Ethics

Julien Lipps

Essay #2

Question A

Throughout history, philosophers have proposed theories in attempt to specify and justify moral rules and principles. Two of the more prominent and relevant theories are Utilitarianism and Deontological ethics. Utilitarianism, also known as consequentialism, is a moral theory developed in the modern world by Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarian Ethic holds that “we should seek the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.” In other words, all of our actions should be focused on producing the most happiness for the greatest amount of people possible. The individual moral agent performing the action counts as no more or no less than any other individual. Jeremy Bentham, created a system, The Hedonistic Calculus, in order to “measure” the amount of pain or pleasure that any given action would produce. In this quantitative theory, there are seven factors: intensity, duration, certainty or uncertainty, propinquity or remoteness, fecundity, purity, and extent. This theory used “hedons” or units of pleasure to measure the amount of pain or pleasure that any given action would yield. According to Bentham, those actions that produce the greatest amount of pleasure using, this seven-factor system as a guide, are the actions, which “should” or “ought” to be performed. The actions should not be merely done for the direct pleasure of oneself, but rather for the happiness and pleasure of society as a whole. John Stuart Mill, on the other hand, concentrates on the quality of pleasures rather than the mere quantity. The principle of utility will however, seek to produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people, with a specific emphasis on the kind of quality or pleasure produced. Mill proposed theory, the “Greatest Happiness Principle”, states, “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is...