e., it removes subjectivity as a vantage point). It is also hard to tell how much unhappiness is created and how to weigh it against the happiness that is created (e.g., how much George would hate his job?, how much suffering will the warmonger go through because he did not get this job?). Further, quantification of happiness or suffering becomes a real issue when trying to determine things on a macro scale. For example, does the tiniest amount of world happiness outweigh a huge amount of individual suffering? How much world happiness is necessary if not? Second, utilitarianism relies on the outcomes of the actions in order to determine morality. If war breaks out and all of the United States is whipped out because George begrudgingly did his job, dragging his feet the whole time, then his action to take the job was wrong. He would have caused the devastation of many people when the warmonger could have saved a lot of lives by having the weapons ready that were needed to stop the war before the U.S. (and world) suffered so many casualties. In order to determine the appropriate action, then, one must basically be omnipotent, knowing all the circumstances and future outcomes. For example, George knows little about the other man except that he would push the research along. His view of this would-be action is colored by his own feelings about chemical and biological warfare. George does not know that by taking this job, the other man may kill himself in despair...
He does not even know if the other man has the same view of war as he does (and would do a better job at preventing it).
George Berkeley's principal metaphysical position is idealism; nothing including material objects, exists apart from perception; external objects are ultimately collections of ideas and sensations. From his earliest writings in the philosophical commentaries, Berkeley's idealism is evident. Taking into consideration his thoughts as taken from The Empiricists when he contends that his belief is that apples, trees, mountains exist out there, unperceived by any mind. Some may view this as a
Doubling in size could mean a few different things as well. If "size" was taken only to mean mass, this could make the change disproportional in other dimensions. If that happened, we would perceive these changes. Only a doubling that was equally proportional in all respects could go unperceived. It is worth considering, however, that if the height and width of an object doubled, its volume and therefore mass would
Clearly, his moral standing is highly dubious, if not completely tarnished. If the Gyges ring were to fall into my possession, I would attempt to do something just to make the world a better place - but what I consider to be just, others might consider to be unjust. For example, I am opposed to many of George W. Bush's actions as President of the United States. I believe that,
Kant was no exception to the paradigmatic priorities (i.e. objectivity as knowledge) of the era, and brief reference to the episteme is serves accuracy in discursive analysis of this heritage within American politics and policy thought. For instance, Kant's Critique of Judgment is enormously influential in establishing a connection between judgment and political and moral precepts to conduct in communities. Intellectual lineage to Kant's model of Enlightenment 'reason" combines
Here, Aristotle recognizes the variances which appear to define our establishment of the means to pursuing happiness, musing that "the characteristics that are looked for in happiness seem also, all of them, to belong to what we have defined happiness as being. For some identify happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophic wisdom, others with these, or one of these, accompanied by pleasure or not without pleasure; while others
Justice or Equality For years now, we have been taught to fight for equality: equality this and equality that. One of the major things we have been taught about equality is that women are equivalent to men and should be treated the same. This is based on the argument that equality involves treating every individual the same regardless of whether he/she is male or female. However, that is not the case.
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now