Examples Of American Utilitarianism

1030 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Three formulations of Kant's categorical imperative

Suppose Jim is a utilitarian. Does he shoot one Indian to save the others? Were the men on the raft practicing utilitarianism? Why or why not? Would you shoot one Indian and let Hudson drown? Why or why not? If Jim was a utilitarian, then he would shoot the Indian to save the others as it would do more good than bad for everyone in this certain situation. The people on the raft were practicing the same because they should be three hundred yards to not be pulled in. If I was in the Indian killing situation I don’t believe morally I could kill a man but at the same time I know to save everyone it is the right decision. In the other situation I think I would Want to save him but at the same time if the sinking ship will kill me I don’t know if it’s a good idea. …show more content…

I believe that a utilitarian would push him over the bridge to save the others. I don’t think I would be able to as it would kill me internally to kill anyone.

15. What are Kant's two requirements for establishing an absolute moral truth? Does his Categorical Imperative allow for killing and/or suicide? One requirement for establishing an absolute moral truth is that it must be logically consistent, and the other is that it must apply to everything without any exceptions. No his categorical imperative does not allow killing because it would have to be applied to all human being. If you keep killing people or kill yourself, and apply to everyone then everyone would have killed everyone or have killed themselves. This would be seen as immoral in his eyes.

16. Would Kant support an experiment on 100 babies now to save 10 million children's lives in the future? Why or why not? I believe that Kent would just because there is an experiment being done to the 100 but at the same 10 million are being saved. He believes “If we are to act morally we must rely on our reason and our will and act out of sense of

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Three Ethical Paradigms

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Ethical utilitarianism can most generally be described as the principle that states that the rightness or wrongness of action is determined by the goodness and badness of their consequences." (Utilitarianism EOP 9: 603.) Following this guide line the morally right decision to make is to rescue the group with five ...

    Read More

  • Utilitarianism vs. Cultural and Ethical Relativism

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Utilitarianism is an example of Consequentialist Ethics, where the morality of an action is determined by its accomplishing its desired results. In both scenarios the desired result was to save the lives of thousands of people in the community. Therefore, a Utilitarian would say that the actions taken in both of the scenarios are moral. Since an (Act) Utilitarian believes that actions should be judged according to the results it achieves. Happiness should not be simply one's own, but that of the greatest number. In both scenarios, the end result saved the lives of 5,000 members of the community. The end result is the only concern and to what extreme is taken to reach this result is of no matter. In these instances the things that are lost are an Inmates religious beliefs or a mothers fetus, on the other hand Thousands of citizens were saved from dying from this disease.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Utilitarianism In Gattaca

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    Utilitarianism tells us society should be ran on impartiality. Also, that in society justice cannot foreclose the sacrificing the innocent for the good of humanity. I believe in the film Gattaca the happiness or in other the words utility of utilitarianism, of the lives of those deemed invalid was sacrificed. Utilitarianism is also the basic idea that one person’s consciousness is as worthy of consideration as any others. The film Gattaca is about a world where your life is pre-determined by your D.N.A. I will further discuss how the main theme of the film Gattaca, genetic engineering’s role in society, is the root cause of natural fallacy within the new world Gattaca exhibits and does not cure the imperfect world. Then to conclude I will explain how for these same reasons genetic engineering’s use of utilitarian views is a contradiction of utilitarianism.

    Read More

  • Mill’s Objection to Kant’s Moral Theory

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    “[Kant] fails… to show that there would be any contradiction, any logical (not to say physical) impossibility, in the adoption by all rational beings of the most outrageously immoral rules of conduct. All he shows is that the consequences of their universal adoption would be such as no one would choose to incur.”

    Read More

  • Kant's Many Formulations of the Categorial Imperative

    2450 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kant formulates several notions of what the categorical imperative must be and sometimes seems to confuse how many definitions he has suggested. But it seems to be clear that the Formulas I and III carry more importance in developing our subjective maxims for action than the other three Formulas. While these other three formulas provide additional considerations for our formulation of subjective principles, they are secondary to the Formulas I and III.

    Read More

  • A Critique Of Utilitarianism In Bernard Williams's 'Red Cross'

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bernard Williams wrote A Critique of Utilitarianism in which he shows how Utilitarianism may require people to do wrong. He presents the readers with two examples of “cases in which, on utilitarian grounds, one would be forced to act in a way that violated one’s intuitive moral feelings” (224). The case of Jim is relatable to the stories of Hotel Rwanda. Jim is an honored visitor to a country and he comes across a captain with twenty Indian protestors who he is about to kill. The captain tells Jim that he can kill one Indian and the rest can be set free, otherwise the captain is going to kill all twenty Indians. The important point that Williams makes is that Utilitarianism cuts out the factor that Jim is responsible for what he does, not the actions of other people. Williams emphasizes the importance of integrity. Many of the characters in Hotel Rwanda are faced with this factor. Paul realizes the importance of integrity when he tells his wife and kids to go to the roof and jump because that is better than being killed by a machete. Utilitarianism does not consider that actions can be made based on what makes sense rather than happiness. Not every action people make are in the pursuit of happiness. People have other goals they are trying to pursue in life. Paul is acting in such ways to save innocent people from dying because that is what makes sense to him. Even when

    Read More

  • Ethical Code in the Article the Overcrowed Lifeboat

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1842 a tragedy occurred when a ship struck an iceberg and more than thirty passengers piled onto a rescue boat that was meant to hold a maximum of seven people. As a storm became evident and water rushed into the lifeboat, it was clear that in order for anyone to survive the load would need to be lightened. The commanding captain suggested that some people would need to be thrown overboard in order for anyone to survive. There was a great argument on the boat between the captain and the passengers who opposed his decision. Some suggested that the weakest should be drowned, as miles of rowing the lifeboat would take toll on even the strongest. This reasoning would also make it absurd to draw names of who should be thrown over. Others suggested that if they all stayed onboard no one would be responsible for the deaths, although the captain argued he would be guilty if those who he could have saved perished in the process. Alternatively the captain decided that the weakest would be sacrificed in order to save the few left on the lifeboat. Days later the survivors were rescued and the captain was put on trial for his virtues.

