The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Moral Analysis
Alejandro Baxley
4/18/16
With reference to one or more examples from applied ethics, evaluate the claim that a moral action is one that maximizes utility. The writings of John Stuart Mill, the father of modern liberalism, promotes ideas of democracy, saying that the interests of the majority is important. One of these ideas is Utilitarianism, which suggests that the correct moral choice is the one that maximizes utility. One example of this being that the death of one person to save multiple lives instead of letting many people die is the best choice in most cases, since it benefits the most people. Peter Singer goes even further and suggests that people are morally obligated to help and give to others above all else until doing so would harm yourself. I will be examining these two beliefs in this essay and ultimately deciding if maximizing utility is always the correct moral action. The common story that is associated with utilitarianism is that of R vs Dudley and Stephens. This case was of a sick orphan that was eaten by his shipmates in order to save their lives. The moral question was …show more content…
This one has a city without crime, depression or anything bad. The only way for this city to maintain its condition is for a small boy to be abused and neglected against his will for his whole life. Is the best moral action to end all other evil in the city by letting this boy suffer, or to save the boy and let the city face all the evil the rest of the world faces? It seems that it would be only fair for the people in Omelas to have to deal with the same problems all other cities do, but that would leave many other small children to suffer from starvation, abusive parents and many other things. By letting this boy suffer, it ends suffering for many other children who would have to share a similar fate, so I think that it is morally acceptable to let this city function how it
4/18/16
With reference to one or more examples from applied ethics, evaluate the claim that a moral action is one that maximizes utility. The writings of John Stuart Mill, the father of modern liberalism, promotes ideas of democracy, saying that the interests of the majority is important. One of these ideas is Utilitarianism, which suggests that the correct moral choice is the one that maximizes utility. One example of this being that the death of one person to save multiple lives instead of letting many people die is the best choice in most cases, since it benefits the most people. Peter Singer goes even further and suggests that people are morally obligated to help and give to others above all else until doing so would harm yourself. I will be examining these two beliefs in this essay and ultimately deciding if maximizing utility is always the correct moral action. The common story that is associated with utilitarianism is that of R vs Dudley and Stephens. This case was of a sick orphan that was eaten by his shipmates in order to save their lives. The moral question was …show more content…
This one has a city without crime, depression or anything bad. The only way for this city to maintain its condition is for a small boy to be abused and neglected against his will for his whole life. Is the best moral action to end all other evil in the city by letting this boy suffer, or to save the boy and let the city face all the evil the rest of the world faces? It seems that it would be only fair for the people in Omelas to have to deal with the same problems all other cities do, but that would leave many other small children to suffer from starvation, abusive parents and many other things. By letting this boy suffer, it ends suffering for many other children who would have to share a similar fate, so I think that it is morally acceptable to let this city function how it