Ethical Consequences Of Utilitarianism

Being a firefighter, we will need to face different kinds of life-threatening scenes every day when we are saving people, in the above case, we are going to face a dilemma between risking our life to save our colleague or to abandon them in order to save ourselves. This essay will argue that we should abandon our injured colleague and save ourselves base on the concept of utilitarianism, which is always choose whatever action or social policy would have the best consequence for everyone concerned, self-interest in Mohism and also the uncertainty about consequences in Kantianism. This will be asserted by explaining two main reasons, the first one is the concern of the consequences including financial burden on my family in case I am dead because
This is because base on the information provided in the essay prompt, the fire become more and more intense, this implies that the longer I stayed in the burning building, the more danger it will become, and I need to take a larger risk. As I am the breadwinner in my family, this indicates that I am the major income source in my family, if I am dead, there will be a heavy financial burden on my family. According to the principle of utilitarianism (Bentham, 1789), which is always choose whatever action or social policy could have the best consequence for everyone concerned. My family members will face a difficulty in their daily living including the medical expenses and the school fees when they used up all their savings, besides it is very hard to raise up my kids in a single-parent family, especially for a fulltime housewife. This will cause a decrease in their quality of life and which clearly violate the principle of utilitarianism. Therefore, this is one of the most important reasons why I would abandon my injured colleague and save
In reality, we still have our own parents which we are going to take care of. From the perspective of Confucianism, filial piety is very important and it is one of the key element of being a gentleman. When we are making decision in the burning building, we may want to save the colleague at first glance, however when we thought deeper, we are going to think of our parents. According to the Analect, it mentioned that we should not travel to other country and leave our parents alone when they are alive. (Analect Book 4: 19) This shows that we should take good care of our parents and never stay away from them. Similarly, if we are dead during the rescue of colleague, our parents will be left alone and no one will take care of them, this clearly violates the filial piety in Confucianism. Therefore, we ought to abandon our