    Read More

  • Essay On Killing And Killing

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    Determining the moral difference between killing and letting die has been a constant debate between many philosophers, with the basis of arguments cemented through the explanation of theoretical cases. However, as Winston Nesbitt states, the ethical theory that one holds determines their personal stance on the issue, and thus although to some extent individual morality is based on and developed by common societal grounds, it is not always clear what is morally correct on the whole. (NESBITT). This is evident in the example of John Lad’s case where the comparison is presented between killing someone by pushing them into river when you know they cannot swim verses not rescuing someone who is drowning in a river even if you are capable of doing so, thus letting them die. (LADD) Most would agree in this case that the behaviour in the first scenario would be notably morally worse than in the second. Nesbitt, however, believes that this is an inaccurate conclusion as we have only come to it due to the assumption that there are differences in motives, such that we are inclined to associate a malicious motive with the case of killing, while maybe only fear or indifference with the case of failing to save. Typical acts of ki...

    Read More

  • Three Formulations of the Categorical Imperative

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Kant’s book, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant talks about the three formulations of the categorical imperative. By these formulations, he describes his idea of organizing the moral principle for all rational beings. Kant also talks about the principles of humanity, rational ends, and the “realm of ends” which are constituted by the autonomous freedom of rational beings.

    Read More

  • Huck Finn Character Analysis

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, Huck is quick to realize that treating Jim as a lesser being is wrong. Scholar David Sloane points out, “When Huck plays tricks on Jim and is reprimanded, he and Jim together create a better practical ethic than others provided them by American society…” (Sloane). On the raft, there is nobody watching the two to ensure that they follow expected guidelines, so Jim and Huck are free to come to their own conclusions and realizations. This is demonstrated when Huck remembers Jim’s goodness and becomes uncertain of the morality in betraying him, telling the reader, “…I warn’t right down certain whether I was glad I started or whether I warn’t” (Twain 90). He sees that Jim trusts him and cannot bear to destroy that. He realizes that selling Jim off will not make him feel any better. His moral conscience wins, and part of him sees that Jim is a good person and does not deserve betrayal. Sloane draws the same conclusion, claiming, “The raft world allows for a finer ethic, formed in the natural background…”

    Read More

  • Ralph Nader: Utilitarianism And Rejuvenation

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    If a fire were to arise and he could only save one, would a Utilitarian send the firetrucks to the neurosurgeon or to his child. The obvious answer most people would say is save the child since it’s your own flesh and blood in that building as opposed to a complete stranger. However, a Utilitarianst might argue otherwise, as according to Utilitarnism, one must be completely impartial and unbiased when making a decision. They believe that every individual matters equally in a situation like this and that one shouldn’t act according to his relationship towards one of the victims. Rather, as said before, Utilitarianists believe that one should act according to what will result in “the greatest good for the greatest number.” As Mill explained before, in order to determine what “the greatest number for the greatest good” is, one must expose people to both pleasures and see what is the thing that will people will prefer. In the case of the fire, since one person is a neurosurgeon and the other is just a child, most people will probably prefer that the neurosurgeon be saved as he is more crucial to the community than the child is. A neurosurgeon saves people’s lives on a daily basis and if he were to die, it can have a have a really harmful effect on the community, causing others to die as well, where it otherwise might have been prevented. If the child dies, on the other hand, it will have

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Shooting The Friend

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Out of the seven reasons to not shoot the friend, I believe the second reason which states there might be a chance that the friend would survive the flames to be the strongest. Remaining alive would yield the greatest amount of utility. By shooting the friend, that possibility goes away. Although shooting the friend would minimize disutility, its end result would still create disutility. So if there is a chance, albeit slim, utilitarianism would say to take that path to maximize utility.

    Read More

  • Kant's Ethical System: Duty, Reason and Morality

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ethics Kant described his ethical system, which is based on a belief that the reason is the final authority for morality. Actions of any sort, he believed, must be undertaken from a sense of duty dictated by reason, and no action performed for suitability or merely in compliance to law or custom can be regarded as ethical. Kant described two types of commands given by reason. The first was hypothetical imperative, which dictates a given course of action to reach a specific end, and the categorical imperative, which dictates a course of action that must be followed because of its rightness and necessity. The categorical imperative is the basis of morality and was stated by Kant as "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through

    Read More

  • Tragic Hero: A Short Story

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    God literally defines what’s right or wrong. But through this process it might involve some complications as the book states, “If God willed murder, theft, or torture, these deeds would be morally right. (Lewis V. Page 11) Through this standpoint it’s quiet difficult to decide. Mainly because people follow the belief that God is a good being which will never command us to commit heinous acts. Following the divine command theory, we must do actions which will be an action of goodness even if it sometimes creates and negative outcome. In this case a person following this theory would save the children and mothers, then educated people. The outcome of goodness surpasses that of badness.

    Read More

  • Immanuel Kant's Universal Principle Of Right

    9877 Words  | 20 Pages

    In this chapter I will explain Immanuel Kant concept of what is right and how the categorical imperative plays an important role in his moral philosophy.

    Read More

More about Examples Of American Utilitarianism

Open Document