Topic– Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics in private and public relationships.
7) Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question “What ought a person to do?” . Discuss.(250 words)
Directive word
Discuss- This is an all-encompassing directive which mandates us to write in detail about the key demand of the question. We also have to discuss about the related and important aspects of the question in order to bring out a complete picture of the issue in hand.
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to write in detail about the utilitarian philosophy of ethics- what it means, what is its approach, and criticism faced by it, if any.
Structure of the answer
Introduction– write a few introductory lines about the utilitarian philosophy of ethics- e.g It is a form of consequentialism and its core idea is that whether actions are morally right or wrong depends on their effects. More specifically, the only effects of actions that are relevant are the good and bad results that they produce.
Body-
Discuss the concept further in detail. E.g Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things (such as pleasure and happiness) in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things (such as pain and unhappiness). They reject moral codes or systems that consist of commands or taboos that are based on customs, traditions, or orders given by leaders or supernatural beings. Instead, utilitarians think that what makes a morality be true or justifiable is its positive contribution to human (and perhaps non-human) beings.
Utilitarianism appears to be a simple theory because it consists of only one evaluative principle.In fact, however, the theory is complex because we cannot understand that single principle unless we know (at least) three things: a) what things are good and bad; b) whose good we should aim to maximize; and c) whether actions, policies, etc. are made right or wrong by their actual consequences (the results that our actions actually produce) or by their foreseeable consequences (the results that we predict will occur based on the evidence that we have) etc.
Conclusion– Based on your discussion, form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the given issue.
