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Example research essay topic: Morally Justified Greatest Happiness - 1,084 words

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... virtue of being a person the doctor had rights, dignity, and intrinsic moral worth, as well as value. Hence, killing the doctor would be the wrong thing to do and through Kant that action is not morally justified, since the moral law demands that we treat others as ends in themselves, and never as mere means to other ends. In other words, you should always treat other rational beings (persons) as having absolute moral worth, or as the ultimate ends of action. This I will call the principle of autonomy of the will in contrast to all other principles which I accordingly count under heteronomy (P. 33). The moral will is the only truly autonomous will.

Only by following the absolute dictates of reason (which is the source of will) do we arrive at the moral law, since will is a kind of reason, following the dictates of reason means following the dictates of will itself. Because we are subject only to the laws of our reason, he says, we are autonomous beings. And our autonomy gives us dignity and worth beyond all price. Due to our priceless dignity and worth, all persons are worthy of respect. An immoral will would not be autonomous since it would violate itself, the law it gives to itself. The immoral will is heteronomous.

If you pursue ends that are not the ultimate ends (the absolute dignity of persons), your actions are ruled by something other than the true (rational) form of will. You might be ruled by passion, by desire, by the wish for happiness, etc. , but whatever it is, it is not self-rule by reason. Therefore, Paul cannot kill the doctor, because in doing so, he will be violating the inherent worth and dignity of persons. A rational being belongs to the realm of ends as a member when he gives universal laws in it while also himself subject to these laws (P. 33) By this, I believe he means that Paul Hill cannot kill the doctor, because that will make him a hypocrite.

He is strongly against abortion, which is the killing of the fetus who is a person from the moment of conception. Therefore, it is wrong for him to kill the doctor, because in doing so, he will be going against his own belief of taking life. Unlike Kant, John Stuart Mill believed in an ethical theory known as utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is another theory in which the main objective is to explain the nature of ethics and morality. There are many formulations to this theory. Utilitarianism is based upon utility, or doing what produces the greatest happiness.

It states that the actions of a person should be based upon the greatest happiness principle. This principle states that ethical actions command the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Mills main point is that one should guide his or her judgments by what will give more pleasure. He believes that a person should always seek to gain pleasure and reject pain. So, the formulation is that the morality of an act can be held upright if the consequence produces the greatest overall utility for everyone who may be directly or indirectly affected by the action. Utilitarianism focuses on the consequences of an act rather than on the intrinsic nature of the act or the motives of the agent.

So Hills killing of the doctor is morally justified based on it bringing Hill pleasure and eliminating the pain he inflicted on the fetuses. Mill states that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others and that it would be absurd that while in estimating all other things, quality is considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone. Therefore, if Paul kills the doctor, he only took away two lives (quantity), which is less than those that would have been lost if the doctor would have continued performing abortions (quantity). However, Mill states that doing as you would be done by and lov (ing) your neighbor as yourself constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.

He also says that the thoughts of the most virtuous man need not on these occasions travel beyond the particular persons concerned, except so far as is necessary to assure himself that he is not violating the rights, this is the legitimate and authorized expectations, of anyone else. Both of these statements do not justify Hills actions because he should have loved the doctor and he should not have violated the doctors rights. Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism both attempt to explain how one can go about acting ethically, however they differ in how they measure morality and in the use of rules. Kantianism says that an act is deemed moral if it is done for the sake of duty and if its maxim can be willed as a universal law. Kantianism can therefore be seen as a rational and logical theory in which decisions can be made.

Utilitarianism, on the other hand, would only see the act as morally permissible if the consequences of that action produce maximum utility and happiness for all involved. Utilitarianism has no universal set of rules on to which morality is based. In assessing the two moral theories, I believe that Kantianism provides a more plausible account of ethics. Kantianism is more consistent of a theory and can be universally applied to all beings. It is more plausible because even if the consequences of performing an action are not necessarily the best, the agent is still obligated to perform the action because it is there duty to do so. Therefore, ethically and morally they are doing the right thing.

In conclusion, this paper has discussed two main theories regarding the ethical behavior of human beings. Kantianism is a theory based on duties, maxims, willing and the categorical imperative. Also, it focuses on the motivation of actions, has clear and distinct set of universal rules, and is morally logical. On the other hand, Utilitarianism is based on the concept that we ought to do whatever produces the greatest overall utility and this will be the morally right action. Furthermore, it relies on the consequences of an action, has no set universal laws as each action is assessed on an individual basis, and morality is based on the results of the assessment. Because of these reasons, I believe that Kantianism is the more ethically plausible theory of the two.


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Research essay sample on Morally Justified Greatest Happiness

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