Deontological ethics Essay Example for Free

Deontological ethics Essay Deontological ethics is too rigid in its emphasis on duties, utilitarian ethics too keen to override basic human rights. Deontology and utilitarianism are both types of ethics referring to how one reacts in a certain situation. Deontology is based on following a set of duties and sticking to these duties no matter what the consequences whereas utilitarianism is based on choosing the best outcome over a short term and long term even if it means depriving people of basic human rights for example. However does this mean that deontological ethics is too rigid in its emphasis on duties and that utilitarian ethics is too keen to override basic human rights? According to a deontologist ones actions must be determined by a set of duties regardless of whether the long term consequences are good or bad. A deontologist believes in human morals and that every human has certain rights and these morals and rights should not be betrayed no matter what the cost for example sacrificing one life to save one hundred lives would be unacceptable to the deontologist despite the fact the consequences would be better overall. The biggest problem with deontology is knowing which set of duties to follow, there could be a great variation in systems between people from different backgrounds, different social classes, different religions and people from different cultures. For example a Protestant English Lord would have different morals and a different set of duties than a lower class Indian Hindu. It is very difficult to tell which set of duties, if any, is the right one. Deontologists suffer many problems when their duties seem to conflict with themselves or with other duties. One has a duty to save lives but what if in order to do this one must betray another duty for example a husbands sick wife needs life saving medicine but the husband cannot afford to buy it, should he steal the medicine in order to save his wives life or should he not betray his morals and allow his wife to die. This raises the question as to how do we tell which duty is the most important and which is the least? If the consequences o f each are to be considered then this would make it a consequentialist view and not a deontological one. Single duty conflicts cause just as many problems such as two people imminently need a heart transplant but only one organ is available, a deontologist has a duty to save lives but on this occasion only one out of the two can be saved. This is known as the doctrine of double effect and is said that since it is impossible to save both lives, ones duty to save lives has not been broken. Deontology does encounter many problems but also has a number of merits. Since deontologists refuse to betray human rights, every human is guaranteed these rights will not be broken. Deontology would also normally let justice prevail and this is a good quality indeed. According to Utilitarianism On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, mankind is under the governance of two sovereign masters one being pleasure and the other being pain and this in itself determines what we should do and what we actually do. By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoev er, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question. (J.S. Mills). According to utilitarian ethics the community at large is considered to be the party in question and so the interest of the community is the sum of the interests of the individual or the sum total of the communities pleasures against the sum total of its pains. A man may be said to be a utilitarian when his actions are determined by the consequences which will increase the total amount of pleasure throughout the parties involved or to reduce the total amount of pain throughout the same parties. J.S. Mills also claims that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to promote the reverse of happiness The major problem with utilitarianism is the conflict it creates with ordinary morality for example sacrificing innocent lives in order to save a greater number of people. The problem with morality in this case is obvious as no one has the right to take another human life, however the long term consequences will be better as more lives are save d. Another serious problem is the difficulty in determining the consequences of a certain action. It is impossible to predict the future with this sort of accuracy and so how do we know if one action will bring better consequences than another action. This is why determining the long term consequences is a lot more difficult than the short term consequences and is another serious problem with Jeremy Benthams utilitarian theory. Utilitarianism is based on the total amount of happiness of everyone concerned, but whose happiness counts? Every human or only those with sound body and mind? It is this problem that creates extreme difficulty in determining the total amount of happiness for those concerned. J.S. Mill claims that both mental and physical pleasure counts with intellectual activities giving the most pleasure despite his godfather, Jeremy Benthams, theory claiming the opposite. However this gives rise to another problem as it is impossible to quantify happiness and so there is no way to guarantee that one action will bring a greater amount of happiness than another action. However utilitarianism is not all bad and Benthams beliefs did have some good qualities. Since utilitarianism represents the community as a whole and not just individuals it is a very selfless way of thought as a utilitarian would consider causing himself a small amount of pain in order to give everyone a large amount of happiness as worth it. Deontological and utilitarian ethics both have a lot of problems as I have shown. Deontological duties often mean that the action with the best outcome is not selected and these duties themselves often conflict with each other causing even more problems with which action should be taken. On the other hand Utilitarianism often betrays human rights and morals in order to achieve the best consequence to such an extent that betraying these rights may not even be worth it. Also consequences are very difficult to predict and often unforeseen things can happen changing the long term outcome for the worst. So I would have to agree that Deontological ethics is too rigid in its emphasis on duties and Utilitarian ethics too keen to override basic human rights.

