Philosophy
Uploaded by nhutvo on Mar 22, 2002
An act utilitarian would go about determining their course of action by taking into account many factors. One factor that would be looked at is the society’s happiness, not just one’s own. The right action that is going to and should in fact be taken is not just any action, but one that will create the most happiness for the greatest number of people. This is one’s moral obligation as a person following strict utilitarianism. There are many things that force a person to act a certain way, such as law, customs, and beliefs. These binding social constraints hold one to act in a certain way to gain society’s approval. It is without question that there are moral feelings in all of us. These are also factored into the decisions that one makes. To decide a route to follow in a moral question, we all have the core feelings of sensitivity and compassion. These feelings make us look at any situation with these senses and may sometimes guide our decision. It has been shown that humans as a whole race desire happiness and things that will bring us happiness. As a pure act utilitarian one may justify his or her actions by feeling that no other act that could have been performed would have produced more pleasure for the whole society. The decision is not based on any of society’s rules, but solely on the pleasure principle, which state again that whatever action will produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people will be the correct action.
In determining the right course for this problem stated, there are many specific factors that need to be analyzed. Morality is the concept of what is a good action. In this paper, I will give my opinion of who is correct and tell why I think they are correct.
In the monster truck case, a truck driver is out of control. You see if the truck driver turns right, he/she will kill 12-20 people. If he/she turns left, he/she will kill 4-8 people or he/she drive straight off of a cliff, killing him or herself. You have no chance to run or yell at them to get out of your road. What do you do? I believe the truck driver should drive straight because he/she beliefs that the morally right thing to do is always the action that creates the most...