The Lifeboat Case and Utilitarianism Imagine that four men are placed in a life or death situation. They are stranded in a boat in the middle of the ocean with nothing to eat for nourishment. In a severely weakened state‚ the men decide that for the benefit of the majority they will draw lots and eat whoever draws the shortest; one of the men refuses to draw. The next day‚ in spite of the lottery‚ the youngest boy is killed and fed on by the other men. The argument proposed to justify their actions
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systems debated today are utilitarianism and deontology. These two traditions parallel the sayings “the ends justify the means” or “the means justify the ends”. Inspired by Jeremy Bentham’s philosophies‚ John Stuart Mill applied his ideals to his many pamphlets and short works regarding Utilitarianism. This philosophy considers that the best thing to do ethically for a society is to maximize its happiness‚ interests‚ preference‚ or well-being. In effect‚ utilitarianism focuses on outcomes or the
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Part 3 The bankruptcy of Enron not only significantly impact the employment and pension of workers‚ but also the relevant major financial institutions‚ including investment Banks‚ commercial Banks‚ pension funds and mutual funds. On Feb. 14th‚ 2002‚ the international accounting standards foundation chairman and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul pointed out that the obvious problems in accounting and auditing profession has formed a kind of crisis after a long-term period of existence. A typical
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Act and Rule Utilitarianism There are a lot of differences and similarities between act and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarian supports the principle of utility must be applied to each individual situation. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness. This was Bentham’s idea when he established that pleasure and pain was important qualities for determining what was morally right or wrong. With Act Utilitarianism‚ you must decide what action will bring the greatest
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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds‚ that an action is right if it produces‚ or if it tends to produce‚ the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people affected by the action‚ otherwise the action is wrong" (DeGeorge‚ 44). The utilitarian approach assesses each action separately and the effects that arise from it. Act utilitarianism‚ the most common form used in many circumstances‚ looks at the consequences of each individual act and calculate utility each time the act
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“United States vs. Enron” Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy‚ services and commodities company. Before it was filed bankruptcy under chapter 11‚ it sold natural gas and electricity‚ delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection‚ and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world. Enron was established in 1930 as Northern Natural Gas Company and joined with three other companies to undertake this industry. The four
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it took Enron 16 years to go from about $10 billion of assets to $65 billion of assets‚ and 24 days to go bankruptcy. Enron is also one of the most celebrated business ethics cases in the century. There are so many things that went wrong within the organization‚ from all personal (prescriptive and psychological approaches)‚ managerial (group norms‚ reward system‚ etc.)‚ and organizational (world-class culture) perspectives. This paper will focus on the business ethics issues at Enron that were
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1. Define the problem(s) Enron failed to record some of its transactions. Arthur Andersen did not allow the LJM financial statement to stay unconsolidated. 2. Analyze the situation - again‚ take a "lessons learned" approach. You might use the following questions as guides: A. What important internal controls were ignored when LJM1 was created? LJM1 ignored some of Enron’s entries in the books that were missing. Outsiders owned less than 3% of the Special Purpose Entities equities. There was
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Enron Corporation: THE RISE AND FALL; ACCOUNTING SCANDAL Submitted To: Professor Bill Bristol Submitted By: Kenneth Rhodes‚ Jr. Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) TABLE OF CONTENTS I. ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................2 II. purpose and service....................................................................................................3 III. HistorY.............
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John Rawls and Utilitarianism Heath C. Hoculock The social contract theory of John Rawls challenges utilitarianism by pointing out the impracticality of the theory. Mainly‚ in a society of utilitarians‚ a citizens rights could be completely ignored if injustice to this one citizen would benefit the rest of society. Rawls believes that a social contract theory‚ similar those proposed by Hobbes‚ Locke‚ and Rousseau‚ would be a more logical solution to the question of fairness in any government
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