Pros And Cons Of Utilitarianism
The concept of Utilitarianism is one of the most influential moral theory. It has another name is The Greatest Happiness Principle. The main idea is you can determine the action is morally right or wrong depends on outcome. If the outcome brings pleasure and happiness to the people, it is the morally right choice. On the other hand, if the result of your action bring more pain and unhappiness, it is morally wrong choice. This ideal is based on assumption that overall good as a judge of right or wrong. Utilitarian want everyone and everything to be happy, so the method of this decision making could be very useful but some cases such as the example case from blackboard, a happiness happened because they have some food to feed the family. They do not have to hungry anymore, but they broke the law and stole food. The outcome of this case are the family are satisfied, but the
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satisfaction was produced from misbehavior. Moreover, this misbehavior is not the correct way to solve a solution. If we have many hunger families solve the problem same this case, it causes many social problems. Therefore, I think that the concept of utilitarianism met the problem in the intention, method, and outcome. Utilitarianism has a problem in speculation in outcome by ignore intension. In one activity have to consist of three elements: intension, method, and outcome. The problem is that Could well-intention make a right method and outcome? Could well-outcome produce from well-intention and method? For example, the well-intentioned doctor wants his patient recovers soon, but he took the wrong medicine that becomes the poison. The result is a patient ate the poison and passed away. In this case, we can assume a doctor is right or wrong because he has well-intention and unwilling to make a patient died. Another example, the doctor has a bad-intention, he wants a patient died but he takes the wrong medicine becomes tonic. As a result, the patient gets well rapidly. In this case, we can assume that the doctor makes a mistake or not. Robin Hood robbed the rich to help the poor. Is he fair? Sometimes, Utilitarianism cannot use for decide some decisions. For instance, there are four people drowned, in this situation we can choose only one choice. Between help only our father can survive or other three people can survive. If we adhere to this rule, we must help the three men over to our father. If we follow this rule, what do we feel? I think we should not break the law to satisfy some ethical problem because it is not the correct way to solve the problem.
It might solve some solution in the short term but it becomes the anti-social force in a society. We should do the right thing for the right reason. Utilitarianism gives a guide when people have no time to assess the pros and con in the situation. It treats everybody as equal and does not have special considerations. It advocates something that we value in the moral terms such as honesty and justice. However, it may treat individuals as means to the end and do the right thing with the wrong reason. For example, the police arrested the culprit. The police think that if he brings the culprit to the court, they might possible to be dropped. Therefore, the police decide to shot them because they do not want the culprit make a crime anymore. He wants to bring a happiness back to the society. What happened if the culprit is a scapegoat? Nobody want the polices murder legally all cases, it causes a lot people died. Possibly, they might make a mistake by shooting the
innocent. I think Utilitarianism has a good purpose that make people tend to act with happiness which produce the greatest pleasure to everyone who get involve. This method promotes a happy world. It helps people think about the effect of their action. However, if you judge the action depending on outcome, it is no way to make the accurate judgements. It is very tough to determine what a certain consequence of the action will be. Moreover, people is wired differently decides good and bad. They have different belief on the things. Somebody believe alcohol is a poison which make people unconscious and lead to do the bad behavior. On the other hand, somebody believe that alcohol bring happiness and take sadness away.
All in all, we cannot solve the all ethical dilemma by only one ethical theory because sometimes, the situations are unique. Many dilemmas require a quick decision. It is impossible to use utilitarian do solve the situation. every decision must be calculated to determine the way it will effect. the chance to make the accurate solution is lost during the time of calculation. Therefore, we have to integrate other method and idea to find the best reason and outcome.
satisfaction was produced from misbehavior. Moreover, this misbehavior is not the correct way to solve a solution. If we have many hunger families solve the problem same this case, it causes many social problems. Therefore, I think that the concept of utilitarianism met the problem in the intention, method, and outcome. Utilitarianism has a problem in speculation in outcome by ignore intension. In one activity have to consist of three elements: intension, method, and outcome. The problem is that Could well-intention make a right method and outcome? Could well-outcome produce from well-intention and method? For example, the well-intentioned doctor wants his patient recovers soon, but he took the wrong medicine that becomes the poison. The result is a patient ate the poison and passed away. In this case, we can assume a doctor is right or wrong because he has well-intention and unwilling to make a patient died. Another example, the doctor has a bad-intention, he wants a patient died but he takes the wrong medicine becomes tonic. As a result, the patient gets well rapidly. In this case, we can assume that the doctor makes a mistake or not. Robin Hood robbed the rich to help the poor. Is he fair? Sometimes, Utilitarianism cannot use for decide some decisions. For instance, there are four people drowned, in this situation we can choose only one choice. Between help only our father can survive or other three people can survive. If we adhere to this rule, we must help the three men over to our father. If we follow this rule, what do we feel? I think we should not break the law to satisfy some ethical problem because it is not the correct way to solve the problem.
It might solve some solution in the short term but it becomes the anti-social force in a society. We should do the right thing for the right reason. Utilitarianism gives a guide when people have no time to assess the pros and con in the situation. It treats everybody as equal and does not have special considerations. It advocates something that we value in the moral terms such as honesty and justice. However, it may treat individuals as means to the end and do the right thing with the wrong reason. For example, the police arrested the culprit. The police think that if he brings the culprit to the court, they might possible to be dropped. Therefore, the police decide to shot them because they do not want the culprit make a crime anymore. He wants to bring a happiness back to the society. What happened if the culprit is a scapegoat? Nobody want the polices murder legally all cases, it causes a lot people died. Possibly, they might make a mistake by shooting the
innocent. I think Utilitarianism has a good purpose that make people tend to act with happiness which produce the greatest pleasure to everyone who get involve. This method promotes a happy world. It helps people think about the effect of their action. However, if you judge the action depending on outcome, it is no way to make the accurate judgements. It is very tough to determine what a certain consequence of the action will be. Moreover, people is wired differently decides good and bad. They have different belief on the things. Somebody believe alcohol is a poison which make people unconscious and lead to do the bad behavior. On the other hand, somebody believe that alcohol bring happiness and take sadness away.
All in all, we cannot solve the all ethical dilemma by only one ethical theory because sometimes, the situations are unique. Many dilemmas require a quick decision. It is impossible to use utilitarian do solve the situation. every decision must be calculated to determine the way it will effect. the chance to make the accurate solution is lost during the time of calculation. Therefore, we have to integrate other method and idea to find the best reason and outcome.