Does Utilitarianism Provide A Helpful Method Of Moral Decision Making

Question 1

Intro dc

Answer 1

D - utilitarianism = an ethical theory that judges the morality of actions based on their ability to maximise pleasure
C - this essay will argue that ut doesn’t provide a helpful method of moral decision making as leads to poorer treatment of minority groups and requires people to predict the future

Question 2

Pe 1

Answer 2

Utilitarianism focuses on maximising pleasure and minimising pain, it does this by the principle of tggftgn. Benthams principle of tggftgn leads to poorer treatment of minority groups and may disregard rights to serve the greater good. Rand would agree with this as he rejects the theory as it allows horrendous acts to be permitted just because a majority wants it eg punishing an innocent person if makes majority happy. Utilitarianism also focuses on the outcome of an action at the expense of justice

Question 3

A 1

Answer 3

• ignores rights and justice and often leads to moral decisions that we don’t feel comfortable with
• decision isn’t necessarily right just because majority will benefit from it

Question 4

C 1

Answer 4

This arg could be refuted by the arg that mill addresses problems of tyranny of majority in act ut (b) in rule at as he recognises need for personal freedom and protection from tyranny. Vary would also agree as said that rule ut is attractive as it try’s to solve the problem of minority groups being discounted. Mill does this by making introducing a harm principle (society should only interfere with individual liberty to prevent harm to others, protecting personal freedoms).

Question 5

E 1

Answer 5

• harm principle fails as is too vague and broad to be useful as could be used to condone almost any action as what does harm mean to what extent is an action harming someone

Question 6

Pe 2

Answer 6

The second reason to support the arg is that ut is a consequentialist theory and so requires people to try and predict the future to see if action will maximise pleasure and minimise pain as can’t ever fully know what pleasure decisions will bring ( means hedonic calculus fails as doesn’t take into account the complexity of humans and different situations, can’t be used as would require telling future)

Question 7

A 1

Answer 7

• humans not capable of telling future
• whole ethical theory is based on use of hedoncalvuls to determine which decision maximises pain and minimises pleasure so if that fails then whole ethical theory fails

Question 8

C 2

Answer 8

This arg could be refuted by the arg that utilitarianism (particularly B) is relatively straightforward as key idea and fundamental message (max pleasure min pain ) is not difficult to understand or apply and is part of human nature to seek pleasure and avoid pain (Epicurus) so is easy to use in decision making. And makes people at least attempt to reduce pain caused by their decisions

Question 9

E 2

Answer 9

Fails as
- although idea of ut is straightforward application is not. Are so many factors + variables to consider (7 factors in calculus)
- is difficult to know how far to take the consequences of an action as sometimes a simple decision may have repercussions for many generations (eg atomic bomb)