Essays About Utilitarianism

“Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in spring…… ” A perfect example of a product of utilitarian education, Bitzer defines a horse off the top of his head in a split second. Utilitarianism is the assumption that human beings act in a way that highlights their own…

Utilitarianism is described as being either an act or a rule. Act utilitarianism was devised by Jeremy Bentham which he believed human beings were motivated by pleasure and pain and therefore they may do anything which brings out ‘the greatest good for the greatest number.’ He believed people must measure their actions by using the…

Ethics can be defined as “the conscious reflection on our moral beliefs with the aim of improving, extending or refining those beliefs in some way. ” (Dodds, Lecture 2) Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism are two theories that attempt to answer the ethical nature of human beings. This paper will attempt to explain how and…

In Polish farmer risked life for Jewish girl, Sally Horwitz paints a picture of how a part of her life was, during World War 2. At the age of 13, Sally and her sister Frania were selected by a Nazi S. S. man to board a cattle train. Once on the train their home and…

Among the most glaring problems that I see with Utilitarianism is its inclusion of animals under the umbrella that blankets this theory. It seems irrefutable that there exists an inordinate number of cases where the consequence that is against the best interest of an animal is favorable to humans, yet that dictating action is one…

Today there are five to ten thousand comatose patients in long term care facilities (Wheeler A1). There are countless elderly people in care facilities that have repeatedly expressed a desire to die. There are countless terminally ill patients that have also begged for death. Should these people be allowed to die, or should they be…

UtilitarianismAt the outset of the nineteenth century, an influential group of British thinkers developed a set of basic principles for addressing social problems. Extrapolating from Hume’s emphasis on the natural human interest in utility, reformer Jeremy Bentham proposed a straightforward quantification of morality by reference to utilitarian outcomes. His An Introduction to the Principles of…

John Rawls and UtilitarianismHeath C. HoculockThe social contract theory of John Rawls challenges utilitarianism bypointing out the impracticality of the theory. Mainly, in a society ofutilitarians, a citizens rights could be completely ignored if injustice to thisone citizen would benefit the rest of society. Rawls believes that a socialcontract theory, similar those proposed by Hobbes,…

the common good? When faced with a moral dilemma, utilitarianism identifies the appropriate considerations, but offers no realistic way to gather the necessary information to make the required calculations. This lack of information is a problem both in evaluating the welfare issues and in evaluating the consequentialist issues which utilitarianism requires be weighed when making…

First of all I want to state the Kantian and the Utilitarian views butt heads onthis issue. The Kantian view is nonconsequential, that is as a matter ofprinciple with the consequences be damned. The Utilitarian view is consequentialwith the results given as much consideration as possible. I will attempt toexplain what I mean through some…