ASSIGNMENT

BUSINESS POLICY AND ETHICS

SUBMITTED BY: SHAFIA 54556
Ethics is the study of questions of morality, the search to understand what is right,
wrong, good, and bad. It is the branch of philosophy that systematically studies moral
ideals and goals, motives of choice, and patterns of good and bad conduct. Ethics is
derived from the Greek ethikos, meaning "character." Issues of personal character, and
the search for the best patterns for living, were at the core of Greek ethical philosophy.
In contrast, moral is from the Latin more (MOR-ay). The Romans used this term to
describe the customary ways that people tended to act.

INTRODUCTION TO THEORY:
Utilitarianism represents one of the most important and influential currents in ethics and
social-political philosophy. Not only is its historical significance undeniable, but today
the utilitarian tradition is alive as ever.

Two fundamental ideas underlie utilitarianism. The first is that the results of our actions
are the key to their moral evaluation and second that one should assess and compare
those results in terms of the happiness or unhappiness they cause. If we talk in broader
terms then impact of actions on people’s well being is also included.

Utilitarianism is only 200years old and still it has an enormous influence on our moral
philosophy, legal and political theory, and social policy. Despite of all the criticism the
theory is upheld by number of thinkers who have defended developed and refined
utilitarianism in their own ways. Utilitarianism’s guiding impulse is simple “human well-
being or happiness is what really matters and, accordingly, the promotion of well-being
is what morality is, or ought to be, all about. “This is why most people are attracted to it.

Early utilitarian’s equated happiness with pleasure and unhappiness with pain and the
interpreted human welfare or well being as happiness—hence principle of utility is called
“greatest happiness principle”. Bentham defines well being with happiness. he is in
affirmation with the hedonistic doctrine that pleasure is the only thing that is good in its
self and pain the only thing that is bad and so he concluded that the one state of affairs
is intrinsically better than other if and only if it contains a greater balance of pleasure
over pain. According to Bentham the number of people being affected by the actions
should also be taken into account.

John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham shared philosophies on Utilitarianism, happiness
and pleasure. They both believe pleasure and freedom from the pain are the only things
good in themselves for human beings. As for Utilitarianism, they both had the same
thought in judging an act to be right or wrong. Believing an act is right or wrong if it
secures or thwarts the most pleasure and avoids or brings the most pain to the greatest
number of people. John Stuart Mill explained humans enjoy many kinds of pleasure.
John Stuart Mill captured the idea of pleasure and broke it down into two different levels
of pleasure. Higher and lower pleasures are the two different levels. John Stuart Mill
insisted humans must not just consider the quantity of pleasure, but also the quality of
pleasure.

UTILITARIANISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY:

Utilitarianism is still valid for decision making in contemporary society. Reason being
that it is usually easy to figure out the possible consequences of our actions and on that
basis we can easily determine our course of action. In our contemporary society where
everything is outlined in terms of money and status it is usually not hard to assign the
possible consequences a label of good or bad. A very common example is choosing
what to study and where to study. Students prefer going to a university which can
provide opportunities for their future careers rather than quality of study. An institution is
not chosen because of the quality of its education but the later favorable consequences
created because of studying in that institution. Contemporary lifestyle is very much
divided in small parts. Every action is associated with what are the possible outcomes?
Will those outcomes be favorable or not? We seek pleasure in every thing that we do.
So for this contemporary society utilitarianism is valid where one can make decision in
terms of the possible consequences.

How ever it is important to mention here that this society is risk society. Things are very
unpredictable. But still since we have immensely objectified our life the most
dependable and workable ethical theory is utilitarianism. We live in a society where
sense of role obligations, rights and duties is being limited to business seminars.

Our political system also seeks what majority wants and follows act utilitarianism. If they
don’t follow majority then the will face difficult situation. Democracy relies on majority
and if majority is seeking a certain out come then leader usually peruse that in order to
create greatest amount of good possible when other wise are taken into consideration.
The same can be said about corporate world. Pleasure of majority is given preference
over pleasure of minority. In some scenarios majority is replaced by power also. The
person who has power to seek its pleasure neglects other. This is one of the dilemmas
of following self interest. If a person has power to peruse its own pleasure why would he
be worried about other person’s pain? Utilitarian reasoning obligates us to include only
the interests of every one in our calculations, not to act in a way that advances every
individual’s interest.

Our actions are dominated by the kind of pleasure they produce.ror example in our
contemporary society companies that provide quality services or products and hassle
free transactions are much sought after. Internet shopping is becoming extremely
popular because people find it much easier and hassle free .Easy is the way in today’s
society.

We are a pleasure seeking society. Most of us spend our energy seeking pleasure and avoiding
pain. We hope that by doing this, we will feel happy. Yet deep, abiding happiness and joy elude
so many people.

CONCLUSION:
We have been forced to follow such a lifestyle that is based on consequences. Our
society is hugely affected by west. We have imposed upon ourselves such system of
living which has materialized and objectified a lot of our relationships with people and
society. Every thing has a worth and every worth has a price. A contractor want to fulfill
a contract because he sees opportunity of future business and associated benefits not
because he feels obliged in fulfilling his contract. The contemporary society demands to
be treated in terms of consequences otherwise in this risk society its pretty difficult to
survive on motives and intentions.