Utilitarian theory of ethics pdf

Pdf three general theories of ethics and the integrative. In the workplace, the idea of this concept is if you conduct yourself properly at work, then you will be able to achieve professional happiness. Apr 29, 2019 utilitarianism would allow the majority to have tyranny over all aspects of society. This theory defines morality in terms of the maximization of net expectable utility for all parties affected by a decision or action. Utilitarianism is a family of consequentialist ethical theories that promotes actions that maximize happiness and wellbeing for the affected individuals. Utilitarianism is a comprehensive doctrine claiming that the greatest amount of happiness is an end that should exclusively guide all actions of both government and individuals. The key motivation for this revised utilitarian theory is its unique ability to treat properly multistage ethical decisions, represented as ethical decision trees, while at the same time recognizing that there is some concept of individual welfare which ought to. There are two major ethics theories that attempt to specify and justify moral rules and principles. Virtue ethics states that character matters above all else. While utilitarianism is currently a very popular ethical theory, there are some difficulties in relying on it as a sole method for moral decisionmaking. Questions of ultimate ends are not amenable to direct proof.

Utilitarianism, kantian ethics, natural rights theories. Consequentialism is an umbrella term for a range of moral theories that state the rightness or wrongness of an action should be based solely on. Two views of ethics robert mcgee barry university introduction most discussions of political philosophy revolve around the relationship between the individual and the state or the individual and the masses. Utilitarianism consequence based ethics 1 year ago ethical theories and frameworks 0 one of the most influential ethical frameworks, utilitarianism is focused on consequences and results. Utilitarianism also called consequentialism is a moral. The following is an excerpt from article de1971 from the christian research institute. I some utilitarians even allow for there to be quanti able units of pain and pleasure. People who ascribe to the classical utilitarians school of thought consider. Utilitarianism the international journal of ethics. Normative ethical theories generally incorporate two essential components. To a utilitarian, the choice that yields the greatest benefit to the most people is the one that is ethically correct. What matters for virtue theory, more specifically, is the character of the agent.

As a part of general and practical ethics, business ethics focuses on moral or ethical principles and issues that occur in the business environment, providing judgments as to good and bad, right. There are overlapping, complementary and contrasting theories. Utilitarianism is the view that the right moral action is the one that maximizes happiness for all. Ethical theories two types of ethical theories i teleological theories value based theories an act is morally right if it promotes the good or what has value.

At this point the argument over whether morality is based on reason or on feelings was temporarily exhausted, and the focus of british ethics shifted from such questions about the nature of morality as a whole to an inquiry into which actions are right and which are wrong. The theory of the good also called value theory or axiology defines. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, that is, it is concerned with the outcome of our actions to determine their morality. Todays session will focus on utilitarianism and the next on tuesday, 4th october will look at deontology. The utilitarian theory of property 1590 words bartleby. Utilitarian principles satisfy an important property. The philosophy of consequentialism is based on the belief that the moral and ethical value of ones action should be judged by the consequence of such action. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is to in some sense maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of wellbeing or related concepts. If most people felt like pedophilia was acceptable and normal, then it would justify any laws or regulations that would permit that behavior even though there is a clear moral wrongness about such a choice.

Utilitarianism is the general term for all ethical theories that hold that actions should 3 be judged on the basis of their total costs and bene fits for society. However, these two philosophies take on different standpoints on ethics. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory and would look at the purpose or the end goal of an action. Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics, or the ethics that define the morality of actions, as proposed by jeremy bentham and john stuart mill. Encyclopedia of applied ethics, second edition, 2012, vol. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory according to which the rightness and wrongness of acts depends entirely on facts about the maximization of overall wellbeing. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. There may be choices that make us happy as an individual, but if it doesnt help others, then this theory says that it is an incorrect choice. Utilitarianism as an ethical theory journal of ethics in mental. Such theories arise in religion, spiritual traditions, philosophy, socialpoliticalhistorical systems, literature and the humanities, social and.

