Essay On Prostitution And Utilitarianism

Prostitution much like any other moral debate is filled with numerous aspects in which everyone has their particular view on. People attack prostitution from all sides, and then others support it claiming that it has benefits or that what someone does with their life is of “no concern to me”. So in the wake of this discussion I decided to compare and contrast how a utilitarian and a Kantian might approach or type of moral conclusion they may have of prostitution.
Utilitarianism as most know view that in order to determining what we should do, we must consider what specific act would produce the best overall consequences. They view the ethical goal is to lead is a life rich in pleasure or happiness both in point of quantity and quality for
However, since the world is far from perfect a utilitarian would view these disadvantages as hindering the pleasures that may come out of it. The “pains” and overall problems that may come from prostitution both for the individual and society would outweigh the advantages of prostitution.
Kant’s view on prostitution is very similar to that of utilitarianism except even if we lived in a perfect world he would still view it as unethical. Prostitution consists of one person selling their body to another for that other person’s pleasure. For a Kantian this type of profession violates the duty we have to ourselves and our duties to respect others. Using someone for your own personal pleasure can make you not see them as human, and this breaks down those our duties to respect others.
In my experience more often than not theories directly conflict each other. They have very different views on situation and therefor the conclusions that they reach usually vary. These two theories seem so different to me, so it came as a surprise when their conclusion about prostitution were similar. As you can see from the above these two approaches both view prostitution as unethical for different reasons but their conclusion is still the