Explain Benthams Utiliarianism (30 marks) The theory of utilitarianism was put forward entierly by Jeremy Bentham‚ who wrote about Ethics and Politics. He was a social reformer keen to improve the lives of the working class. Many of the improvements made in the treatments of criminals in the 18th and 19th centuries were the results of Benthems ethics. Bentham believed that which is good is that which equals the greatest sum of pleasure and the least sum of pain. (Hedonism)
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Retributivism and utilitarianism are two opposing ways of approaching punishment. The retributive view of punishment is backward-looking‚ while the utilitarian view is forward-looking. Retributivism pays more attention to the crime itself and what amends need to be made. Typically this results in harsher punishments. Immanuel Kant and Michael Davis both advocate for this system in their articles. However‚ they purposefully disregard how a punishment could affect society. For example‚ punishments
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He justifies his murders of a pawnbroker and her sister‚ Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna‚ by claiming that he is exempt from the law. Raskolnikov also originally uses utilitarianism as justification by stating that he contributes to the greater good of others by removing a harmful “louse” from society. However‚ following the murders‚ Raskolnikov suffers from immense guilt and torment. Through an exploration of Raskolnikov’s
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of the topic raised is utilitarianism as the principle that holds inequality and distributive justice by Jeremy Betham (1748-1832). The idea is that the distribution of goods is just if and only if it maximizes aggregate utility (Reiss‚ 2013 p.256). Some critics were later discovered whether utilitarianism sustains the concept of distributive justice. Reiss for instance argued that utilitarianism ignores people’s right (p.261). Other conceptual difficulties of utilitarianism are that 1) the impracticality
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Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) developed his ethical system of utilitarianism around the idea of pleasure. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) later furthered and many believe he improved Bentham’s theory (Mill is often linked to Rule Utilitarianism) but still followed many of his original ideas. The theory is based on ancient hedonism‚ which pursued physical pleasure and avoided physical pain. Hedonism saw human beings as “Under the governance of two sovereign masters of pain and pleasure.” So a key concept
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the surgeons because people started to realize that some surgeons were killing their own patients in order to harvest their organs. Considering that organ donation is a current ethical issue‚ it can be discussed between Deontology and Utilitarianism. In Utilitarianism‚ people believe in using people for a means to an end‚ which brings about a greater good for the greater amount of people (Shafer-Landau‚ pg.122). Killing someone who is brain dead‚ can save multiple lives who actually could have a quality
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Drug Use to Drug Abuse Drug use becomes drug abuse in my opinion when it starts to effect any of the seven dimensions of wellness. The seven dimensions of wellness are emotional‚ intellectual‚ social‚ occupational‚ spiritual‚ environmental‚ and physical. Drugs effect emotional wellness by increasing your stress level creating the fight or flight response in the brain to react more. This can happen while you are under the influence of a drug and your stress level elevates due to worrying
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In terms of utilitarianism‚ actions are evaluated by the outcome. What we should do is to maximize the good outcomes and minimize the bad outcomes. The most promising way of reaching the final decision is to choose the one that would bring about the greatest net benefits to everyone affected by the action once the harms had been taken into account. In this specific scenarios‚ if we aim to use utilitarianism to identify whether we should include placebo-controlled trial in this specific situation
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Utilitarianism Act means to do the right action that will benefit a good amount of people over any other option. In the two examples I read from Bernard Williams “A Critique of Utilitarianism” I realized those were two difficult choices these two men had to make. However‚ if we follow the Utilitarianism Act‚ George would of taken the job offer and Jim would unfortunately sacrifice one of the protestors to save the rest. By George taking the job offer‚ it would benefit his family financially and also
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Mill‚ John Stuart. Utilitarianism 2nd ed. Edited by George Sher. Indianapolis‚ IN: Hackett Publishing Company‚ Inc.‚ 2001. INTRODUCTION It can be argued that no other philosophical system has so permeated Western thought as utilitarianism. From the early Greek thinkers like Epicures to post-Enlightenment writers such as Jeremy Bentham‚ the expediency of utilitarianism has been defended and expounded. Perhaps the most famous proponent of utility for modern times is John Stuart Mill. Mill
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