actions can be judged to the extent which they maximise happiness

However, one can argue that act utilitarianism allows for barbaric actions to be taken place, which seem immoral. For example, torturing thousands of people in order to save millions. This entails some individuals will have to suffer hugely. This leads to swine ethics where cruel actions can be deemed good just because they lead to good consequences.

However, one can argue that this form utilitarianism is a favourable one. That's because it is an egalitarian theory, which matches well with the concept of democracy. Since, democracy is for the people, by the people, one can assume that it is therefore right to support the majority. This would mean that act utilitarianism is acting in the interests of majority and is truly maximising happibess

However, act utilitarianism is has a flaw. Bentham's form of utilitarianism rest on the notion that good utility is anything that involves creating high levels of happiness. But, Mill the rule utilitarian would strongly disagree with the acceptance of good utility being anything that creates

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Jassj

...has been authorised by the subject lecturer/tutor concerned. * I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism checking). * I am aware that the plagiarism detection software programs are not the only means that will be used to detect plagiarism (i.e. having a zero report may still result in plagiarism). Signature: ______________________________________ Note: An examiner or lecturer/tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed. ------------------------------------------------- ESSAY DEVELOPMENT SECTION 1: ESSAY PLAN Assessment question | Evaluate business conduct in the clothing, textile and footwear industries using three ethical principles of the Global Business Standards Codex. | Type your responses in the boxes below: Thesis...

Words: 1991 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Property

...Ethical Considerations in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Property Ethical dilemma may be defined as a situation where one has to make a decision but the decision to be made has some impact on either of the choices taken. In different organizations, there are times where a manager may be faced by ethical dilemmas that he or she is supposed to look into. The process may be difficult since the manager has to deal with such situations without discriminating on any individual. Any activity that relate to business management in relation to the society, consumers, and the business itself should consider all ethical issues relating to the environment. It is important for business owners to alight ethical issues to their business plans. Ethical issues may relate to advertising and marketing, regulation of product safety, and intellectual property. Marketing and advertising, relating to any industry in the market, may have different forms of ethical issues. For example, advertising may be unethical when the content in the advertisement has unethical issues such as the use of harsh language or pictures that may not be pleasant to all age groups (Ashcroft, 2007). It is important for advertising agencies to consider all ethical factors while posting any advertisement to the public. In addition, marketing may lead to unethical issues such as pollution to the environment and trespassing. Some marketing activities involve showing consumers how products work. The waste...

Words: 2863 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Social Issue

...this intergration of conceptual and ethical issues seriously from a research point of view requires that they are very strongly interconnected, i.e. mere studies of the way in which concepts are in fact informed by moral opinions and social values is not siffucient. Outright normative analyses of underlying ethical views need to underpin suggestions with regard to the way in which central concepts should be employed in policy contexts. This has been recognised in research on the basic ethical issue of what should be seen as the basic determinant of the quality of life or well-being (Brülde 1998, 2006), as well as research on applied ethics of relevance for disability (Brülde 2003; Munthe 1996, 1999; Juth 2005; Juth & Munthe 2006), and concepts such as happiness, health, illness, and mental disorder (Brülde 2000, 2006a, 2006b). Research on several of the conceptual issues has demonstrated how they are strongly connected to ethical problems related to health care policies and public health practices, in particular issues about what are the appropriate goals of medicine as a whole, or parts thereof, e.g. the goals of palliative care, psychotherapy, rehabilitation, or treatments of chronic illnesses. Normative theories about appropriate goals are necessary to come up with plausible grounds for diagnostic categories, outcome measures and policy guidelines in different areas. Some attempts...

Words: 2008 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Speed Way

...Considerations in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Propertyt Inreduction Ethical dilemma may be defined as a situation where one has to make a decision but the decision to be made has some impact on either of the choices taken. In different organizations, there are times where a manager may be faced by ethical dilemmas that he or she is supposed to look into. The process may be difficult since the manager has to deal with such situations without discriminating on any individual. Any activity that relate to business management in relation to the society, consumers, and the business itself should consider all ethical issues relating to the environment. It is important for business owners to alight ethical issues to their business plans. Ethical issues may relate to advertising and marketing, regulation of product safety, and intellectual property. Marketing and advertising, relating to any industry in the market, may have different forms of ethical issues. For example, advertising may be unethical when the content in the advertisement has unethical issues such as the use of harsh language or pictures that may not be pleasant to all age groups (Ashcroft, 2007). It is important for advertising agencies to consider all ethical factors while posting any advertisement to the public. In addition, marketing may lead to unethical issues such as pollution to the environment and trespassing. Some marketing activities involve showing consumers how products work. The waste used in...

