Understanding Dentology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics Real-Life Examples of Virtue-Ethics 1. To see how someone might question that, think about skills and skill. Perhaps these points are the basis of our sense of the importance of equality. The philosophy of consequentialism is based on the belief that the moral and ethical value of one's action should be judged by the consequence of such action. For example, suppose there is a machine that tosses a fair coin with such precision that whenever you press the Toss button, the coin always comes up heads. Instead they use ethical rules that are derived from considering the general consequences of particular types of acts. It suggests two distinct levels when assessing whether an action is morally permissible its immediate effects (rule) and long-term impact (state) (Goodman, 2017). An example could be taking away someones freedom due to suspected terrorist activities. An action that brings about more benefit than harm is good, while an action that causes more harm than benefit is not. Dual Consequentialism: The word right is ambiguous. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that asserts that right and wrong are best determined by focusing on outcomes of actions and choices. Cite this Article in your Essay (APA Style), Privacy PolicyTerms and ConditionsDisclaimerAccessibility StatementVideo Transcripts. Get custom essays. Hedonism is a type of consequentialism that states that the pursuit of pleasure should be the highest moral priority. See Brandt (1979); Hooker et al (2000). An example of consequentialism is the utilitarian theory. The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. One worry about these arguments is that if it happens that the most efficient way for you to help people is to send as much money as possible to help desperately poor people you do not know, then your following consequentialism may involve thinking of the people you know mainly as potential sources of money. Consequentialism has been criticized for ignoring individual rights in favor of collective outcomes. Act consequentialism is the belief that we have to consider - you guessed it - the consequences of our actions. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that suggests that the best actions are those that maximize utility. By contrast, the deontological theories of John Locke and Immanuel Kant are nonconsequentialist. For example, if a certain action would be good for the bank account but bad for the health, there is a financial reason for it and a health reason against it. Example If in consequence ethics you should only care about the good that comes from an act, it seems as if unethical acts can be justified if they result in a good outcome. Another example of ethical egoism would be a person who invites a friend to a movie that she wants to . The right act is the act which maximises well-being. A similar line of thought starts from the idea that morality is at bottom two things. For another example, suppose I am sick and you are a doctor. The usual Consequentialist view is that a 50% chance of a certain good outcome is half as good as that good outcome itself, and a 10% chance is one tenth as good. Or suppose the recommendation that comes from you friend, your mother, your heart, or your prior resolution, reflects insight into the implications of your action that would not be reflected in the conscious estimates of consequences you might be able to work up on the spur of the moment. He says that if he is given the next suitable organ he will fund 1000 hip-replacements a year for 10 years. consequentialism holds that a moral act should be judged by its outcomes rather than by any inherent moral value encapsulated in the act itself (p. 43). An action can show what kind of person I am even if it does not make me be that kind of person. Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. This made the world feel like a smaller place as you could instantly talk to anyone anywhere in realtime. Perhaps an easier way to be free of bias is to have no sympathy for anyone. Here are two simple examples of such theories: Egoistic Consequentialism: Of all the things a person might do at any given moment, the morally right action is the one that has the best consequences for that person. Consequentialism is sometimes criticized because it can be difficult, or even impossible, to know what the result of an action will be ahead of time. Note that if what matters is the total amount, then it does not matter whether the happiness belongs to you or your friend or a strangeror even a dog, if dogs can have happiness. (If there is no one best action because several actions are tied for best consequences, then of course any of those several actions would be right.). The remaining arguments for consequentialism given here, like the argument from love, do not speak merely of good consequences overall. Rather they defend consequentialism by defending the importance of some particular kind of consequence, such as happiness, the satisfaction of desire, or the well-being of people. Consequentialism has both practical and philosophical problems: And these are things that many think are relevant to ethical judgements. 30 videos - one minute each - introduce newsworthy scandals with ethical insights and case studies. See Singer (1972); Jackson (1991); Kidder (2003). Perhaps the most standard precise version of consequentialism is Plain Consequentialism. This form of consequentialism suggests that following established rules, even when they may lead to negative outcomes, will produce more desirable results in the long run than acting without any rules at all (Hooker, 2002). That is, one must look to see whether financial benefit outweighs the health drawback, and whether the benefit to me outweighs the harm to you. Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges an actions moral correctness by its consequences. Another reason is that when there is more equality in the main external goods, the basic conditions of peoples lives will be more similar and people will find it easier to understand and sympathize with each other. Williams, Bernard. Results-based ethics produces this important conclusion for ethical thinking: This far-fetched example may make things clearer: The classic form of results-based ethics is called utilitarianism. Its standard is high. Or one might propose instead that an action is good insofar as it causes less meddling and more total happiness. So you may prefer a different version of consequentialism. Here too you end up having had twice as much happiness as I had, so the total happiness we had is three times the happiness I had. These are good because of the further goods that they tend to produce. (Premise), An all-knowing impartial being would, overall, wish for the greatest possible balance of satisfaction of the desires of all people. Consider this argument for Plain Scalar Consequentialism, which is based on one proposed in Mill (1861): One worry about this argument is that 1 seems false. (There can also be a scalar version of this view and of the others introduced below.). (Premise), It can never be right to choose a worse whole set of consequences over a better. But of course I know that the position of the hand has no effect on my speed. In economics, utility is the pleasure or satisfaction that people derive from consuming a product or service. For example, suppose Paul is considering stealing money from his grandmother to help the poor. Further, institutions that secure basic external equalities, or that aim to protect whoever is poorest and weakest, tend to give everyone more security. For consequentialism, the moral rightness or wrongness of an act depends on the consequences it produces. Communication. If the greatest total can be created only by exploiting the miserable to make the happy even happier, then such consequentialism would seem to say that you should do it. One key theory is consequentialism, which says that an individual's correct moral response is related to the outcome/ consequence of the act and not its intentions/ motives. But this objection assumes that an authority on the question whether an action is objectively right would have to know exactly what objective rightness is. Hence if you have such a secret, your further projects will be more poorly chosen, designed, and carried out. Also, in certain situations, consequentialism can lead to decisions that are objectionable, even though the consequences are arguably good. In virtue ethics, one's character emerges from a " relevant moral community". One might suppose that if a person has two conflicting desires, it is rational for her to replace them with a single compromise desire. And it does not matter whether the happiness will happen today or next year. A different kind of reply to the objection is to adjust consequentialism itself so that it is no longer impartial. If only permanent things mattered, then your happiness and misery in this life would not matter at all; but surely they do matter. Therefore, your intentional action of tossing did not make you win. If most people who live along a short river toss their garbage in the river, so that it is always full of garbage, then your tossing your own garbage in the river makes no difference to the river, and it saves the inconvenience of driving a few miles to the dump. Perhaps, then, what counts as a good result is the amount of life that the action adds or subtracts in the world? That does not mean consequentialism tells you to leave me entirely alone. When your boss says she cares only about results, that commonly means she does not care whether your gamble had a 1% or a 99% chance of succeeding. Still, it will help reduce car accidents, potentially saving many lives. Obligation dilemmas are situations where we feel we are obliged to opt for more than one choice. What is morality? Consequentialism is, as we have seen, one of many different proposed answers to that question. Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality,, Scheffler, Samuel. An example of ethical egoism would be a person who owes money to a friend and decides to pay the friend back not because that person owes money, but because it is in his best interest to pay his friend back so that he does not lose his friend. Rather, fairness is traditionally concerned with distributions of what we might call external goods goods such as money, status, power, and political rights. Consequentialism and its critics. Driver, J. Not every version of consequentialism is anthropocentric, and as several contributors point out, some or all of the often very strong claims defended by non-anthropocentric thinkers can be expressed in a consequentialist framework. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40926832. It has a moral sense and an objective sense. This makes the crime much, much worse. (Premise), When we are choosing among such wholes, nothing else is at stake. In other words, it means that the result or outcome of taking a certain course of action will determine whether or not it was morally sound. Redistribution of Wealth It's no secret that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening as time passes. That would explain why fatal accidents are bad, since an early death means less life. Goodness and Utilitarianism., Williams, Bernard. "You are not acting your age." "That was unprofessional behavior.". The utilitarian theory focuses on an action that produces the greatest good which benefits the majority of individuals. A person should choose the act that does the least amount of harm to the greatest number of people. Unhappiness can be thought of as negative happiness, so that the total happiness we two have in this third case is zero. 7. Consequentialism is the view that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences. If you want to do good for me, doing the sorts of things that are normally thought of as violating my personal rights is probably a bad bet. Cognitive film and media ethics. Agent-Neutrality, Consequentialism, Utilitarianism: A Terminological Note., Smart, J. J. C., Free Will, Praise, and Blame,, Smart, J. J. C. An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics. In, Stocker, Michael. Hence consequentialism tends to hold that in deciding what to do, you ought to give just as much weight to the needs of total strangers as to the needs of your friends, your family, and even yourself. Hence consequentialism is wrong. Of course, we cannot know the overall consequences of our actions. Hence Consequentialism is true. We need to see ourselves clearly in order to do good effectively in the long run. McElwee, B. Consequentialism says you should do this; but moral common sense says that you should not. Suppose you are on average just as happy as I am, but you live twice as long. Consequentialist theories don't pay direct attention to whether an act is carried out with good or bad intentions; most people think these are highly relevant to moral judgements. (Premise), One ought always to choose an action whose overall consequences are at least as good as the overall consequences of any of the alternative actions; in other words, consequentialism is true. how do you compare a large quantity of happiness that lasts for a few minutes with a gentle satisfaction that lasts for years? Plain Consequentialism is a theory about which actions are right. For one thing, each of us is in a better position to understand her own affairs than you are and more naturally and reliably concerned than you are to make sure that her own affairs are carried out well. Consequentialism is one of three thories of normative ethics, alongside virtue ethics and deontology. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Consequentialism. 6. The criticisms of consequentialism raise a number of fundamental questions that are important in ascertaining the relationship with criminal law and justice practice. Plain Scalar Consequentialism is different. It looks at scenarios where individuals actions are motivated by the desire to benefit others rather than themselves and places value in those acts regardless of their outcome or consequence (Scheffler, 2009). A different kind of reply to the objection is to propose a new standard for the goodness of consequences. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism because it rests on the idea that it is the consequences or results of actions, laws, policies, etc. V iewed from the outside, Catholicism's social teachings appear to be a perplexing gamut of unreasonably extreme positions lacking in any overall coherence. One might propose, for example, that an action is good insofar as it decreases the amount of meddling in the world. By Posted when did harry styles dad passed away In mckayla adkins house If you get involved in meddling, can you trust yourself to meddle in the right direction and with adequate care? Consider the following argument for consequentialism adapted from Foot (1985). It is unclear, then, whether the standard to which we should hold theories of morality is that they must explain why morality is easy to know about or why morality is terribly hard to know about! Yet prominent commentators suggest or imply that Sen's CA is not "consequentialist". Therefore, it is important to account for the moral agent's community or communities within which she operates. The "standard" Jehovah's Witness case Understanding Background The Patient's Perspective The Doctor's Perspective Trustworthiness Compassion Discernment Conclusion Case 2. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU. An example of act utilitarianism is a pharmaceutical company releasing a drug that has been governmentally approved with known side effects because the drug is able to help more people than are bothered by the minor side effects. Although the majority of people would benefit from this idea, most would never agree to it. Oxford: Oxford University Press. If there were just one option that is obligatory, then the choice would be easy. (From 7, crossing for you out of both sides of the equation), An action is good insofar as its overall consequences contain happiness. Is that point an objection to consequentialism? Should it count if it is based on a factual mistake or if it is malicious? Hence the reasonable expectation is that harvesting the healthy patient would have bad consequences. Here are three examples of consequentialism ethics playing out in three very different areas: Baby Hitler If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? Thus, without reasonably thinking about my choice, I have done what it would have been reasonable to estimate would have the best results. Now, some kinds of thing do not suggest any standards of goodness: consider good pebble. But if the spectator replaces her conflicting desires, then according to 2 she no longer has the sympathy that makes her a reliable judge. Scheffler, S. (2009). Eight short videos present the 7 principles of values-driven leadership from Gentile's Giving Voice to Values. (2010). Consequentialism has many forms, including utilitarianism, hedonism, rule consequentialism, and many more, each emphasizing how to maximize net benefits or minimize harm. For example, people often procrastinate from laziness or fear, knowing that they are hurting themselves in the long run. One worry about this shorter argument is that Premise 2 may be false. Consequentialism is a theory that says whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes. The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories., Taurek, John. If every action is taken to produce some benefit, that shows only that the benefit is part of the reason for every action, not that the benefit is the whole reason. What matters is the total amount, not who gets what. Utilitarianism Meaning. (From 3). If you happen to be in charge of setting speed limits, you might be thinking that a bad result is a death: the fewer deaths, the better. For example, when faced with multiple simultaneous patients in the emergency department it is important to have a way of reaching a decision quickly about which patient to attend to first. Therefore consequentialism is an inhuman and immoral theory and must be wrong. 10 Therefore, it is necessary to advocate . It is also egalitarian in that it takes everyone's welfare into account. Reasonable Consequentialism may be too simple. Forming many romantic attachments hardly seems like the path toward perfection; nor perhaps does the widespread spiritual exercise of focusing on wishing people well without actually helping them. It follows the thought that actions can be judged entirely on the result of the act in question. So consequentialism must be true. Hence the fact that consequentialism disagrees with common sense about odd cases is no disproof of consequentialism. Utilitarianism judges consequences by a "greatest good for the greatest number" standard. For example, this could be in times of war or a financial crash. Perhaps it does not involve explicitly thinking about the consequences at all. For instance, according to this theory, choosing to donate money to charities without expecting anything back other than knowing you helped make someones life better would be considered an act of altruistic behavior. New York: Routledge. However, in support of consequentialism it might be argued that many of the things listed above do influence the good or bad consequences of an act, particularly when formulating ethical rules, and so they become incorporated in consequentialist ethical thinking; but only through the back door, not directly. These are examples of assigning social roles throughout our interactions in different areas. No intentional action escapes its scope. hillsboro hops shuttle,
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