Utilitarianism: Bentham – Hedonic Calculus Bentham was a hedonist – he believed that pleasure is good in itself‚ and other things are good in so far as they bring about pleasure and the absence of pain. “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters‚ pain and pleasure.” You could work out which action to perform by calculating which option brought about the greatest amount of pleasure: Duration – how long does the pleasure last? Remoteness – how distant is the pleasure?
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Stuart Mill’s ethical theory of Utilitarianism. Mill held two theories on utilitarianism‚ a normative and a psychological one. Normative views of Mills’ include his "principle of utility" which says actions are right if they produce the greatest amount of happiness and pleasure and wrong if they cause displeasure and pain. His psychological theory says people want to live in harmony with their fellow man and that they have a basic sensitivity to the needs of others. Utilitarianism is interested
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Utilitarianism assumes that it would be morally correct for me to employ the water boarding technique on this possibly innocent man if it meant obtaining possible anti-terrorist information that could possibly save thousands of innocent Americans. The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’‚ so they say‚ but is torture really the best way to obtain the best consequence? I will use my take on the Just War model and J.J.C Smarts’ suggestion to focus on all consequences of a situation to argue against
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Ethical Theories from different prospectives Robin Picciano Colorado Technical University PHIL 101-1403B-02 When dealing with ethics‚ there are many different theories that apply to what is right or wrong‚ and also what people should or should not do. All because something may seem or feel right for one person it may not always apply to another person or people in the society. Many people have their own beliefs and values as a person or while involving a society (Mackinnon
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Universal Moral Wrongs and Relativism Lori-Ann Racki SOC120- Intro to Ethics and Social Responsibility Dr. Megan Reid November 12‚ 2012 Universal Moral Wrongs and Relativism In the article “Some Moral Minima”‚ Lenn Goodman argues that there are certain moral wrongs that are universal. He describes four areas he believes are areas of universal moral wrongs in detail. Morality has been an issue that many societies all over the world have
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The moral theory of utilitarianism consists of welfarism‚ a theory of the good‚ and consequentialism‚ a theory of the right. Utilitarianism dictates that a moral action is one whose results bring about the greatest amount of welfare for all relevant parties. Though‚ at first glance‚ utilitarianism may be appealing (Who can disagree with the claim that promoting the welfare of all members of society is the right thing to do?)‚ upon further reflection‚ it is clear that utilitarianism has a few shortcomings—namely
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1. Explain Onora O’neil’s argument for preferring Kantian ethics to Utilitarianism. 2. How would Richard Taylor respond to O’neil’s defense of Kantianism? In the following questions‚ Onora O’neil defends Kantian ethics while Richard Taylor agrees more with the Utilitarian ethics view. To fully understand both views and why each author defends their view‚ a brief introduction of each author and who they are is necessary. Onora O’neil is a philosophy professor at Cambridge University
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Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory‚ which means that it judges the morality of an action based on the consequences that follow from it rather than on external moral duties. Philosophers who adhere to utilitarianism regard the maximisation of utility as the key determent for understanding whether an action is right or not . In this essay I will argue that the amount of utility produces by an action is not an ideal way of determining its morality. This will be done by firstly clarifying the
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Protagorean Relativism is generally considered self-refuting. It is noticeable that the measure doctrine: “man is the measure of all things‚ of what is that it is‚ and of what is not that is not” (Tht. 152a2-4) suggests that there are only relative truths for everyone but no objective truth; however‚ it insists that the above statement is an objective truth. That is to say‚ while Protagoras claims that truth is relative to each person‚ rejecting the possibility of error (Lee‚ 2005:33)‚ he tries to
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The Ethical Debate of Pornography Ashford University Dr. Craig Allen SOC120: Ethics and Social Responsibility Aug 15‚ 1014 Abstract In this report‚ I will attempt to describe‚ compare‚ and apply the ethical theories and perspectives to the topic of pornography to explain how the theories and perspectives would analyze this issue. What are the ethical issues of pornography and are there breaches of ethical behavior? In this report‚ we will apply the ethical theories of Utilitarianism‚ Deontology
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