In the New York Times Article “ the Singer Solution to World Poverty” the author Peter Singer argues that there is no reason why Americans don’t donate money to the needy when they can afford countless of luxury that are not essential to the preservation of their lives and health. Singer pursue the audience with two different situations trying to motivate the reader to donate money instantly. The fist situation comes from a Brazilian film‚ Central Station in which a woman called Dora‚ a retired
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Theoretical Framework Two approaches to ethical decision making have dominated ethics for a long period of time. Utilitarianism‚ developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill‚ defines the moral goodness of actions by their consequences. This theory distinguishes good from bad‚ with particular emphasis on the happiness generated by the consequences. Those acts are right that produce greatest happiness for the greatest number. Utilitarianism‚ at times‚ requires that some good be sacrificed
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Life-satisfaction line of research began in the Enlightenment period and adapts the 18th century Enlightenment kind of thinking. According to Veenhoven (1996)‚ the Enlightenment perspective considers life itself as the purpose of existence while “society itself is seen as a means for providing citizens with the necessities for a good life”. This could also be in line with John Mill’s utilitarian moral theory that assumed that it is the consequences of human actions that count in evaluating their
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tilitarianism is a sort of mathematical morality. Rather than weighing on an individual’s conscience and values to make a moral decision‚ it provides him or her with an equation. If I make decision A‚ there will be X positive consequences and Y negative consequences; if I make decision B there will be X positive consequences and Y negative consequences. Therefore‚ it would be morally correct to choose A or B based on the highest number of positive consequences or the lowest number of negative consequences
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1. What are the key differences between utilitarianism‚ deontology‚ natural law ethics‚ and virtue theory? Utilitarianism Theory is the moral theory that argues that an action is right if and only if it conforms to the principle of utility. The desire for pleasure and happiness is universal. People seek to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain. Thus‚ a morally correct action is one which results in the greatest possible pleasure within a given set of circumstances. The text highlights
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In order to analyze David Eddy’s argument‚ "that the objective of health care is to maximize the health of the population served subject to available resources". Let us first examine John 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
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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. Jeremy Bentham‚ the founder of utilitarianism‚ described utility as "the sum of all pleasure that results from an action‚ minus the suffering of anyone involved in the action." (Encyclopedia Britannica) Followers of utilitarianism have disagreed on a number of points‚ such as whether actions should be chosen based on their results (act utilitarianism) or whether followers should conform to rules
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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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Utilitarianism and libertinism are debatable philosophies to decide what is just. Utilitarian main principle is maximizing society happiness. From Utilitarian point of view‚ the best action is the action produce happiness for the greatest amount of people. Even though minority of people will suffer for the majority’s happiness. Moreover‚ utilitarianism measures the cost and benefit in single scale which is happiness. From this view‚ any other things than happiness are not valuable. On the other hand
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Tyranny of Majority Tyranny of Majority refers to the belief in which the majority of society or a group agrees upon an action which does not incisively mean that‚ that opinion is correct. I believe that this occurs more in a democratic government than anywhere else‚ we as a country elect our representatives to exercise their opinion or rule on what are best benefits for the majority of the country. The great issue about leaving the decision to the majority is that eventually it could fail by
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