Philosophy 101 Midterm Essay Number One Friday October 19th 2012 Deontology Immanuel Kant’s deontological moral theory provides a strong base for making correct decisions and is a better ethics system than Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that is attributed to philosophers John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism is a theory holding that the proper course of action is one which maximizes happiness for the majority
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been the concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism states that in general the ethical rightness or wrongness of an action is directly related to the utility of that action. Utility is more specifically defined as a measure of the goodness or badness of the consequences of an action. Utility is considered to be the tendency to produce happiness. There are two types of Utilitarianism; "act" and "rule". An act utilitarian uses thought processes associated with utilitarianism to make all decisions
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on the action a person takes rather than a person’s character. Overall‚ modern ethics gives us two “act base theories” the Kantianism and Utilitarianism‚ both define ethics in a form of action. In this paper I will be discussing the beliefs of Kantianism. In the 18th century‚ Philosopher Immanuel Kant a proponent for Kantianism ethics opposed the utilitarianism theory. Kant’s deontological principal looks at the source of the action; if someone is acting on a good
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The theories of Utilitarianism and Ethical egoism differ in many ways‚ however‚ they are both similar in the aspect of making choices and having the best outcome for those choices. Ethical egoism claims that an action must be morally right and completely maximize ones own self-interest or interests. The “opposing theory” Utilitarianism‚ states that an action must be one that produces the most good overall or to all those affected. Utilitarianism and Ethical egoism are forms of consequentialism in
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also letting Jane continue to help the environmental charity? Should she not? If she does not‚ should she turn Jane in? To try and help solve this problem‚ we are going to focus one two branches of ethics‚ Utilitarianism and Kantianism. I’m going to focus on Bentham’s version of Utilitarianism‚ as the two lines of thinking seem to differ the most when his version is used. The odd part is‚ even though the two theories are so different‚ I believe that they will reach the same conclusion in this situation
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Ethical Egoism and Utilitarianism are considered consequentialism theories because they both focus on the outcome of conduct as the primary motivation of that action and whether or not that conduct is ethical. Consequentialism is a moral theory that states that the consequences of one’s actions are the basis of any morality or judgement toward that action. The major difference between the two theories is where those acts are directed. Utilitarianism focuses on the idea of the greater good or to
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the surplus over pain and everything we do is motivated by a desire to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. Preference utilitarianism‚ on the other hand‚ is the view that what is good for a person and what is good overall is determined entirely by people’s preferences. In what follows‚ I will argue that Preference utilitarianism is not more plausible than Hedonistic utilitarianism. Hare‚ a preference utilitarian‚ view is that human logic applies to moral assertions and that moral judgements can be
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morality such as John Stuart Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism. In teleological approaches to morality‚ questions of right and wrong‚ or the notion what an individual ought to do‚ are determined by the consequences of a given action. One thinker to reject this idea of consequentialism was Immanuel Kant. In his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals‚ Kant endeavors to establish a system of ethics that has no trace of the empirical nature of utilitarianism. To him‚ “the moral worth of an action does
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In the case of Utilitarianism‚ the ultimate goal to be constantly striving towards is ensuring the most happiness for the largest amount of people‚ while also striving for the least possible amount of pain‚ hardship‚ and unhappiness. This is very similar to the true concept of free speech‚ which‚ as mentioned earlier‚ is the right to express one’s opinions as he or she sees fit‚ so long as the rights of others are not infringed upon/violated. Utilitarianism would assert that taking away
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to solving ethical problems within utilitarianism. Kantian theory follows the same principle but with greater emphasis on the respect for all things involved with ethical quandaries. Both have their critiques yet both ideas are conceived in an effort to understand and conceptualize some of the biggest controversies and questions that evolve around ethics. This paper will be an attempt to delineate the key components that fabricate each theory‚ first utilitarianism and then Kantian theory and through
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