Consequentialism (6) (7) (8)
Consequentialism is based on the claim that the morality of the act is only determined by the outcome, Consequentialism was popular in the 18th century as it attracted the public because it replaced instincts and questionable duties with perceptible outcomes. As a result, different consequentialist theories appeared that adopted its main principle but they differ in their perspective of who should benefit from outcome, these are Egoism, Altruism, and Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were classic advocates for Utilitarianism, which is the model case of hedonistic act consequentialism so it resorts in any ethical decision to a benefit-cost analysis and considers any action is right and moral if it results with the greatest amount of happiness for the utmost number of people. However, this theory had limitation as …show more content…
Immaneul Kant is an 18th century German philosopher who presented the modern deontological ethics with his theory of the categorical imperative. This theory argues that a moral action should not be tied to any condition and must be applicable by any reasonable being, so this action will be considered as a principle and a universal law that people ought to only act by. Just as any theory, this one has limitations too since it does not offer a clear way to resolve conflicts between moral duties and does not readily allow grey areas when the morality of an act is questionable. In addition, since it does not take into consideration the outcomes, it may oppose the human