Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical framework. The consequences of an action are more important than the motivations behind the action or the action itself. An action has "utility" if it serves the greatest good. The basic principle of utilitarianism is creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people, or the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The ethics of utilitarianism differ from ethical egoism in that the individual may make a sacrifice for the common good because it is the aggregate of happiness/goodness that matters, not maximizing individual happiness. Central to utilitarianism is the belief that all people are inherently equal and of equal consideration when making ethical decisions (p. 55). John Stuart Mill outlined the core tenets of utilitarianism, which became a fundamental component of Enlightenment political philosophy. Another utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, proposed a happiness calculus that can be used to more rigorously apply utilitarian philosophy to decision-making. Using a happiness calculus presumably quantifies the amount of happiness that might result from performing or not performing a certain action. The happiness calculus also shows that the theory of utilitarianism can be applied conversely: an act is ethical if it minimizes pain for the maximum number of people, or causes the least pain for the least number of people. Pleasure and pain can theoretically be quantified in terms of intensity, duration, likeliness of the desired results, and also fruitfulness or meaningfulness (p. 59). The latter concept, fruitfulness, implies...
The fleeting happiness that comes from eating ice cream is less fruitful than the longer lasting happiness of being healthy.
This exposes another weakness of the deontological approach: it provides no guidance for determining which of two contradictory rules must be respected. If the supervisor respects the company rule prohibiting disclosing the information to the employee, he must violate the general moral rule prohibiting lying. Conversely, if the supervisor respects the general moral rule about lying, he must violate the company policy about non-disclosure. In this particular scenario, the supervisor
Ethics Utilitarianism is one of the most useful ethical theories. It can frame decisions made in almost every aspect of daily life, and also large-scale decisions made by organizations, enterprises, and governments. The basic principles of utilitarianism, as they were developed first by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill, are all based in the essential notion of utility. Utility means usefulness, but it is also related to net benefit. Utility
Ethics and morality feature strongly in Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Set against a backdrop of antebellum social stratification, the novel shows how individuals like the title character make their moral choices. Moreover, Huckleberry Finn is a coming-of-age story showing how the title character discovers his own moral voice. His deepening friendship with Jim, and the conflicts that friendship cause him due to race relations in the antebellum south, help Huckleberry Finn
I have two thoughts regarding your narrative about duty. The first is that I see your point with respect to people having different ideas about what their duty might be towards others. Holly and yourself are described as having different ideas about what her duty towards Chelsea should be. That's a valid point – if we are to use a deontological framework then that assumes that we all have roughly
ethics, teleology refers to consequentialist ethics, in which the morality of an action is based on its consequences rather than on the nature of the act itself. Utilitarianism is a type of teleological ethics, because utilitarianism is based on creating the maximum amount of happiness (or some other predetermined desirable outcome such as prosperity or health) for the most people possible. Ethical egoism, the view that benefitting the self
Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics Ethics essay: The similarities and differences between utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics Utilitarianism is the philosophy that all ethical decisions must strive to do 'the greatest good for the greatest number of people.' In this ethical system, the ethical actor functions as a moral observer, dispassionately making decisions without regard to him or herself or his or her personal investment in the decision. Utilitarianism is a system
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