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Utilitarianism Vs Deontological Torture

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In philosophy, this basic ethical debate on torture is usually studied as a sense of utilitarian versus deontological viewpoints. Utilitarians tend to focus on the consequences of one’s actions using pleasure and pain. This means that an action is considered moral if it causes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. With this being said, for a utilitarian, torture can be justified if the happiness of those being saved, outweighs the grief of those being tortured. In contrast to Utilitarianism, Deontological ethics focuses on the “duty” or intentions of one’s actions, and not the actual consequences. In this case, an action is considered moral is if it acted out with good intensions. If the action were to violate

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