He said, in principles of morals and legislation, 'nature has placed mankind underthe governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do' The principle of utility Once Bentham had established that pleasure and pain were important qualities for determining what was moral, he developed the utility principle. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its 'utility' or usefulness, Usefulness refers to the amound of pleasure or happiness caused by the action - hence it is a teleogical ethical theory which determines a good act by the ends it brings about. The theory is known as the greatest happiness principle, or a theory of usefulness. 'An action is right if it produces th greatest good for the greatest number', where the greatest good is the greatest pleasure or happiness and the least pain or sadness, and the
That goal is to do what is morally right, if it be through pleasure to avoid pain. This defines utilitarianism. Specific kinds of rules that tells a person what is right and why it is right defines deontology. A good person and doing the right thing, defines virtue. Even though each theory has its own unique way of portraying the act of doing ‘the right thing’, they seem to do just that.
Explain the difference between Act & Rule Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds that all moral actions should be decided on the basis that they create, "the greatest happiness for the greatest number". A teleological approach is one which is based on consequences, as opposed to a deontological approach which is one based on a set of rules or absolutes. Utilitarianism can be subdivided into two distinct types; act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism was the first form of utilitarianism, which was first developed by Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Criminal justice as rational is a perspective of the criminal justice system that adopts the utilitarian belief that human beings are reasonable and rational creatures. A utilitarian study means that everything is valuable; it has a utility or useful purpose, (Gorkoff, Personal Communication October 2012.) Jeremy Bentham focuses on the principles of utility. In his writing, ‘An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,’ he shows that people have two measures of action; ones that determine pain and those that bring pleasure, both governments and individuals consider these actions when creating, maintaining, enforcing and following laws, (Gorkoff, Personal Communication October 2012.) Bentham states that; “pleasures then, and the avoidance of pains, are the ends which the legislator has in view,” (Bentham, pg 106), meaning that crime and action are determined by the end goal of whether it brings pleasure or pain to the individual.
It is based on different virtues that a person should have, so that they can then reach Euadamonia. Euadamonia should be the end goal to everyone's life and it is the ultimate happiness. Virtue Ethics is ‘agent centred’ and it focuses on the qualities of the person making the moral choices rather than the actual moral choice that they are making, which can bring weaknesses to the theory as one can justify mostly anything by using virtue ethics. According to the theory, morality is about becoming the right sort of person, it is not asking “what should I do?”, but it is asking “what sort of person should I be?”, and is not trying to find rights and wrongs, just allow you to become a good person. Virtue ethics is agent-centred ethics rather than act-centred.
His view on what drove human beings and what goodness and badness was all about (he believes we are drive by pleasure opposed to pain – therefore he was a Hedonist), 2. The principle of utility, which is his moral rule and finally 3. The Hedonic calculus (a system that helps measure how good or bad a consequence is). It is relative because it does not say that an action itself is good or bad it is purely based on the situation. Bentham was concerned with human rights and democracy, he believed that happiness shouldn’t only be for one person it should be for lots if of people.
To which the id demands pleasure and satisfaction, the ego deals with the demands from the id and superego, and the superego is the ethical element which is the conscience and may produce feelings of guilt. The Behaviorism perspective is where any physical action is a behavior which everything that is living does such as acting, thinking, and feeling. Arthur W. Staats’ merges psychological concepts like personality within a behavioral model like Basic Behavioral Repertoires. Humanistic Perspective is the positive image of what it means to be a human being. The ones who theorize the humanistic perspective focus mostly on methods that allow fulfillment of potential.
This indicates that utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism as what is viewed to a morally correct action is based upon the actions outcome. Therefore, utilitarianism commands that when one is faced with a choice of morality, one should consider the moral rightness of an act by means of the consequences that should occur due to the performance of this act and also the happiness which arise due to the execution of the act. The theory of utilitarianism thus places paramount importance on happiness. Utilitarianism subsequently branches off into two forms: Act consequentialism, which claims that “an act is morally right if and only it maximizes the good” and hedonism “that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and that pain is the only intrinsic bad.” In this essay I shall outline and explain the theories of act and rule utilitarianism. I will also discuss and examine these theories in light of the case study about the programme
Mill defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain. He argues that pleasure can differ in quality and quantity, and that pleasures that are rooted in one's higher faculties should be weighted more heavily than baser pleasures. Furthermore, Mill argues that people's achievement of goals and ends, such as virtuous living, should be counted as part of their happiness. Mill argues that utilitarianism coincides with "natural" sentiments that originate from humans' social nature. Therefore, if society were to embrace utilitarianism as an ethic, people would naturally internalize these standards as morally binding.
c. In Utilitarianism Theory, where the focus is on the outcome of action that gives the greatest benefit (or least harm) for everyone is the ethical action, it would most probably consider the acts of the whistleblower as ethically upright because the actions gives the greatest benefit to the public and the society as a whole. So it really depends on which normative theory the person/s believe in viewing what is morally ethical or not. There are other theories of ethics that may define the behaviour of a person in forming an opinion regarding the situation or on how to react on whistleblowing issues. As to Personal Characteristics a person