...Utilitarianism beliefs have been around for a long time but it wasn’t called utilitarianism until the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. John Stuart Mill was a philosopher born in 1806 and in 1861 wrote People haven’t’ agreed on what is right and what is wrong so the point is to come up with a universal systematic way to determine whether or not something is ethical The first principle of utility, as Mill describes, is “pleasure and freedom from pain are the only tings desirable as ends” The second principle is about the greatest happiness. “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse.” He also describes happiness as pleasure with the absence of pain and unhappiness as pain with the absence of pleasure -First Premise- Constantly chasing pleasure brings about bad things (addictions, disease, an unhealthy life, loss of friends due to selfishness. You become a slave to your pleasure) The first thing that I believe is wrong with this theory is that a person should not be constantly chasing pleasure -Second Premise- mob rule...
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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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...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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...Critically assess the view that utilitarianism is of no use when making decisions about sexual ethics. (35 marks) Utilitarianism is a theory mainly derived and developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill. Bentham was headanistic and stated that happiness consisted of pleasure minus pain. This essentially is what makes the ethical theory difficult to use when making decisions about sexual ethics as everyone’s ideas of pain and pleasure varies therefore it is hard to come to a solid decision, especially as sexual acts mostly involve more than one person, this can cause conflict. However, It would not be fair to say that Utilitarianism is of no use at all when making decisions about sexual ethics as it can provide a useful tool when considering such issues in some cases. Although, it seems that if ‘use’ is taken to mean the clarity of decision making in a practical sense, Natural Law would be a better alternative on matters such as contraception as more of a clear response would be provided. A theory’s usefulness depends on your definition. Thus, with different definitions, Utilitarianism’s use can change. One important area of sexual ethics is the issue of contraception. A utilitarian approach may be considered of use when applied to the subject of contraception, when use is defined as fitting in to modern society. Utilitarianism considers the maximising happiness and minimising pain for the maximum number. It must consider the consequences of an action. It can be...
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...instead. On the one hand, though HFC was not an ozone-depleting gas, the US and other developed countries contended that addressing HFC under the Montreal Protocol was for the common good. While on the other hand, India and many developing counties including Persian Gulf nations preferred to give priority to their domestic industries, which alternative technologies and low cost were taken into consideration. Admittedly, this controversial issue exhausts the practical applications of Utilitarianism to a certain extent. For Rachels’ perspective, “According to Classical Utilitarianism, an action is right if it produces the greatest overall balance of happiness over unhappiness.” (Rachels 110) As far as I am concerned, I tend to believe that emphasis on the overwhelming importance of phasing out HFC for the purpose of protecting environment does not necessarily contradict with encouraging individual nations to make voluntary and independent efforts to develop economy. Nevertheless, “Utilitarianism answers the question “What actions are right?” by reference to the question “What things are good?” Right actions are the ones that produce the most good.” (Rachels 111) This specific case in point involves reducing the...
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...Utilitarianism is an ethical theory composed by Joh Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism focuses on ideas of there being a hierarchy of pleasures in the world, that actions are justifiable so long as the outcomes benefit the wellbeing of the whole, and that in order of one to perform these actions they must become impartial spectators to the entire situation in order to make the best decision. With these concepts combined one can then see the anatomy of utilitarianism being that the happiness of the whole is considered greater than the happiness of the community so long as the happiness attained is above in the hierarchy of pleasures. Mill begins the discussion of his theory with his definition of happiness through the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’....
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...Abstract The purpose of this assignment is to provide a critical analysis of the decision faced by the transistor Board of Directors through the lens of utilitarianism. This analysis will be accomplished by discussing the key utilitarian ethical problems confronted by the transistor company board of directors; by discussing what advice would Jeremy Bentham would have given the transistor Board of Directors; the author will apply the first four steps of the Utility Test in regard to the case; the author will discuss the Common Good Test and its implication on the case; the author will also compare and contrast the Utility Test and the Common Good Test; and finally the author will explain which of the two tests is most informative, and why. The Case of the Sole Remaining Supplier The decision faced by the Transistor Board of directors is one of many examples that are challenging the everyday decision making in the organizational ethics. In the year 1975, the transistor company boards of directors were faced whether to continue to sell its product to the pacemaker company. If the transistor company decides not to supply its product the consequences would affect the stakeholders that include patients, cardiologists, Pacemaker Company, and the transistor company. For example, many patients who are suffering irregular heartbeat would not live without pacemaker. According to Pacemaker Company, “Pretty soon, no one will be making heart pacemakers, and many people need them. Without...
