Teleological Ethics and Consequentialism and Utilitarianism

 

Teleological theories identify what is good in states of affairs and then they characterize right acts entirely in terms of that good in those “states of affairs’. 

We term theories that focus on results, or rather systems where the morality of an action is to be judged by that actions consequences, consequentialist, egoism and virtue ethics would fall into this category. 

We usually think of the consequentialist theory, utilitarianism, which says that a right act is always the one whose consequences contain the maximum total pleasure possible. 

Utilitarianism is a moral theory that focuses on the results. 

Utilitarianism is focuses on the results or consequences of our actions.

Notes on Utilitarianism

 

1. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that focuses on the results, or consequences of our actions, and treats intentions as irrelevant, Actions should be measured in terms of the happiness or pleasure they produce. Like Kant Utilitarian’s believed that a moral theory should apply equally to everybody, but they believed that the best way to do this was to ground it in something intuitive, like seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The good (value) is equal to the pleasant. This system is not egoist it promotes any action that promote the greatest good for the most people, this is the principle of utility. This could mean sacrificing your pleasant to promote the pleasure of those around you. Making moral decisions with this theory means looking at all situations from the perspective of a disinterested observer - Imagine your problem as someone elses problem then address that issue like you are talking to a strange about what they should do. This is called

                                                              i.      “Act Utilitarianism - in any situation, you should choose the action that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. This is problematic example - Imagine if you are a doctor and you have eight individuals who badly need organs, you also have a neighbor who has all of the organs that you need, your neighbor is seen as a gross waist of space that now one would miss. so as an act utilitarian you murder your neighbor and save eight lives. Yes you cause some pain, but your neighbors pain is a small price to pay to end the pain of those eight people. Another version of Utilitarianism is

                                                            ii.      Rule Utilitarianism - “We ought to live by rules that in general, are likely to lead to the greatest good for the greatest number. for this theory maximizing utility in the long run is much more important than maximizing utility in the short run. Harvesting your neighbor’s organs would lead to a general unhappiness with people afraid of losing their organs at any time, so a rule utilitarian would not promote that, however a rule utilitarian might be ok with this example - killing a crime family that promotes suffering and will promote suffering in the long run. a Rule Utilitarian would be totally ok with murdering all the pregnant women and children that have learned the violent ways of the crime family.

For this two to three paged writing assignment imagine that you are the Mayor of this imaginary city or any real city with an explosion of violent crime, how will you use Rule Utilitarianism to deal with this crime wave? You may use theories previously covered theories to critique the use of Rule Utilitarianism.