Words: 2872 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Telological & Deontoligical

...all the time regardless of a crime they may have committed. Deontological ethical system is based on the idea that we have a duty to do certain things and not doing certain things. The word deontological comes from “deonto” meaning “duty” in Greek .With the deontological ethical system; one would consider the basic duties and rights of individuals or groups and make a decision based on your moral beliefs. Religion Ethics is deontological. Religion ethics is when a religion provides moral judgments and directions on how to live one’s life. What is good is that which conforms to god’s will (Wadsworth, 2005). An example of religion ethics would be to not steal because one of the Ten Commandments is thou shall not steal. Natural law and egoism are also both deontological. Natural law is good acts that come naturally to... Teleology does not focus on actions themselves or how closely they adhere to a system of rules. Teleological ethics, which is mostly referred to as consequentialism, is concerned with the end effect. The essence of all forms of teleological ethics is best stated by the founder of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham: "the greatest good for the greatest number." Accordingly, the impact of society as a whole is what determines morality. This approach differs from deontology in that there is no set of hard and fast rules in place. Actions may be...

Words: 334 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Similarities Between Consequentialism and Non Consequentialism

...INTRODUCTION In ethics, consequentialism is explain that an action should be judged right or wrong on the basis of their consequences. Consequentialism theory is also known teleological moral theories. Which teleological word is from Greek ” Telos”,means “end” and ” logos” means “science”. This theory of morality derives duty or moral obligation from what is good or desirable as an end to be achieved. This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things, but the most prominent example is consequentialism about the moral rightness of acts, which holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind. ( www. plato.stanford.edu) Consequentialist, have two major theories that is ethical egoism and utilitarianism. Both these theories agree that human beings ought to behave in ways that will bring about good consequences. They differ, however, in that they disagree on who should benefit from these consequences. The ethical egoist essentially says that human beings ought to act in the interest of all concerned. ( Jacques P. Thiroux , Keith W. Krasemann) The rough idea behind ethical egoism is that the right thing to do is to look out for own self-interest. That’s mean we are morally required only to make ourselves as happy as possible and have...

Words: 1570 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

The Ethics of Just War

...The Ethics of Just War Applied Ethics Choose one of the applied ethics topics from the list below. Provide a brief description of your topic and the thesis you chose in the opening paragraph of your paper. This topic should be the thesis that you worked on in Week One and refined in Week Three. Remember that your first paragraph must contain a clear thesis statement as in the assignments from Weeks One and Three. In the body of your paper, examine the issue by discussing how three of the ethical theories presented in this course could be used to answer the particular question you have formulated. Use the core principles of each of these theories to support your discussion. Complete your paper by identifying which ethical theory you think provides the most satisfactory moral answer to your question, or the theory that provides the least satisfactory answer to your question. You should create a list of strengths and weaknesses for each of the theories as applied to your question to assist you with this task. However, you should not merely present the strengths and weaknesses of each theory but must argue that one theory is better or worse than the others in this case. Remember that each paragraph in your body must begin with a topic sentence that clearly identifies the main idea of the paragraph. Your paper should be 1500 to 2000 words (not including the words on the title and reference pages) in length. This means that you should devote approximately 300 words to each of the...