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...throughout life at an early age to tell the truth.” In this case some may say the child is at the “age of reason” and it would be okay to lie, with this view in place the principle “Never lie” is not violated. Again as the book states, “It is okay to lie in some situations, but not others.” The relationships between these components are trying to figure out what situations do allow lying and what do not. In order to determine if a theory is valid or not you must distinguish if the premises are taken as the truth, and then the conclusion must be taken as true. Evidence or data is a collection of statistics that are documented incidences of an event. Evidence and data can come from observations and analysis of common knowledge experiences and from our behaviors. The Utilitarianism theory is a good example of where evidence and data is useful. One of the most common principles in utilitarian is to adopt a rule, or a law for situations such as shoplifting. Therefore if one did...
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...How might your beliefs differ from theirs? Use examples and/or case studies to demonstrate your position. IT590 Assignment Unit 6: Final Project The evaluation ethics Why did utilitarianism become one of the most popular ethical theories? Several factors contributed to its popularity. Most important was the fact that, it is a relatively simple ethical system to apply. Actions are moral merely by you have to calculate the good consequences and bad consequences that will result from a particular action and weighting on a scale. If the good outweighs the bad, then the action is moral. The next factor is that most people are already schooled in using a form of utilitarianism in their everyday decision making. A lot of the decisions that are non-moral decisions are based upon consequences. On the line to get in for the gas pump, we try to find the quickest line so we can get be on our way faster. We mostly analyze our financial decisions buy with (writing checks, store card, credit card, etc.) using a utilitarian calculus of cost and benefits. Making the leap to using it for moral decisions using utilitarianism seems like a natural extension of our daily decision-making procedures. The utilitarianism is divided into two parts the Act utilitarianism and the Rule utilitarianism. The Act utilitarianism is calculus calculations all the time in every moral decision even if you have done it before. The...
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...Bentham was an English philosopher and political radical. He is primarily known today for his moral philosophy, especially his principle of utilitarianism, which evaluates actions based upon their consequences. The relevant consequences, in particular, are the overall happiness created for everyone affected by the action. Influenced by many enlightenment thinkers, especially empiricists such as John Locke and David Hume, Bentham developed an ethical theory grounded in a largely empiricist account of human nature. He famously held a hedonistic account of both motivation and value according to which what is fundamentally valuable and what ultimately motivates us is pleasure and pain. Happiness, according to Bentham, is thus a matter of experiencing pleasure and lack of pain. Objective Value: Pain & Pleasure and Moral Naturalism For Bentham, morals can be described naturally and scientifically rather than as any duties imposed by a god, but such a description requires an account of human nature. Just as Bentham thinks nature is explained through reference to the laws of physics, and not through appeal to any religious ideas, so human behaviour can be explained by reference to the two natural, primary motives of pleasure and pain; this is the theory of psychological hedonism. There is, Bentham admits, no direct proof of such an analysis of human motivation—though he holds that it is clear that, in acting, all people implicitly refer to it. At the beginning of the Introduction...
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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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...other, thereby minimizing conflicts. Limitation of this advantage of ethical egoism: * It offers no consistent method of resolving conflict if self-interests. Its not help resolving self-interest. * We do not live in isolated, self-sufficient communities, but rather in increasingly crowded communities where social, economic, and moral interdependence are facts of life and where self-interests conflict and somehow must be compromised. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarian maintains that everyone should perform that act or follow that moral rule which will bring about the greatest good or happiness for everyone concerned. Act utilitarianism Act utilitarianism states that everyone should perform that act which will bring about the greatest good over bad for everyone affected by the act. * The act utilitarian believes that one cannot establish rules in advance to cover all situations and people because they all different. Problems with these theory/Difficulties with Act utilitarianism: * It is very hard to determine what would be good consequences for others. * It is impractical to have to begin a new with each situation, to decide what would be moral in...
