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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Utilitarianism can be classified in two distinct ways‚ act and rule. In these ways the utility principle is applied differently. Act-Utilitarianism is concerned with treating each moral situation as unique; therefore‚ applied the utility principle to each act. The Fundamentals of Ethics states‚ “Rule-utilitarianism is the version of rule consequentialism that says that well-being is the only thing of intrinsic value” (Shafer-Landau‚ Russ G-6). This means rule-utilitarianism draws up general 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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Examine the key ideas of utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a relativist‚ consequentialist and teleological system of ethics based on the idea of ‘utility’. This means usefulness and utilitarian suggest that everyone should be the most useful thing. The theory was devised by Jeremy Bentham who said “an action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number”. He believed human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham lived in an era of great social and scientific change
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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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act right or wrong. In this essay I will be dealing with utilitarianism‚ a philosophical principle that holds a teleological view when it comes the nature of actions. To solely discuss utilitarianism is much too broad of topic and must be broken down‚ so I will discuss specifically quantitative utilitarianism as presented by Jeremy Bentham. In this essay I will present the argument of Bentham supporting his respective form of utilitarianism and I will give my critique of this argument along the way
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to solving ethical problems within utilitarianism. Kantian theory follows the same principle but with greater emphasis on the respect for all things involved with ethical quandaries. Both have their critiques yet both ideas are conceived in an effort to understand and conceptualize some of the biggest controversies and questions that evolve around ethics. This paper will be an attempt to delineate the key components that fabricate each theory‚ first utilitarianism and then Kantian theory and through
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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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John Stuart Mill published Utilitarianism in 1861 in installments in Fraser’s Magezine it was later brought out in book form in 1863. The book offers a candidate for a first principle of morality‚ a principle that provides us with a criterion distinquishing right and wrong. The unilitarian candidate is the principle of utility‚ which holds that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happpiness. By happiness is intended pleasure
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