Aaron Casas Philosophy 003 Professor Reath February 26th‚ 2012 A Moral Understanding of Utilitarianism and Torture KSM is a mastermind terrorist who has been captured by the CIA. He refuses to reveal any information about his organization or the members thereof that could be fundamental to the welfare of hundreds of lives. Even under the presence of coercive methods such as sleep deprivation and water boarding‚ he has refused to talk. His nine and eleven year old children have been
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Comparing Direct and Indirect Utilitarianism British philosopher‚ John Stuart Mill‚ served many years as a member of parliament and worked diligently to bring forth liberal ideas. Amongst these ideas was the distinction of utilitarianism‚ or the act of doing what is right for the greatest number of people. Yet‚ just discussing the idea of right versus wrong for the masses was not enough‚ Mill’s determined there were two forms of utilitarianism; act‚ the direct form‚ or sanction‚ the indirect form
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She claims that a women’s right to live should outweigh the life of a fetus and supports her claim in the following thought experiment‚ famously stated in her “A Defense of Abortion (page 48-49).” Suppose you wake up one morning next to an unconscious violinist who is world renowned and a member of the “Society of Music Lovers.” The violinist has a fatal kidney problem and according to medical records‚ you are the
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Ethical Egoism and Utilitarianism are considered consequentialism theories because they both focus on the outcome of conduct as the primary motivation of that action and whether or not that conduct is ethical. Consequentialism is a moral theory that states that the consequences of one’s actions are the basis of any morality or judgement toward that action. The major difference between the two theories is where those acts are directed. Utilitarianism focuses on the idea of the greater good or to
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similar and different ideas among them. Two theories that share this are utilitarianism and Kant’s moral theory. Both theories have similar ideas but they also are perceived differently. Utilitarianism is based on the principle of utility by John Stuart Mill. It is the belief that people ought to concern themselves with the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people (MacKinnon‚ Fiala‚ 2014 p. 356). With utilitarianism‚ the belief if about the consequences of the action and how it affects
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Utilitarianism is a theory that deals with maximizing one’s happiness and minimizing one’s sadness. The term “Utilitarianism” was coined by David Hume. It was Jeremy Bentham who developed Hume’s theory of Utilitarianism into a moral theory. There are two global thing pain and pleasure and this theory focuses on pleasure. It’s like how much you can expand your happiness and decrease your unhappiness. It is a Hard Universalist or Absolutist theory which believes to make people happy as much as possible
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the surgeons because people started to realize that some surgeons were killing their own patients in order to harvest their organs. Considering that organ donation is a current ethical issue‚ it can be discussed between Deontology and Utilitarianism. In Utilitarianism‚ people believe in using people for a means to an end‚ which brings about a greater good for the greater amount of people (Shafer-Landau‚ pg.122). Killing someone who is brain dead‚ can save multiple lives who actually could have a quality
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Utilitarianism is an essay by John Stuart Mill that was written with an aim to provide support to the utilitarianism value as a moral theory. Moreover‚ the essay responded to the misconception about the theory by different quarters. Mills defined utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that the “actions are in the right proportion as they promote happiness and wrong if they promote the reverse of happiness” (Mill 4). He further defines happiness as the presence of pleasure and absence of
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the surplus over pain and everything we do is motivated by a desire to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. Preference utilitarianism‚ on the other hand‚ is the view that what is good for a person and what is good overall is determined entirely by people’s preferences. In what follows‚ I will argue that Preference utilitarianism is not more plausible than Hedonistic utilitarianism. Hare‚ a preference utilitarian‚ view is that human logic applies to moral assertions and that moral judgements can be
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Perhaps quite eloquently‚ in John Stuart Mill’s text Utilitarianism he noted that “there are few circumstances among those which make up the present condition of human knowledge more unlike what might have been expected‚ or more significant of the backward state in which speculation on the most important subjects still lingers‚ than the little progress which has been made in the decision of controversy respecting the criterion of right and wrong” (Mill 1:1-6). In summary‚ it is rather evident that
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