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...Name Professor Course Date Why does Mills think that Utilitarianism provides the foundation for Justice and why does Rawls reject it? Introduction The concept of utilitarianism is one that has engulfed the philosophical arena with an obscene number of arguments that support and/or criticize it. Generally, utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics that defines an action as one that ensures maximum utility. Other schools of thought would like to put it as the concept of “maximizing happiness while reducing suffering” (Mills 3).In as much as utilitarianism has continued to receive applause from people and the political scene, other divergent scholars has come up with other theories that seek to compromise the philosophies under which the concept of utilitarianism operates. As a result, utilitarianism has become subject to contradictions from other theories in the field of ethics. The thinking class in other fields of utilitarianism characterizes in as a quantitative yet reductionist approach to ethics (Mills 3). Over time, the concept of utilitarianism has received ideological threats from; deontological ethics which does not assign moral worth to an action based on its consequences, virtue ethics that solely deals with action and habits that results to happiness, pragmatic ethics and other forms of ethics that backs the idea of consequentialism. In a nut shell, the concept of utilitarianism as defined by political philosophers and in relation to justice is becoming...
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...whether it was wrong for Winn-Dixie to fire Pete Oiler, in light of the theories: Utilitarianism, Rights, Justice, Caring and Virtue. Conclude by presenting your own judgment of the issue and your estimation of which theory was most appropriate for this problem. State your reasons for your judgment and estimation. Directions for the Case Analysis paper 1. NO OUTSIDE RESEARCH, do not attempt to change the facts in light of further research (on line or via more traditional media). Assume the facts are as presented in the case (as I certainly will). 2. Please organize the paper in the following manner (page nos. are guides, not requirements or limits), with each new topic beginning on a new page: A. Cover Page (Name, Class, Summer 2012)– 1 page B. Introduction (identifying the key facts and issues in the case) – 2-3 pages C. Utilitarianism (2-3 pages) a. Elements (addressing the theory that is used for utilitarian analysis) b. Application (your reasoning about whether it was wrong for Winn-Dixie to fire Pete Oiler based on utilitarianism perspectives) D. Rights (2-3 pages) a. Elements (addressing the Kant’s theory that is used for rights analysis) b. Application (your reasoning about whether it was wrong for Winn-Dixie to fire Pete Oiler based on Kant’s perspectives) E. Justice (2-3 pages) a. Elements (addressing the John Rawls’ theory that is used for justice analysis) b. Application (your reasoning about whether it was wrong for Winn-Dixie to fire...
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... claims that one should always consider and respect people’s rights to freedom and well-being. Aristotelian virtue ethic evaluates the moral character of persons or groups. As articulated by Mill and Bentham, utilitarianism aims not for the pleasure of the individual but the “greatest good for the greatest number” of people. Refined by its later interprets, utilitarianism also rejects a simplistic belief in pursuing the most pleasure possible in favour of the view that incorporates qualitative standards and elevates pleasures of the mind over pleasures of the body. The term “happiness” seems to capture this broadened sense best, and Utilitarian philosophers sometimes call their principle the “greatest happiness principle.” To apply correctly the utilitarian approach, one should avoid several possible misunderstandings of the utilitarian principle. First, the principle does not refer to that action which produces the most utility for the person performing that action; rather, an action is right if it produces the most utility for all persons affected by the action (including the person performing the action). Nor does the utilitarian principle say that an action is right so long as its benefits outweigh its costs. Rather, utilitarianism holds that, in the final analysis, only one action is right: that one action whose net benefits are greatest by comparison to the net benefits of all other possible alternatives. Finally, the utilitarian principle does not require us to consider...
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