Utilitarianism, founded by Jeremy Bentham, advocates that actions are right if they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Kant's moral theory contrasts with this by applying universal moral principles regardless of outcomes. The document discusses various aspects of utilitarianism, including act utilitarianism, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as criticisms from philosophers like Bernard Williams regarding the importance of moral integrity in decision-making.

1. Kant's Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham founded Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is to defend the view that those acts that
produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people are right and good" (Deininger
2015). This theory focuses on the outcome of an action that leads to good. The action considered
to be good to the greatest number of people affected by action. Immanual Kant Moral theory is
applied to everyone no matter what the situation is. Appling it to all people regardless of the
scenario faced. "The Kant's basic moral principle is comparable for his moral philosophy to the
principle of utility for utilitarians. It is Kant's test for right and wrong" (McKinnon 2015). Bentham's
Utilitarianism and Kant's theory could be applied to moral and ethical
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2. Utilitarianism Essay
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory. An action is right or wrong based on its
consequences. John Stuart Mill was an important philosopher in developing the idea of
utilitarianism. Utilitarianism holds that any action that results in a greater amount of happiness in
the world is a right action and any action that results in pain or less happiness is wrong. Utilitarianism
can be divided into different versions.
Act utilitarianism is one of the versions of utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism's goal is to maximize the
overall happiness of the universe. Act utilitarianism uses the Greatest Happiness Principle which
says in every situation, choose the option that you believe to be most likely to...show more content...
If the bank managers did not care about the customer's money, the FDIC insured all the stolen
money, the police were not unhappy because of the robbery, and the robber was extremely happy
because he could move to the Caribbean and never work again, then robbing the bank would be a
right action.
There are many good points to act utilitarianism. It is very appealing because most people want to
increase their happiness and reduce their pain. Act utilitarianism says that people could do that and
they would not only make everyone happier but they would also be doing what is morally right. Act
utilitarians will not have conflicts over any action being right or wrong because the hedonistic
calculus is an objective test that proves the amount of please or pain that will result. It is a standard
that all actions can be evaluated by. Another point or act utilitarianism that can be seen as an
advantage over rule utilitarianism is that each individual situation can have a different action be
right. This means that in every situation the right action will provide more happiness or less pain as
opposed to rule utilitarianism where the individual situations do not matter.
Act utilitarianism also has some disadvantages. One major fault of act utilitarianism is that some
actions would
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3. Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism in its very basic form calls for putting benevolence into action, and by extension
calling for people to be concerned with the good of a population in general. More or less, through
such an ethical theory, we are encouraged to explore the full range of consequences of our actions
and provides direction of how we can make difficult tradeoffs between different kinds of values in a
humane and acceptable fashion. Therefore, the application of utilitarianism in our day to day
decisions involves calculating the various consequences of different actions and selecting the one
with the highest net benefit.
The case of Theresa Ann Campo Pearson, popularly known as "Baby Theresa", provides for us an
example in which the theory of utilitarianism...show more content...
It seems acceptable to the utilitarian to kill one person to save two or more. Yet this is an over
simplified assertion. If such were the case, a few people would be killed every now and then for
their organs to benefit the many. In fact, there have been cases in various parts of the world
where beggars and homeless persons would be rounded up and their organs forcefully harvested.
Such an action, in my opinion is wrong and totally unacceptable. But we still need to reconcile the
utility principle with the situation at hand. If Baby Theresa was a normal healthy child, of course
there would be no argument against her staying alive. Even a physical disability would not
warrant the actions her parents proposed. It is safe to assume that had she had an estimated
survival of a year, or at least two months, then harvesting her organs should have been a contentious
issue. However, as an anencephalic, Baby Theresa being alive was doing her no good. According
to James Rachels' benefits argument on Baby Theresa, being alive is a benefit only if it enables you
to carry on activities and have thoughts, feelings and relations with other people–none of which Baby
Theresa could
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4. Utilitarian Theory Essay
The moral theory that considers the "principle of greatest happiness" is based upon the
п»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їп»їutilitarian doctrine(textbook). This doctrine
believes that one's actions are thought to be right when they promote great happiness or minimize
pain. The utilitarian theory is the feeling of pleasure and freedom from pain which is the desired
end. Basically this theory states a person's actions taken during a situation are considered to be
correct if they maximize the feeling of happiness but also minimize those that cause pain. Since,
the utilitarian theory is based mainly upon the feelings of the maximum amount of happiness by
an individual or group this can sometime lead to conflicts for the EMS provider or providers
working in the field worldwide. Conflict can occur easily in the EMS setting since a majority of the
time our calls revolve around an individual's or one of their family members worst possible
situations, because they are either injured,ill or...show more content...
