options, to include reducing the amount of suffering experienced, eliminate the patient’s use of other means to end his or her life, and allow for families to prepare for their loved one’s passing, all of which keeps the patient’s dignity intact. Utilitarianism looks at the best action producing the best consequences possible for the greatest number possible. In addition, it requires us to look at the effects of overall happiness versus the pain of an action. Therefore, in the case of voluntary euthanasia
Words: 2304 - Pages: 10
image to maintain, there is no reason why A&F should discriminate against the amount of people that they do. By considering Aristotelian virtue ethics, Mill’s utilitarianism, and Carr’s idea on business bluffing, it is easy to see why the tactics of A&F are unmoral, or in the case of Carr, unjustified. On the other side, Kantian deontology shows that the tactics of A&F can be considered moral, however Kant’s reasons are not stronger than the reasons of Aristotle, Mill, and Carr. Before getting
Words: 3638 - Pages: 15
John Stuart Mills a famous utilitarian obeyed Bentham’s idea of utilitarianism but he redefined this to iron out these objections and make the theory more acceptable to the Victorian middle classes. His father was a friend of Bentham’s and, like Bentham he was preciously bright, he was reading Greek by the age of three and by the age of ten he had read all the classical authors usually required of undergraduates. Unlike other Victorians he argued strongly for equal rights for women. As well as being
Words: 766 - Pages: 4
productive, (b) the free market allows for a great deal of freedom, (c) freedom has a tendency to lead to more prosperity, and (d) taking away freedom has a tendency to cause suffering. One conception of utilitarian justice can be found in the work Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill (91). Mill said that justice was a subset of morality—“injustice involves the violation of the rights of some identifiable individual” (ibid.). Mill suggests, “Justice implies something which is not only right to do, and wrong
Words: 6146 - Pages: 25
How does Singer attempt to justify our obligation to help distant others in need? Does he succeed? Peter Singer is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century and this has to do with his ideas on poverty, animal rights, abortions and euthanasia. This question is about aid from wealthy countries to poorer ones and therefore is concentrating on his views on poverty and generally, global justice. I will start by outlining what Peter Singer says about helping others in need in far off
Words: 2248 - Pages: 9
utilitarian includes all of the good and bad produced by the act, whether arising after the act has been performed or during its performance. According to John Stuart Mill, Bentham’s successor which is the leader of the utilitarians, he stated that Utilitarianism is often described by the phrase "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", and is also known as "the greatest happiness principle". This is in the view that no action is in and of itself bad or god, what is important is the state
Words: 621 - Pages: 3
Act Utilitarianism Act Utilitarianism defines moral right and wrong in terms of specific acts. To determine the right action for a particular situation, we must consider our possible choices of action and determine which choice would produce the greatest overall utility in its outcome. In assessing an act’s effects or outcome, we must consider both the utility and disutility as these relate to the scope, which includes all those directly or indirectly affected by the act, the duration or
Words: 369 - Pages: 2
Situation Ethics * Situation ethics was most famously championed by Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). * He believed that we should follow the rules until we need to break them for reasons of love. * It is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation. * Fletcher rejected following rules regardless (legalism) and also the idea that we should not have any rules (antinomianism) and said that we need to find a balance
Words: 1040 - Pages: 5
Famine, Affluence, and Morality Terry Simmons PHI 208 Instructor: Stephen Carter January 28, 2013 Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer opens his argument by introducing the reader to a famine in Bengal setting up his first premise stating “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad”. (Singer, 1972) Singer elaborates to say this is merely one point of view and that some “people can hold all sorts of eccentric positions, and perhaps from some of
Words: 918 - Pages: 4
Jeremy Bentham was a British philosopher who has been regarded as the founder of utilitarianism. He was born in London in 1748. Bentham was known for not being very social and he was known for not liking to make public speeches so he spent most of his time writing papers and books on philosophy, economics and politics. In 1830 Bentham wrote a book called the Constitutional Code where he determined that the all-comprehensive object, or end in view, is, from first to last, the greatest happiness
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