Words: 545 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Yhai

...ethics Branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. Ethics is traditionally subdivided into normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics. Normative ethics seeks to establish norms or standards of conduct; a crucial question in this field is whether actions are to be judged right or wrong based on their consequences or based on their conformity to some moral rule, such as “Do not tell a lie.” Theories that adopt the former basis of judgment are called consequentialist (see consequentialism); those that adopt the latter are known as deontological (see deontological ethics). Metaethics is concerned with the nature of ethical judgments and theories. Since the beginning of the 20th century, much work in metaethics has focused on the logical and semantic aspects of moral language. Some major metaethical theories are naturalism (see naturalistic fallacy), intuitionism, emotivism, and prescriptivism. Applied ethics, as the name implies, consists of the application of normative ethical theories to practical moral problems (e.g., abortion). Among the major fields of applied ethics are bioethics, business ethics, legal ethics, and medical ethics. 1. Clearly define the ethical problem. The ethical problem is if I should be honest and report this security breech. 2. Employ applicable laws and regulations. I would...

Words: 371 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Leg 500 Week 1 Discussion

...http://hwsoloutions.com/?product=leg-500-week-1-discussion Visit Our website: http://hwsoloutions.com/ Product Description PRODUCT DESCRIPTION LEG 500 Week 1 Discussion, From the e-Activity, determine the ethical theory or theories (from Chapter 1 of the textbook) that best support(s) the B-corp concept. Support your response. A B Corporation’s requires a firm to conform to socially and beneficial practices. These practices can include protecting the environment, community, or preserving employee benefits. The idea of B Corporations cam from interest in corporate social responsibility. The theory that best support B-corps is virtue ethics which looks at what human beings are capable of being, how to develop habits of good character that will lead them to their potential. Ethic of care concept can also be used with B-corps where ethics becomes nurturing and reinforcing the ties with one another such as caring. Evaluate the likelihood of traditional corporations using social responsibility as an effective competitive strategy. Specify at least one (1) way that a company with which you are familiar can use (or has used) social responsibility as a competitive strategy in the marketing of its products / services, supply chain, charitable activities, strategic investments, or operations. Social responsibility is the thought that companies should embrace social topics that affect the community and not solely focus on their profits. Social responsibility means to From the e-Activity...

Words: 441 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Ethical Philosophy Of Virtue Ethics

...The purpose of this essay is to explore Virtue Ethics as an Ethical Philosophy that is more interested in virtues rather than the rules and principles of ethics. While exploring the moral character is important to this approach to normative ethics, it is worth mentioning that it is possible to boil down the two other major approaches – Deontology and Consequentialism – to Virtue Ethics. Upon further investigation, it becomes apparent that many defenses of ‘duties’ or Deontology, implicitly appeals to the consequences of our actions, even if those consequences are hidden behind a veil of mystery or authority. If this was not the case, the concept of duties would not make any sense since no matter what we do, no outcome will have a preferable...

Words: 743 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Deontology Research Paper

...Deontology Paper – Personal Foul Group: Ana, Chris, Konrad Team: Star Dragon Ultra Fortress The objective of this paper is to determine the permissibility of three moral actions discussed in the media piece “Personal Foul” based upon the negative and positive tests contained within the ethical theory of Deontology. To put it briefly, the moral basis of Deontology originates from universally binding transcultural rules, or duties, which all humans share. Because of this, the moral nature of an action is established by how closely an action follows the rules and not the resulting consequences. Additionally, this paper shall assume the universalization principle as a means to objectively view the actions of the individuals. The universalization principle is the concept that all people should be regarded with equal respect regardless of their situation. Criteria: Defining the two specific criteria that shall be used to judge the three moral actions: - The negative test states that an action is not permitted if it overrides the freedom of oneself or others. Ergo, treating oneself or others as a means to an end. - The positive tests states that an action is permitted if it helps oneself and others achieve freedom. Ergo, treating ourselves and others as ends in themselves. For the action to be permitted, the negative test must be false and the positive test must be true. If the negative test is true or the positive test is false, then the action is not permitted. The Three...