At times leaders have trouble expressing themselves without using negativity regardless of the
situation, but others may have just the opposite problem. Often those members of a leadership team
with the tendency to sugar coat disciplinary actions or life threatening situations experience conflict
with their fellow employees when they repeat the same inappropriate actions. These conflicts arise
when more positive feedback on their actions are received by the employee rather than the harsh
reality of the issue and pain of dealing with it directly. This indirect action, then makes the employee
feel their actions were appropriate for handling the situation. An example of a situation like this
would be a paramedic intentionally withholding pain medication for the patient that had caused them
some personal pain whether physical or
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5. Essay about Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
What is Utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is a philosophical concept that holds an action to be held right
if it tends to promote happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarians define the morally
right actions as those actions that maximize some non–moral good or happiness and minimize some
non–moral evil. Pleasure is an example of a non–moral good and pain is an example of a non– moral
evil. A utilitarian will fous on the consequences of an act rather than on the intristic nature of the act
or the motives of the agent. In short, utilitarians focus on ends rather than actions. An example would
be a person that litters, a utilitarian will argue that the act of littering is not intrinsicly bad but the
litter that...show more content...
The second story deals with a megistrate that is pressured by the mob to condemn an innocent
person in order to prevent the mob of murdering innocent people. The megistrate acts as a utilitarian
by condeming an innocent person to save the lives of the many innocent people. The megistrate acts
as a utilitarian but was his decision the right decision? Is utilitarinism always the right action to
take? In the next passage I will describe oppositions made towards utilitarianism. Bernard Williams
is the author of " A Case against Utilitarianism". In this passage Williams is against utilitarianism
because he beliefs that the actions that a person takes matter because decisions are reflected by
integrity, responsibility, and morals. His argument states that utilitarianism is only concerned with
the best outcome, and that utilitarianism does not consider and evaluate the actions that a person
must take to achieve the outcome. Williams's beliefs that a person must do what is morally correct.
For example, in Nielsen's mob story, Williams could argue that the megistrate did wrong in killing
the innocent man because he is always going to be held responsible for the murder futhermore he
has probably violated his values, integrity, and morals. Williams would argue that the megistrate
should do what he thinks is morally right because he is the only
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6. Utilitarian Approach
This paper chooses the utilitarian as the best approach, as it seems to encompass parts of all the
other approaches; fairness, justice, compassion, truth, and values are all in correlation to producing
the greatest good and least harm to others. The following steps are to be utilized by employees that
are knowingly not being paid overtime:
According to Ballman, four steps to take by all stakeholders include:
1. Write it down. Keep track of all your hours worked, even if your employer requires you to submit
less than all your hours. Write down what you did, especially if it was during lunch or at home. If
you have a diary or calendar, write it in there. Don't keep your records at work, because if you leave
them in a drawer or on your work computer...show more content...
4. Contact a lawyer. There are serious consequences for violating the overtime requirements,
which are that your employer might have to pay double the amount owed you, plus attorney's
fees and court or additional costs (Ballman, 2015). This is a last resort, as employees as well as
employers, would do best to avoid the judicial process, as it can be costly and time consuming, by
coming to a resolution themselves but when all else fails this is a course of action. "Wage–and–hour
lawsuits, already at record highs, will probably keep soaring after new federal overtime rules kick
in" (Fisher, 2016, p. 1). According to Ballman, employees should beware of future consequences, as
your current employer cannot retaliate against you but a potential one could. This retaliation
includes not being hired by new employers based on involvement in litigation with a previous
employer.
At least one federal court has ruled that the anti–retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act
do not apply to prospective employees. If you're a named plaintiff in an overtime suit, or if you
answer honestly that you participated in a class action against your employer for overtime, you may
lose future job opportunities. (Ballman, 2012, para.
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7. Utilitarianism Essay
Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics which suggests that the best moral action is the one
that maximizes utility. Utility is related to the good of human beings. Individuals who are for
utilitarianism defines utility as the combined pleasure after reducing suffering of all involved in any
action. Some individuals have expanded this definition of utility to consider not only the quantity,
but quality of pleasure, while focusing on rules, instead of individual moral actions. Others have
denied that pleasure has actual value and have advocated negative utilitarianism, which defines utility
only in terms of suffering.
Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which states that the consequences of all actions are the
basics of right
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