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Utilitarianism vs. Social Contract Between Utilitarianism and Social contract, current people wonder which one has more concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. For this essay I am going to introduce and explain the utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill and the social contract by Thomas Hobbes. And then I am going to compare each other, and which one is a better moral theory. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), who was as known as the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the 19th century, he was a British philosopher, economist, and moral and political theorist. His works include books and essays covering logic, epistemology, economics, social and political philosophy, ethics, …show more content…
One way is that your actions should benefit most amount of people, in another words is that the balance of happiness must be more then the unhappiness. For example, there are two group of people, the first group, there are two people who are happy and zero people who is unhappy, second group has fifty people who are happy and forty-nine people who are unhappy. Then the first group wins because in total, the first group has two people who are happy, but the second group only has one person who is happy. And another way is that we must always choose the action that will bring about the most amount of happiness. [3]
So to summarize the whole thing is that our fundamental moral duty is to make the world a better place for everyone. An action is moral depending on its results. All of the results of your action are important, not only the short term ones, which are the different between expected results and actual results. And when you fail to the maximum well-being you become immoral. [4]
There are also the advantages of Utilitarianism. There is impartiality that everyone’s well-being is equally important; the ability to explain common moral rules, which is to volunteering or giving gifts; the moral conflict resolution, it is the same as moral flexibility; and the scope of moral society, but not include babies.
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And the moral rules that are rules of the society, started as a politicked theory [7]. Social contract is the moral rules, and the moral rules are the rules are the rules of the society. It started as a politicked theory, which is the law to moral theory, which is the ethics. It means that a law justice. And from Plato’s Republic, the moral action is an action is moral if and only if an action is permitted by laws that all equal, rational, free people agree to follow, provide that everyone else follows them. Social contract is from the nature of human to basic instinct and to kill and to sacrificing some freedom to exchange security.
Mill, John S. The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill. New York, New York: Modern Library, 2002. Print.
To begin, philosophy, which means the love of wisdom, is the study of knowledge. The study of philosophy has evolved and is continually growing, however its foundations are firmly rooted in classical philosophers and their valuable attributions to the field of study.. Thomas Hobbes’ was a political philosopher alive in the 1500’s. One of his main inquiries as a philosopher was to establish a way for humans to co-exist peacefully. (Reid, Jeffrey) Hobbes conception of the social contract will be briefly introduced, as his understanding will serve as the definition of social contract for the purpose of this paper. Hobbes contemplated how and why human beings acted the way they do through two differing approaches.. Hobbes examined the difference between the right of nature and the law of nature. To explore the right of nature Hobbes explained that “if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end (which is principally their own conservation, and sometimes their delectation
In Utilitarianism, J.S. Mill gives an account for the reasons one must abide by the principles of Utilitarianism. Also referred to as the Greatest-happiness Principle, this doctrine promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. More specifically, Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, holding that the right act is that which yields the greatest net utility, or "the total amount of pleasure minus the total amount of pain", for all individuals affected by said act (Joyce, lecture notes from 03/30).
In John Stuart Mill’s literature (575-580), he describes a system of ethics which he dubs as Utilitarianism. Mill’s Utilitarianism is unique because it is a Consequentialist theory – it focuses on the consequences of things, rather than individual processes involved. In other words, Mill argues that, for an action to be morally correct, it must solely contribute towards benefitting the greater good and maximizing humanity’s happiness. I argue that this ethical theory is flawed and cannot be used as a standard to gauge the morality of our actions because, since Utilitarianism is so entrenched on the outcomes that are produced, it has the potential to sanction clearly wrong actions, so long as they promote the general welfare. In this critique,
John Stuart Mill argues that the rightness or wrongness of an action, or type of action, is a function of the goodness or badness of its consequences, where good consequences are ones that maximize the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. In this essay I will evaluate the essential features of Mill’s ethical theory, how that utilitarianism gives wrong answers to moral questions and partiality are damaging to Utilitarianism.
Mill, John Stewart. "Utilitarianism: John Stewart Mill." Fifty Readings Plus: An Introduction to Philosophy. Ed. Donald C. Abel. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 416-25. Print.
