method of justifying his acts of deception is a form of moral reasoning that is called "utilitarianism." Stripped down to its essentials‚ utilitarianism is a moral principle that holds that the morally right course of action in any situation is the one that produces the greatest balance of benefits over harms for everyone affected. So long as a course of action produces maximum benefits for everyone‚ utilitarianism does not care whether the benefits are produced by lies‚ manipulation‚
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happy‚ and what the right thing is‚ in the eyes of other people. Many people would say that we are selfish if we chose something that made us happy‚ over something that satisfies and makes our families who are more people happy. The principle of utilitarianism‚ which demands individuals to base their actions on what will make most people happy‚ is praised and seen as a good thing in society even if it means that those individuals are themselves not happy. Contrary to what society thinks is the right
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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. In the words of Michael Sandel in his book Justice‚ “Its (utilitarianism) main idea is simply stated and intuitively appealing: The highest principle of morality is to maximize happiness‚ the overall balance of pleasure over pain.” The idea
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NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES Objective • Discuss the normative ethical theories L2: Normative Ethical Theories Beliefs about how people should behave can be classified into at least 2 major categories: Teleological theories (Consequentialism) Right actions are those that produce the most or optimize the consequences of one’s choices. Behaviour is ‘ethical’ if it results in desirable behaviour 1. 2. 3. 4. Ethical egoism Ethical elitism Ethical parochialism Ethical universalism Deontological theories
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With reference to the Oxford English Dictionary (2012)‚ ethics is described as the science of morals. It is also the agency of study with regards to the values of moral obligations of what is right or wrong. It also covers human behaviour. A company makes many decisions in a course of one day. It may include‚ launching new products‚ doing Public Relations‚ making sales‚ rewriting company policies and the recruitment or retrenchment of people‚ just to name a few. All business aims to do so ethically
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Ethical Theories Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is most often associated with Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). According to utilitarianism principle‚ a decision is ethical if it provides the greater utility than any other alternative decision. Thus the decision maker must evaluate each decision alternative‚ and then select the one that yields the greatest net utility (Fritzsche‚ 1997). There two types of utilitarianism‚ act and rule. Individual decisions are evaluated
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Introduction Justice is the importance of an individual or society having rights‚ equality and fairness. Fracking in the Karoo has damaged the environment and contaminated the water sources which have led to the violation of people rights (du Toit‚ 2011). In order to come to a moral decision whether fracking in the Karoo is or is not desirable I studied Mill’s utilitarian theory of justice which helped me understand that actions must be made to maximize the overall happiness of the individuals
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the professional athlete lifestyle alone‚ and so turn to performance enhancing drugs in order to do so. From a philosophical point of view‚ utilitarian’s will have conflicting views on how to respond to the situation of a drug cheat athlete. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that says what counts as a right action is one which produces the greatest amount of happiness‚ and that the happiness of each person is of
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Reading: pages 3-21 Key Terms (definitions on page 7): ethics morality descriptive ethics normative ethics metaethics applied ethics instrumentality intrinsically valuable Key ideas: principle of universalizabitlity principle of impartiality Be familiar with The Euthyphro by Plato (pages 16-19) - know Euthyphro’s definition of piety - understand that this is a debate regarding whether or not ethics is an objective or subjective discipline Be familiar with Common-Sense Religion
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INTRODUCTION Utilitarianism is the assumption that human beings act in a way that highlights their own self interest. It is based on factuality and leaves little room for imagination. Utilitarianism dominated as the form of government in England’s Victorian age of eighteenth century. Utilitarianism‚ as rightly claimed by Dickens‚ robbed the people of their individuality and joy; deprived the children of their special period of their lives‚ ’Childhood’ and deprived women of their inherent right of
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