When there are millions of people incarcerated throughout the United States, the ethical treatment of prisoner’s rights has to be analyzed. Through the years many modifications have been made for inmates and their basic human rights. I sometimes wonder have we as a society, made their lives in prison too easy that it is no longer a punishment for them. There are many people in the United States who have strong feelings of what is right and wrong to this question. Utilitarianism is the belief that moral rules should be choices made by a society to promote the happiness of its members (Mosser, 2010). Through the eye of utilitarian, the argument could be that these prisoners are being treated to good and not good enough. Utilitarianism gives us an understandable foundation for moral decision making. Prior to coming to a decision upon a course of action, the utilitarian is asked to consider its effects on the entire population over an infinite period of time (Mosser, 2010).…
The contents of this paper will analyze the GM ignition case using several concepts taught in ethics. This will include a background of the issue as well as a detailed evaluation of the decision by GM from the utilitarianism and Kantian perspective. This will show that GM’s decision was morally wrong as well as prove that GM should be held morally responsible for their actions.…
It is my belief that the essay “The Case for Torture” is flawed and that Torture is impermissible whatever the case.…
Kant’s moral theory begins from the starting point of the good will. In assessing the moral worth on an action we must focus not on the consequences of results of the action, but on the agent’s will ( the motivation of conducting an action is really important).…
In this essay I’m going to address questions concerning Kant’s grounding for the metaphysics of morals. First, I will describe each of his examples of acts done out of desire and acts done out of duty. Then I will answer the following questions: 1. What conclusion about moral worth does Kant use these examples to illustrate? 2. Whether I agree or disagree with Kant that if you perform an action out of duty, then the act has more moral worth that it would if you were to perform it out of the desire to make someone else happy—using my own example of a moral act done out of the desire to make someone else happy.…
Moving forward, we examine the rehabilitation view. This view of punishment fails the guilt requirement because the criminal justice system would have to sort out all the potential criminals from society and attempt to rehabilitate them and attempt to make them into a better person, which would be nearly impossible. It also fails the equal treatment requirement because each criminal would require a different form of…
In the articles “Condemn the Crime, Not the Person” by June Tangney and “Shame is Worth a Try” by Dan Kahan the authors discuss alternatives to incarceration to non-violent crimes. In Kahan’s article he introduces the alternative called “Shame Sentencing”(574) and June Tangney introduces the alternative to incarceration and shaming with a future productive “Guilt Sentencing.”(568) In their articles Tangney and Kahan both have valid points regarding the use of shame sentencing as an alternative to imprisonment; Tangney argues that “shaming” is wrong and offers a beneficial alternative in community service, whereas Kahan barely comes to a conclusion that shame “is worth a try”. (Kahan 574)…
4. Kant’s principles describe a general theory of punishment: First, people should be punished simply because they have committed crimes, and for no other reason. Second,…
The first priority of any circumstance and the greatest value is human rights. No one should be treated as just a means, each person should be given a sense of humanity. As he announces in this, “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as and withal, never as means only.” (Vaughn, p.105). Kant’s view of punishment is that any crime no matter what it is, they should not be punished for justice. As he says in this, “Kant thinks that criminals should be punished only because they perpetrated crimes; the public good is irrelevant. In addition, Kant thinks that the central principle of punishment should fit the crime.” (Vaughn,…
'Punishment proceeds on the principle that there is an eternal distinction between right and wrong, and that this distinction must be maintained for its own sake' (Dictionary.com, 2012). In this essay I will examine the idea of revenge, retributivism and just desert, utilitarianism and deterrence and finally restorative approaches as the key philosophical justifications for punishment. The aim of this essay will be to argue that there is no flawless philosophilcal justification for punishment been put forward to this day and for an individual or an institution to achieve justice various forms of punishment must be used.…
Instead, the acts punishable are those we as a society deem especially morally wrong. The death penalty is also limited in its scope of whom it is potentially imposed about on, sane persons only, and requires a due process trial with the option for later appeals. In this paper I will be examining the moral permissibility of the death penalty under the Kantian ethics decision-making process. The rule to be evaluated is this, “pursuing the death penalty, for an especially horrendous crime, under a due process is a morally permissible form of punishment.” Through the evaluation of the categorical imperatives I will prove that this rule is one that is not morally permissible, not wrong but not required, because it cannot be universalized, fails to respect every human being as rationale, and breaks perfect duties for imperfect…
Today, the death penalty is an issue that has raised many questions in regards to its morality. Many people believe that the death penalty is immoral for a number of factors, some of which being the execution of innocents, the arbitrary application of the death penalty, and the racial and economic discrimination with the system. Many others believe that the death penalty is moral, for it gives people what they deserve, the criminals were fully aware of the consequences that may fall upon them, and that justice is being served for the victims and families of the victims still suffering from the actions of the criminal. In this paper I will argue that from a Deontological standpoint, the death penalty is morally just. To do this, I will first describe the basics of the theory of Deontology in general, so that you, the reader, can begin to understand some of the fundamental beliefs that Kant, the father of Deontology,…
When there are million’s of people incarcerated throughout the United States, the ethical treatment of prisoner’s rights must be analyzed. Throughout the years many modifications have been made to accommodate inmates and preserve their basic human rights. Have we as a society done enough regarding the ethical treatment of prisoners or have we made their lives in prison too easy that it is no longer a punishment for them? There are many people in the United States who have strong feelings of what is right and wrong and fall on both sides of this question. Utilitarianism is the belief that moral rules should be choices made by a society to promote the happiness of its members (Mosser, 2010). Through the utilitarian view the argument could be made that these prisoners are being treated to good and not good enough. Utilitarianism gives an understandable, theoretical foundation for moral decision making. Prior to coming to a decision upon a course of action, the utilitarian is asked to consider its effects on the entire population over an infinite period of time (Mosser, 2010).…
Stakeholder, pleasure v. pain, numerical model of Utilitarianism - Utilitarian analysis as per required model (See required Utilitarian model below)…
Packer, H. L. (1968). Justification for Criminal Punishment. In The Limits of Criminal Sanction (pp. 36-37). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.…