Preview

Utilitarianism in Britain

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3659 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Utilitarianism in Britain
CONTENTS

BIBlIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................2

QUESTION.........................................................................................................3

ANSWER............................................................................................................4

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bentham J, A Fragment on Government, (1776)
-The Works of Jeremy Bentham (Simpkin, Marshal and Co, 1843)

Coddington A, Utilitarianism Today, ‘Political Theory’, (Vol. 4,May, 1976)

Riddal JG, Jurisprudence, (2nd edn Oxford Press 2006)

Freeman M, Harrison R, Law and Philosophy Current Legal Issues, (Oxford Press 2007)

Simmonds NE, Central Issues In Jurisprudence, (Sweet and Maxwell ,3rd edn, 2008)

Meyerson D, Understanding Jurisprudence, (Routledge Cavandish, 2007)

Harris JW, Legal Philosophies, (Butterworths 1980)
Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer, ‘Calculating Consequence: The Utilitarian Approach to Ethics’ (1989) Issues in Ethics Vol 2 <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/calculating.html>
B Wheeler,’ Crunch Time for Happy Talk’, (BBC News 9th Oct 2008) <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7657465.stm>
Colsen C, ‘Shorting Special Needs: Utilitarianism and Budget cuts (25th Jan 2010) <http://www.crosswalk.com/news/shorting-special-needs-utilitarianism-and-budget-cuts-11625356.html> Daily Record, ‘London riots: Human rights laws have made police sitting ducks’(2011) <http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2011/08/09/london-riots-human-rights-laws-have-made-police-sitting-ducks-says-tory-mp-86908-23331956/>
The Winfield Daily, ‘Let Senate Prevail on Special Ed Funding, <http://winfieldcourier.com/articles/2011/02/18/opinion/editorial/doc4d5eb5bc318d4769515384.txt> (18th Feb 2011)

BBC News, Government 'planning to measure people's happiness' (2010)

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Ethics Paper--Bailout

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Markkula Center for Applied Ethics “A Framework for Thinking Ethically” Santa Clara University. 5 November 2009. <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html>.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    CCJS 370 Study Guide

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages

    - consequential, what are the consequences, judging on consequences and not action, utilitarianism, John stewart Mill…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utilitarianism theories hold that the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences. An action or practice is right if it leads to the best possible balance of good consequences over bad consequences for all affected parties. (Arnold, pp 17)…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mill Utilitarianism

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Classical economists analyzed the nature of value primarily on the labor theory. Without a clear grasp of the concept of demand, Smith, Malthus and Ricardo often raise confusing and self-contradictory explanations of the definition of “value.” The utilitarianists, like Jeremy Bentham and J. S. Mill, offered a revolutionary approach to understand the demand-side of the economy. They consider the usefulness of the product as a whole rather than its process of production. In the development of the utilitarianism, reformists present a much more realistic, practical and comprehensive discussion of the nature of the economy: the necessity of comparative utilities, the concern about the distribution and quality of the utility, the key social influence…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Andre, C., & Velasquez, M. (n.d.). Calculating consequences: The utilitarian approach to ethics. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/calculating.html…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Locke's concept of the social contract is to protect people's rights. According to Locke the contract is between the people and these branches of government that they set up. The reason government arises the social contract between people, is because that people want to live longer and better. The legitimacy of the government comes from the fact we consent to set up that authority and protect our natural rights. For example, if we designate a group of people as the executive power to enforce our law, in that case they will be part of the contract, and we contract them to do certain job since they are protected by the natural right. But if the executive power will abuse the system, by brutalize someone or be racist to them, then we will be able to remove them, and that's how rebellion and political change is built into Locke's system, which will be very important for a revolution.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Utilitarianism theory supports individual capability to foresee the costs of an act. A Utilitarian considers the decision of giving the best profit to a large number of people; this is known to be ethically correct.…