The theory of utilitarianism explained with examples. Mills more important contributions to ethics occur in utilitarianism 1863, from frasers magazine, 1861, bentham 1838, coleridge 1840, dr whewell on moral philosophy 1852, professor sedgwicks discourse on the studies of the university of cambridge 1835, and in the brief discussion in the system of logic, bk vi, chap. First, the utilitarian calculation requires that we assign values to the benefits and harms resulting from our actions and compare them with the benefits and harms that might result from other. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or. There are two types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism and. Utilitarianism is a moral theory, which works as a form of consequentialism helps individuals to assess whether an action is good or bad. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. While there is wide variation in utilitarian approaches to ethics, they are united by their. The theory of utilitarianism essay 530 words bartleby. Applying utilitarianism in business academic writers bureau. Consequentialism is an umbrella term for a range of moral theories that state the rightness or wrongness of an action should be based solely on the results produced by that action. The history of utilitarianism stanford encyclopedia of. Utilitarianism consequencebased ethics learning theories.

This philosophy states that the morality of an action is best judged by the utility or. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory and therefore when evaluating ethics and the environment they would look at the end result and not necessarily the action. Ethics four branches 4 applied ethics applied ethics is a part of normative ethics that focus on particular fields the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment brenda almond. I we can give an easy model of the value of an action. Thus, in utilitarianism, it is the consequences of our actions that determine whether. Though there are many varieties of the view discussed, utilitarianism is generally. The key motivation for this revised utilitarian theory is its unique ability to treat properly multistage ethical decisions, represented as ethical decision trees, while at the same time recognizing that there is some concept of individual welfare which ought to determine ethical decisions. Utilitarianism i the most common form of consequentialism is utilitarianism i utilitarianism combines consequentialism with the claim that the only valuable consequence is pleasure, and the only disvaluable consequence is pain. According to these authors, utilitarian ethics would therefore seem to be well suited as a theory for evaluating and justifying the morality of public health interventions and programs and, by extension, for determining what we should and. Within human history and continuing into present times, we find many theories of ethics and the good. I shall, however, hereafter try to show that this psychological theory has an important though subordinate place in the establishment of ethical utilitarianism. There are several theories of value held by individuals who have been called utilitarians. As such, it moves beyond the scope of ones own interests and takes into account the interests of others. Utilitarianism and justice theory jacob holman northern arizona university july 27, 2017 in the history of philosophy and ethics there have been many great philosophers who have come up with theories to understand if a decision is ethical, what rules should be followed to make ethical decisions, and if the results of decisions determine whether.

Utilitarianism holds that the amount of happiness and suffering. Pdf this essay develops the theoretical foundations and framework of a defensible ethical theory for medical ethics and the whole of life. Utilitarianism john stuart mill mcmaster faculty of social. Utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory that places the locus of right and wrong solely on the outcomes consequences of choosing one actionpolicy over other actionspolicies. Moral virtues like honesty, courage, integrity, temperance and generosity are taken to be inherently good first, then actions are evaluated based on whether they express those virtues. The fact that people value the happiness of those close to them more than that of strangers makes utilitarianism personally unacceptable to many, but it may still be a proper principle for. Whatever can be proved to be good, must be so by being shown to be a means to something. The best known version of consequentialism is utilitarianism. Julia markovits cornell university gives an introduction to the moral theory of utilitarianism. It is the concept that the right action is the one that will result in the greatest amount of good for the greatest number. Some of the moral philosophers associated with this theory include jeremy bentham, david hume, henry sidgwick and many others. Utilitarianism is effectively defined by five characteristics. I where the consequentialist is concerned with the outcome of the action, the deonotologist is concerned with the nature of the action itself more speci cally, the rulelawreasonmaxim for which an action was taken. In consequentialism, actions are judged solely by their consequences, without regard to character, motivation, or any understanding of good and evil and separate from their capacity to create happiness and pleasure.

