Ethics Vs. Kantian Ethics - 1249 Words

Throughout history different philosophical ideas and concepts developed in search for answers to universal questions. Beyond answers, philosophers explored schools of thought that would best govern human decision making. Two prominent ethical theories that arose were utilitarianism and deontological ethics. Both ethical theories developed to establish and justify a set of different moral rules and principles. Utilitarianism, otherwise known as consequentialism, is an ethical theory that sees the best moral decision is one that maximizes utility, which implies that no moral decision is intrinsically right or wrong. Deontological ethics or Kantian ethics is a normative ethical theory that judges the morality of a decision is based on a†¦show more content†¦Utilitarianism is a moral theory developed and expanded upon by philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. According to John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism is the â€Å"creed which accepts as the foundations of morals, utility, or the greatest-happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.† (Mill, Utilitarianism) As mentioned above, the main tenet of utilitarianism is based upon the notion that no moral decision is intrinsically right or wrong. Rather, whether a decision is right or wrong is dependent on overall utility produced as a result of making a decision. Utility produced can be defined as health, pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, and/or happiness. Some strengths of utilitarianism is as follows. One, the ethical theory is based on the straightforward principle of minimizing pain and suffering and maximizing pleasure and happiness. Utilitarianism is attractive to the individual and society, because it seeks decisionmaking that contributes to a happy life. Two, utilitarianism is egalitarian and it allows all individuals the power to make their own decisions. Third, in utilitarian ism value extends beyond humans and includes other species. Utilitarianism also contains a number of weaknesses. One, utilitarianism de-prioritizes the right of the individual. In the pure pursuit of pleasure, utilitarianism will exploit individuals and