Virtue Ethics Vs Utilitarianism

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory who main focus revolves around the idea that “the greatest good for the greatest number”. This philosophical idea has had many talks on the debate of this compared to deontology; this topic has had philosophers arguing for decades about what ethical morals one believes to be correct in their beliefs. Both arguments have justified pros and cons, depending on your perspective; you may make this topic and choose a side. I am quite fond of the idea of deontology mainly because of their arguments are more justified, in which I believe them to have great points on Aristotle’s the good life. This topic will be covered throughout this essay and how both virtue ethics and utilitarianism cover how each side perceives…show more content…
Utilitarianism believes that it is better to promote the greatest happiness of an individual, and that sounds great right? I mean who wouldn’t want to make everyone happy. The greatest happiness principle to Mill’s is correct and has an analogy between desirability and visibility, basically these mean that the only way in which something can be seen is if someone else see’s it too. This theory has many goods it in which we know that Mills believed there are some pleasures that are more fitting than others. Those intellectual pleasures are of a higher, better, sort than the ones that are merely sensual, and that we share with animals. There is an idea in Utilitarianism that is not to maximize the degree of which people get their preferences satisfied but each individual has different preferences in which it would be hard to compare one person’s preferences with those of another. Utilitarianism suggests that the most accurate decisions are the ones that would offer the greatest outcome for the most people. A great example of pain and pleasure in these decisions allows for the elimination of those that reveal the most negative ends, since this theory is mainly using the process of elimination in order to arrive at a conclusion. In a situation where someone must weigh the consequences of killing one person to save a group of others, as mentioned earlier to save their own morals by allowing the person to get murdered by someone else, to save many others, the blatant utilitarian answer tell us to kill the one person. This theory really argues on whether to commit the murder or not is right or wrong, and most of us if not all of us would say it is but utilitarianism certainly provides an ethical answer on why killing the one person would be the right thing to do. Because not only does utilitarianism consider how the outcome for their actions would come out, but it also provides

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