    • 101 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. What are the key differences between utilitarianism, deontology, natural law ethics, and virtue theory?…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utilitarianism is a teleological theory which looks at the consequences of an act to decide whether it is right or wrong. There are lots of strengths to utilitarianism and not many weaknesses. One of the strengths is that it is a theory which established whether something was good or bad according to the majority of people. Bentham came up with this theory and it is known as the principle of utility. Bentham said ‘Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them to point out what we shall do’. This is the foundation for the principle of utility and it is a strength to utilitarianism as pleasure and pain can determine how people act. Bentham also said the aim of utilitarianism is ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’ and he used the Hedonic Calculus that he created to measure how good an act is and how many people it will affect, this is a major strength of utilitarianism because it tries to please everyone and each individual is equal. A weakness of Bentham’s view was noticed by Mill, Mill said it failed to differentiate humans from animals as animals can share the same pleasures that humans have, so this make human beings equal to animals. Mill also said that Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus was a weakness as it was too impractical as to use it you have to think of the; purity, intensity, certainty, extent, duration and fecundity of an act. In some situations this would be pointless as there might not be time to complete the Hedonic Calculus. For example is your house was on fire and you only had time to save either you cat or your dog you would not be able to think through the Hedonic Calculus as by the time you have your house would be burnt to the ground. This is a weakness to Bentham’s theory but not to utilitarianism because you can still please the majority without looking at the Hedonic Calculus every time you want to complete an act.Bernard…

    • 517 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Utilitarianism treats human and nonhuman animal as same species, Sharfer-Landau (2015) explained, “utilitarians argue that animals are member of the moral community.” A qualification to be the moral community is to be able to suffer. Although nonhuman animal cannot talk like human nor express their feeling freely like human, yet they do suffer like human. Therefore, utilitarians consider human and nonhuman animal both as the moral community.…

    • 67 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kenneth Einar Himma, "Positivism, Naturalism, and the Obligation to Obey Law," Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 36, no. 2 (Summer 1999)…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Natural Law Theory

    • 6442 Words
    • 26 Pages

    According to Jenkins, “The natural law theory begins with theories about the nature and purpose of the world and moves on to ask about the purpose of every action or object. The right thing to do is that which fulfils the natural purpose.” Natural law was developed by Thomas Aquinas, in which he believed that there is such a thing as natural moral law. Natural law ethics depends on the belief that the world was designed by a creator, God. It teaches everything God made has a purpose, including every aspect of human life, and everything should work towards the purpose assigned to it. If we fulfil this purpose we do ‘good’, for example it is good to preserve life (“Do not kill”). If we frustrate the purpose for which something has been created then it is morally ‘wrong’, to destroy life is against the will of good. In addition, human sexuality was designed for the reproduction of the species. Any action which helps towards the fulfilment of this purpose is good; anything which hinders this fulfilment is bad.…

    • 6442 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utilitarianism

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Utilitarianism is a moral theory generally considered to have been founded by Jeremy Bentham, a 19th century English philosopher and social reformer. It is centered on the concept of happiness, and those who seek it. The idea is that all people seek happiness, and that it is the ultimate goal of all human beings to be happy. Therefore, according to classical utilitarianism, when a person wishes to act in an ethically sound manner he or she should strive to bring about the greatest possible amount of happiness for the greatest possible amount of people. This is known as the greatest happiness attitude. Another, similar idea is that a person should always strive, if incapable of producing happiness, to reduce unhappiness. As the theory is wholly focused on the outcome of a person’s actions, it is classed as a “consequentialist” theory, i.e. a theory that concerns it with consequences and not actions in themselves.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Day in and day out, vicious and heinous crimes are being committed on factory farmed animals due to the demands of food from this obese generation of people. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 10.2 billion land animals were brought up and killed for food in the United States throughout 2010. Plus, per person, an American meat-consumer is responsible for the suffering and death of 28 land animals per year (“Number of”). Animals have little to no rights when it comes to protection than that of humans. Therefore, humans often do whatever they want to animals for meat—knowing that they will get away with it. Of the estimated 10.2 billion land animals killed in 2010, roughly 91% were chickens raised for meat; this just goes…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Liberalism

    • 19753 Words
    • 80 Pages

    Locke, John (1960 [1689]). The Second Treatise of Government in Two Treatises of Government, Peter Laslett, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 283-446.…

    • 19753 Words
    • 80 Pages
    Powerful Essays