Words: 533 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethics Essay

...Ethics Essay ETH 316 June 4, 2012 There are several ways to approach the level of normative ethics. Those most common are virtue ethics, deontological ethics, and utilitarianism. This paper intends to describe and compare the differences and similarities between the three. It will also take into account the relationship between virtue, values, and moral concepts and how they may relate to any of these theories. Utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics are all parts of normative ethics. Utilitarianism recognizes the consequences of ones actions. Deontology is an emphasis of ones duty or rules involved with their life. Virtue ethics is also known as agent-based or character ethics. This type of ethics focuses on virtue or moral character. When a person exercises virtue ethics, that person makes their own excellence via knowledge gained by experience. This type of ethics is a good example to others and promotes basis for a life that others appreciate (Boylan, 2009). Utilitarianism is when a person feels that an action or thought is morally correct. Any result of promoted by the thought or action produces more of a utility for the group promoting the thought or action (Boylan, 2009). Deontological ethics are those that judge morality of an action by way of following rules. This type of ethics determines right or wrong based on the rules they are given and the duty of following those rules. The person that believes deontological ethics is best for them will...

Words: 438 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Egoism and Utilitarianism

...is a normative ethical theory that contends we act morally when in any given situation the right thing to do will be whatever maximally promotes long term self-interest. It does not describe how people behave; rather, it describes how people "ought" to behave. (Class notes February 23) This is a key element of all normative theories. Another key element of egoism lies in “long term”. Simply stated, an ethical egoist would typically not endorse running up credit card debt. While it might fulfill one's interests in the moment, it would undermine one's long term self-interest. James Rachels says it best; "Ethical egoism endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness.” Rachels also suggests each of us possess the ability to know what is in our own best interest, therefore to attempt to provide charity to another would directly disregard that ability. In essences, to give a man a fish would suggest they do not have the same ability you possess to acquire their own fish. Based on principles outlined by James Rachels and others, Thomas Hobbes may be viewed to be an ethical egoist, although he argued that if everyone follows their own long term self-interest completely, a logical inconsistency would result. Thus part of following one's own long term self-interest in a larger society involves allowing others to follow their own self-interest, thus perhaps giving up some of one's own long term interests. (Class notes February 28) Utilitarianism is another normative ethical...

Words: 1145 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Meta Ethics, Normative Ethics, Applied Ethics.

...Meta ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics 1 Running head: META ETHICS, NORMATIVE ETHICS, APPLIED ETHICS. Meta ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics Gina Padilla Crj 220 Ignacio V. Vila April 14, 2012 Meta ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics 2 Running head: Meta ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics. Meta ethics talks about the nature of ethics and moral reasoning. Discussions about whether ethics is relative and whether we always act from self-interest are examples of meta- ethical discussions. In fact, drawing the conceptual distinction between Meta ethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics is itself a "meta ethical analysis." Normative ethics is interested in determining the content of our moral behavior. Normative ethical theories seek to provide action-guides; procedures for answering the Practical Question ("What ought I to do?"). The moral theories of Kant and Bentham are examples of normative theories that seek to provide guidelines for determining a specific course of moral action. Think of the Categorical Imperative in the case of the former and the Principle of Utility in the case of the latter. Applied Ethics attempts to deal with specific realms of human action and to craft criteria for discussing issues that might arise within those realms. The contemporary field of Applied Ethics arouse in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, it is a thriving part of the field of ethics. Numerous books and web-sites are devoted...

Words: 296 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Medical Ethics

...Virtue ethics is one out of three major parts of normative ethics. As the word ‘virtue’ describes the whole concept of virtue ethics i.e. it points to a set of character which leads to good behaviour. It portrays the behaviour of an individual not overall society. It includes the behaviour of a person towards others and is based on moral characters and virtues. Virtue ethics helps in encouraging people to adapt good behaviour in order to attain a good life. It is not based on duties or consequences unlike other two normative ethics. Virtue ethics indicate to help other because it is the kind thing to do. For example helping a old women to cross the road, is the kind thing to do but in helping her you are not getting any benefit it just a act of kindness. Virtue ethics add lots to morality as sometimes, there is necessity to think more than duty and consequences as a life exist between a person’s duty and consequences. Ethics of care often considered a part of virtue ethics. This theory also describes the character of individual and not of society as whole. It is based on the emotional relation i.e. friendship, care etc of an individual with other people. It gives significance to humanity and relationship with human. Family comes in the first step of care ethics. For example if a person mother is suffering from cancer in the last stage, and plead to award her death in order to free her from suffering and not be more burden on other family members. Ethics of caring is also...

Words: 314 - Pages: 2