Othello and Heroism Essay -- Othello essays

Othello and Heroism  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello the audience finds heroism exhibited not only by the hero, the Moor, but also by other characters in the drama.    A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, defines a woman character, Desdemona, as a hero in the play from the very outset:    There is perhaps a certain excuse for our failure to rise to Shakespeare’s meaning, and to realize how extraordinary and splendid a thing it was in a gentle Venetian girl to love Othello, and to assail fortune with such a ‘downright violence and storm’ as is expected only in a hero. It is that when first we hear of her marriage we have not yet seen the Desdemona of the later Acts; and therefore we do not perceive how astonishing this love and boldness must have been in a maiden so quiet and submissive. (191)    A character’s attitude toward the most fearful foe – death itself – is unquestionably a criterion for judging a heroic type from a non-heroic type. Helen Gardner in â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune† considers Iago’s wife Emilia to be a true hero of the play because of her fearless outlook on death itself:    Emilia’s silence while her mistress lived is fully explicable in terms of her character. She shares with her husband the generalizing trick and is well used to domestic scenes. The jealous, she knows,    are not ever jealous for the cause But jealous for they are jealous.    If it was not the handkerchief it would be something else. Why disobey her husband and risk his fury? It would not do any good. This is what men are like. But Desdemona dead sweeps away all such generalities and all caution. At this sight, Emilia ... ...y large and grand, towering above his fellows, holding a volume of force which in repose ensures pre-eminence without an effort, and in commotion reminds us rather of the fury of the elements than of the tumult of common human passion. (168)    WORKS CITED    Bradley, A. C.. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991.    Gardner, Helen. â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from â€Å"The Noble Moor.† British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.    Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1957.                  

Ethical Challenges in the Media Essay

What are some of the ethical challenges surrounding the movie and music industries as they relate to the Internet? The current conflict between the recording industry and a portion of its customers who are involved in illicit copying of music files arose from innovations involving the compression and electronic distribution of files over the internet. Some of the ethical challenges associated with responses that threaten further innovation, ultimately reduce the chances of finding solutions that hold appeal for all parties. Today’s world of the online web has provided new opportunities for both the creators and the consumers of media such as music. The digital aspect of the web allows for wonderful innovations such as MP3 players but ethical personal use must be employed to avoid legal punishment. How has education affected your views about the practice of downloading or copying multimedia content in these fields? When you download music without paying for it or share it with others without their paying for it, the musicians don’t get paid for their hard work. Recording companies and their professional associations consider this stealing. The RIAA, the professional organization which represents the recording companies, (Recording Industry Association of America), has reacted with copyright infringement legal actions against schools and college students. These notices are very serious and deal with potential copyright infringement. School use or personal use copying should be limited to a respectful, ethical Fair Use of media content. Charles I agree with your post, â€Å"You never know what someone has included or sent along with a song, file, or picture. However, the music industry is now going through vast changes due to the new digital world. Now there are more legal ways for music customers to purchase their music online with services such as iTunes, Rhapsody, amazon. com, etc. There are even some legitimate free music download examples. For example, some unknown bands may provide free previews online. While other more popular bands or singers may post a sample tune for fans to hear for free. Most media exist first as businesses to make money to pay their employees’ salaries to make a living. Many of these media workers only earn a modest living wage. They are not all famous and rich! WK1 DQ2 What collaboration tools have you used in your work environment or personal life? One collaboration tool that I have used in my work is the use of a network folder on a shared drive. All documents can be stored in a central location. By using collaboration software, according to taskmanagementsoft. com, multiple team members can work on the same document at the same time. Changes made to the document can be tracked using collaboration software. This keeps everyone on the team accountable for the changes made. By having all the documents in the same place, team members in different time zones or countries can work on files and leave notes for others who work on the document next. How have these information systems benefited you? Our company benefits from information because our company have to pay for video conferencing equipment or travel expenses, when everyone on the team can be on the phone and review the documents at the same time. Using the collaboration software to save documents allows the company to save money on shipping and faxing expenses. Copies requiring approval by multiple individuals no longer have to be faxed or emailed; instead, each authorizing individual can review the document in the collaboration software and sign off on it using the software. WK1 DQ3 How does University of Phoenix work to combat plagiarism? The University of Phoenix work to combat plagiarism by requiring that both campus and online students to submit all of their written assignments electronically, instructing faculty to run the papers through an automatic plagiarism checker available online at the university’s Center for Writing Excellence. Student papers are archived to facilitate crosschecking. The plagiarism checker is not simply a punitive tool, but is also instructive, as students can run their papers through it before submission and learn whether they have borrowed too heavily from the literature or used proper citation. What other steps do you think could be implemented to deal with this problem? Another step that can be implemented to deal with this problem would be for students to seek proper plagiarism tutorial class to assist student with documenting citations correctly.

1984 And The Truman Show Essay - 873 Words

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;A utopia is a seemingly perfect world, with happiness, honesty, equality, and peace. Although in the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, and the film The Truman Show, directed by Peter Wier, the readers and viewers are presented with a negative utopian society. A negative utopian society is a perfect world that somewhere has gone wrong. The controllers in the novel and film succeeded in achieving complete control and power, which was their attempt to make the ideal society. Each controller has a different threat, in 1984 it is association while in the film, The Truman Show, it is separation from the outside world. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In George Orwell’s 1984, the ruling body, known as the Inner†¦show more content†¦At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom...The most deadly danger of all was talking in your sleep. There was no way of guarding against that.quot; (Orwell, 56) Winston is always on the search for someone to share his thoughts and hatred of the quot;Inner Party.quot; The government is afraid that if the people got together they would realize that their power is not strong. Their power is fear of the people and the government shows fear to obtain power. OBrien, an Inner Party member asks Winston, quot;how does one man assert his power over another?...By making him suffer...Progress in our world will progress toward more pain.quot; (Orwell 220) Winston gives into the power of the government in the end, and becomes another afraid citizen of the controlled world. He starts working for the government and becomes ign orant as the other citizens. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In Peter Weirs film, The Truman Show, the ruling body directed by Christof, gains complete control over Trumans life since birth. 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