It is evident that this cannot be proof in the ordinary and popular meaning of the term. The work from which our reading is taken, utilitarianism, deepens and strengthens the greatest happiness principle of jeremy bentham and his. Deontological ethics there are two major ethics theories that attempt to specify and justify moral rules and principles. Utilitarianism john stuart mill batoche books faculty of social. This article was published in the international journal of ethics 18901938, which is continued by ethics 1938present. Utilitarian ethics in healthcare international journal of the computer, the internet and management vol. Act utilitarianism au is the moral theory that holds that the morally right action, the act. Utilitarians may, however, distinguish the aptness of praising or blaming an agent from whether the act was. Utilitarianism also differs from ethical theories that make the rightness or wrongness of an act dependent upon the motive of the agent, for, according to the utilitarian, it is possible for the right thing to be done from a bad motive. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. Julia markovits, associate professor, sage school of philosophy, cornell universtiy.

But before we can begin such discussions, a few preliminary points need to be addressed. For one thing, the criterion dispute includes a dispute about whether there is any such moral instinct. What is the difference between kantianism and utilitarianism. Deontological ethics i deontological ethics is often seen as the opposite of consequentialist ethics. It is the most wellknown and prevalent forms of consequentialism. Virtue ethics names a type of ethical theory that takes virtues of character, rather than individual actions or rules, as the most fundamental ethical concepts. The main difference between kantianism and utilitarianism is that kantianism is a deontological moral theory whereas utilitarianism is a teleological moral theory both kantianism and utilitarianism are ethical theories that express the ethical standard of an action. What utilitarianism teaches is that our definition of morality and ethics comes from a communitybased perspective instead of an individual outlook.

Indeed there must be some cases in which avoidable human misery could be prevented only by breaking the precepts of the deontological ethics. Utilitarianism also called consequentialism is a moral theory developed and refined in the modern world in the writings of jeremy bentham 17481832 and john stuart mill 18061873. Utilitarianism, kantian ethics, natural rights theories, and. Much of the defense of utilitarian ethics has consisted in answering these objections, either by showing that utilitarianism does not have the implications that its opponents claim it has or by arguing against the opponents moral intuitions. Some utilitarians, however, have sought to modify the utilitarian theory to account for the objections. Utilitarianism is the best approach to environmental issues. To determine the moral status of an action, utilitarianism has us look at c, deontology b, and virtue theory a. Utilitarianism, kantian ethics, natural rights theories, and religious ethics a utilitarian argument, in the strict sense, is one what alleges that we ought to do something because it will produce more total happiness than doing anything else would.

All are based on ideas at least 150 y ears old, and one is 2300 old. This principle is mainly associated with the utilitarian ethical theory discussed later in this set of notes. Utilitarianism and the theory of justice by charles blackorby, walter bossert and david donaldson. It is com monly associated with the phrase the greatest good for the greatest number, and it typically requires people to act in. An evaluation of two popular moral theories in business decision making introduction moral theories are interesting phenomena. The difficulty with this theory stems from defining and aggregating a measure of utility comparable for all people in a costbenefit analysis. Though not fully articulated until the 19 th century, proto utilitarian positions can be discerned throughout the history of ethical theory. Mills more important contributions to ethics occur in. Workplace example of utilitarianism ethics the core idea of utilitarianism is that an action is right if it results in the happiness of the greatest number of people in a society or a group. Pdf consequentialist decision theory and utilitarian ethics. Living an ethical life, or acting rightly, requires developing and demonstrating the virtues of courage, compassion, wisdom, and temperance. The idea of utilitarianism is tightly intertwined with the philosophy of consequentialism.

Utilitarianism mills more important contributions to. Utilitarianism the utilitarian theory of property seeks to maximize the populations utility when a property decision is made, the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Utilitarianism is one of the most powerful and persuasive approaches to normative ethics in the history of philosophy. The aim of ethical theories is, among other things, to present and defend systematic answers to the two following questions. It is true that similar confusion and uncertainty, and in some cases. Utilitarianism, by john stuart mill the selfdevelopment of the individual in his in. Because they are often presen ted as comp eting theories of ethical obligation, one ma y get the discouraging impression that there is a p ermanen t lac k of consensus among p eople who. Consequentialist decision theory and utilitarian ethics.