Week 2 Journal (Created 18 Mar 2023, 13:28 Modified 18 Mar 2023, 13:33)

UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism is defined as consequentialist theory founded on the idea that a decision or
action is morally acceptable if it results in the greatest amount of happiness for the largest
number of individuals impacted (Tavani, 2015) .
Utilitarianism can be easily understand on the question , “Can the ends justify the
means?” (Cressman et al., 2019). I am going to share one example based on my personal
experience that made utilitarianism based on this question very clear. There was a man,
named Pankaj, in my neighbour in India who was unemployed at the time of covid. His
family completely depended on him. His wife was unwell and needed money for treatment
and their children were expelled from school as they were unable to pay their fees. Pankaj
had a friend who was very rich but he also refused to help Pankaj. Now there were just two
options for Pankaj either he pays by stealing or does not. He stole money from his rich friend
and saved his wife and children.
Stealing violates moral principles. As a result, we will declare that stealing is immoral.
Nonetheless, utilitarianism will claim that Pankaj’s actions are ethically correct. Stealing
itself is neither good nor bad, according to utilitarians; rather, it is determined by the effects it
has on society. In our scenario, Pankaj stole money(means) from one person who needed it
less and spent it on three individuals who needed it more(ends). The morality of Pankaj's theft
rests on the fact that it resulted in more benefits than harm. His actions gave more happiness
to greatest number of people.
Act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism are the two categories of utilitarianism.

Two consequentialist theories in normative ethics, act utilitarianism and rule

utilitarianism, emphasise increasing happiness or pleasure while minimising pain or
suffering. Act utilitarianism holds that the ability of a course of action to maximise
overall pleasure in a given circumstance determines whether it is ethical or wrong. Rule
utilitarianism, on the other hand, places a strong emphasis on adhering to broad
guidelines or precepts that would maximise everyone's happiness.

References: - Cressman, C., Brown, A., & Abumere, F. A. (2019, December 9).
Utilitarianism. Introduction to Philosophy Ethics. Retrieved from

https://press.rebus.community/intro-to-phil-ethics/chapter/utilitarianism/

Tavani, H. (2015). Ethics and technology: Controversies, questions and strategies for ethical
computing (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

M, E. (2011, July 28). Difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism.
Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. Retrieved from
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-act-utilitarianism-
and-rule-utilitarianism/

Mill, J