John Stuart Mill was one of the most influential Western philosopher. At the time, most Western philosophers had the tendency to look down on women. They believed that women are too emotional and are incapable of being rational. However, Mill was an exception to this as he was an advocate for gender equality (Utilitarian Ethics). He is also known for his work in Utilitarianism, which focuses on the consequence of an action and whether that action benefit a greater number of people (Utilitarian Ethics).
The main principle of utilitarianism is the greatest happiness principle. It states that, "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure" (Mill, 1863, Ch. 2, p330). In other words, it results with the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people that are involved.
In Utilitarianism the aim of our actions is to achieve happiness for the greatest number of people. “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” (Mill, 1971). Utilitarianism directly appeals to human emotions and our reactions to different events. Emotions are a fundamental Way of Knowing and influence both ethical and economical theories. In most cultures there are fundame...
As a philosophical approach, utilitarianism generally focuses on the principle of “greatest happiness”. According to the greatest happiness principle, actions that promote overall happiness and pleasure are considered as right practices. Moreover, to Mill, actions which enhance happiness are morally right, on the other hand, actions that produce undesirable and unhappy outcomes are considered as morally wrong. From this point of view we can deduct that utilitarianism assign us moral duties and variety of ways for maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain to ensure “greatest happiness principle”. Despite all of moral duties and obligations, utilitarian perspective have many specific challenges that pose several serious threats which constitute variety of arguments in this essay to utilitarianism and specifically Mill answers these challenges in his work. These arguments can be determinated and analyzed as three crucial points that seriously challenges utilitarianism. The first issue can be entitled like that utilitarian idea sets too demanding conditions as to act by motive which always serves maximizing overall happiness. It creates single criterion about “being motived to maximize overall happiness” but moral rightness which are unattainable to pursue in case of the maximizing benefit principle challenges utilitarianism. Secondly, the idea which may related with the first argument but differs from the first idea about single criterion issue, utilitarianism demands people to consider and measuring everything which taking place around before people practice their actions. It leads criticism to utilitarianism since the approach sees human-beings as calculators to attain greatest happiness principle without considering cultural differ...
Kant’s moral philosophy is very direct in its justification of human rights, especially the ideals of moral autonomy and equality as applied to rational human beings. John Stuart Mills’ theory of utilitarianism also forms a solid basis for human rights, especially his belief that utility is the supreme criterion for judging morality, with justice being subordinate to it. The paper looks at how the two philosophers qualify their teachings as the origins of human rights, and comes to the conclusion that the moral philosophy of Kant is better than that of Mills. Emmanuel Kant Kant’s moral philosophy is built around the formal principles of ethics rather than substantive human goods. He begins by outlining the principles of reasoning that can be equally expected of all rational persons, regardless of their individual desires or partial interests.
It seems that the greatest-happiness principle does not only represent men’s nature in the best way10 but also serves as the best alternative to other moral guides.
A disadvantage of utilitarianism is that it fails to acknowledge the rights of each person, thus advocating injustice acts. People can suffer from immediate consequences of an action fulfilled by being “utilitarian”. Utilitarianism ignores the importance of moral obligation. It is still our duty to decide upon a wrong or right act and not take in consideration the amount of good or evil it produces. Lastly, moral dilemmas only happen because either quality or quantity of “good” or “pleasure” is in doubt. A person deciding whether to do a moral act has to take in consideration the maximization of happiness and pleasure to the
The Social Contract is an attempt to explain the reason why individuals agree to form organized governments. The idea that a person is willing to abandon the freedoms previously enjoyed under the State of Nature in which no government interfered with their pursuits, are believed to correspond to the individual’s attempt to protect what is on their best interest.
Comparison and Contrast of Kant’s and Mill’s arguments on their respective principles The utilitarian philosophy of John Stuart Mill and the Kantian theory could not be any more opposite as far as philosophy is concerned. While utilitarianism is a consequential position that is solely focused on the outcomes of actions, Kant is mainly concerned with the reason behind the occurrence of an action irrespective of the outcome of the action. Though both theories appear complex, they have sufficient reasons to act in their favor. However, a deeper analysis of the two theories reveals that utilitarian philosophy is inferior to the Kantian theory. John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian philosophy states that an action is good if it maximizes the good for