The basic premise of utilitarianism is we have a moral obligation to produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people (Mill‚ p. 364) and Peter Singer believes we have a moral obligation to help others less fortunate than we to the extent at which no more moral good comes of comparable significance to the bad thing that we “ought” prevent (Singer‚ p. 874). How is it that we are somehow philosophically indebted to society and required to alleviate suffering? Can such an obligation even
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Throughout the semester we studied three philosophers Thomas Hobbes‚ John Stuart Mill‚ and Immanuel Kant. Each of these philosophers believed that there was an ultimate human good. Hobbes believed that power was the ultimate human good‚ while Mill believed it was happiness‚ or pleasure in life. Kant on the other hand believed human dignity was the ultimate human good. The two points of view I chose to compare and contrast are those of Mill and Kant. As previously mentioned Mill believed that the
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Since the September 11 terrorist attacks detainees have passed through a prison camp that is known as Guantanamo Bay. Since then‚ there has been an ongoing conversation about the treatment of the detained combatants and many justify the camp under utilitarian grounds. John Mill explains utilitarianism and describes the greatest happiness principle which states that actions are right in as long as they tend to promote happiness. In this paper‚ I will be using the prison camp to argue that utilitarianism
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John Stuart Mills promotes a moral theory in his essay titled‚ ‘Utilitarianism‚’ by stating the best choice of action to take‚ when there are multiple options to choose from‚ is the action that produces the highest overall sum of happiness within a society. By applying this theory to the domain of war‚ one might instantly believe war is always the morally wrong choice. Utilitarianism focuses on the actual consequences of an action‚ and war brings about death‚ suffering‚ and multiple other negative
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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that advocates doing… Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that advocates doing what is morally right and what makes the greatest number of people happy‚ or what brings the greatest amount of pleasure and the least amount of pain for the most people. The theory assumes that an action is morally justifiable if it increases the overall happiness of the greatest number of beings. To determine if an action is right‚ it is necessary to calculate the amount of pleasure
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Utilitarian’s believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things. Suppose the class has a test due and some of the students are debating whether or not they should cheat. The utilitarian would need to know many specifics about the test whether or not what the chances are of getting caught cheating‚ what grade they probably would get if you didn’t cheat‚ and what grade you’d probably get if you did
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Both stories have irony and paradox in them. In this essay I will compare and contrast how the authors present the concepts of truth and deception in both stories. Some irony and paradox in each story would be for example: In The Open Window an example of a paradox sentence would be when they left the window open for so long and the three men finally come and they didn’t know what to do. They were so frightened and surprised. Some irony is that they left the window open not expecting them to come
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pattern‚ plays significant role in the memoir. The net symbolizes the power humans have and the paradox of the freedom and destruction. The net pattern shows the narrator’s state of mind throughout the memoir. The narrator experiences the trauma due to the paradox of freedom and destruction. The net symbolizes the paradox and it shows the horror and surprise which the narrator feels after encountering the paradox. Through the hospital window with black netting‚ the narrator was able to see the same‚ but
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doesn’t mean that person is automatically happy. Even though someone may have wealth‚ the American Dream lacks the proper structure for anyone to attain it because hard work does not always pay off‚ true love proves a challenge‚ and the dream invokes a paradox. Working hard does not mean one will achieve happiness. A person could work
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Similarly to the Paradox of Horror‚ we also seem to be in a sort of paradoxical state when we experience pleasure from watching films of a melancholic nature. We in engage with these fictions and we experience aesthetic pleasure from these feelings of sadness that they stir up. This stands in conflict with everyday life‚ where most people seek to avoid sadness in order to avoid experiencing the negative feelings that are associated with real sadness. Some attempts to resolve this paradox amounts to discrediting
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