Sunday, February 3, 2013

Kant vs utilitarianism


Aaron Edwards


1. The Kantian ethics state that an action can only be correct if we do it out of duty; to look at the action and not the consequences to the result of things.  A good will is only good without qualification.  Utilitarianism states that one should maximize their happiness and reduce suffering; this is the belief that the value of a thing or an action is determined by its utility.  

2. What Kant was trying to say was that everyone in life has a duty and their duty is to the categorical imperative; the idea that we should all confirm to a law as the rest of the world conforms to one likewise. With that it brings up the concept of the “Golden Rule” as the bible would call it, where the ideology of reciprocity and “do onto others as you would want others to do onto you”.  This also brings up the reversal to this concept, which you also can understand due to the concept of right and wrong or stealing and lying in this case. No one wants someone to lie to or steal from them. Also “Treat humans as an end within themselves” Kant says because everyone human on earth has a purpose. Also with imperfect duties that there are two of them one is to seeking perfect in are talent and the other is seeking the happiness in other people.  This is true because many will not succeed in doing this but you can try your best and with that you will be fine.

Utilitarianism professes that, “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” –John Stuart Mill.  Happiness is pleasure, with the absence of pain and unhappiness is pain, with the absence of happiness. With Mill’s idea that pleasure doesn’t only have to involve physical pleasure but also intellectual pleasure, shows that his concept could also work. One should not only care about their own pleasure, but also those of their peers as well. But on the contrary to this system, it shows that not all good deeds are done for the better good of the world, but for the individual’s personal motives and underlying drives, which I personally believe is the motive for a lot of the good deeds done. Finally, why I support Mill’s on his utilitarianism system is because of this saying, "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question". I believe this statement is proclaiming the idea that even though we can all be in a dissatisfied state of mind, it is better to be in this disabled state, as opposed to being an animal or a fool, where one physically cannot keep up to par with a human and the other suffers from egocentrism.

3. Barbara
1. Everything S will be M.
2. Everything S will be P.
3. Never the less, everything M will be P

3 comments:

  1. I think you did a very good job defining and describing Both Kantian ethics and utilitarianism in the first paragraph. In the second and third paragraph you do not seem to pick which is more plausible however you provide more good information about both Kantian ethics and utilitarianism. In the end you indicate you support utilitarianism as did I you might have wanted to put a little more defending your position. Finally the Barbara you posted was the Barbara formula not an actual argument.

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  2. I thought you broke down everything in an easy to understand manor, and explained everything thouroughly. Only problem was with the third section of your paper. That wasn't an example of Barbara that was the actual formula.

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  3. I think you pretty much considered each theory in an in depth way. You explained clearly what each theory means and if anyone who didn't know what each was they would get it. Lastly, the only issue would be the fact you used the Barbara formula instead of your own actual one.

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