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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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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1) Compare and contrast utilitarianism versus universalism. Utilitarianism comprises of two types of criteria which is rule based and act based. Rule-based utilitarianism argues that general principles are used as criteria for deciding the greatest benefit to be achieved from acting in a certain way. Act based utilitarians on the other hand analyze a particular action or behavior to determine whether the greatest utility or good can be achieved. Utilitarianism also includes the following tenets
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Consequentialism is such a theory in which “An action is permissible if an only if it has the best consequences.” Consequentialism states a connection between permissibility and value: producing the best consequences is what makes an action permissible. So‚ according to consequentialism‚ rightness depends on goodness. Suppose there is a situation in which one could perform only one of three alternatives action: X‚ Y‚ and Z. If performing either X or Y results will be equally good but that performing
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