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Utilitarianism Vs Virtue Ethics Essay

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Utilitarianism and virtue ethics both direct an individual’s moral decisions, but neither theory is perfect. Whilst utilitarianism focuses more on the consequences of our actions, virtue ethics focuses on the character of the person. In this essay, I will elaborate more on the core concepts of both utilitarianism and virtue ethics. Then, I will introduce a scenario that will be used to compare the two ethical frameworks side by side based on their suggestions. Finally, I will argue that between virtue ethics and utilitarianism in this scenario, even though they do not provide a morally perfect answer, utilitarianism has a more morally preferable answer than virtue ethics.
Utilitarianism, also called by John Stuart Mill the “Greatest Happiness Principle” (Mill, p.77), states that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the opposite of happiness” (Mill, p.77). According to this principle, the actions that provide the greatest amount of happiness overall are morally the right actions to take, no matter what the said action actually is, because happiness is “pleasure and the absence of pain” (Woody Lecture Notes, Nov.5). This is known as maximizing total net utility, utility meaning “a measure of whatever one takes to be intrinsically good or …show more content…
Virtue ethics believes this because a virtuous character would try to do the most morally excellent action. Sending a bomb to Country B that would result in a massive loss of life does not follow what a virtuous agent would do, because it does not display any good moral virtues a virtuous agent would have. Using the bomb would be considered a rash action, thus immoral. In brief, bombing Country B would be deemed an immoral action, and thus should not be done under virtue

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