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Consider this moral dilemma in pairs.......

Consider this moral dilemma in pairs.

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Consider this moral dilemma in pairs.......

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  1. Consider this moral dilemma in pairs....... • A naval warship is in battle. It receives a severe hit to the engineering section and a fire breaks out. If the fire continues, the ships munitions could explode, killing the whole crew. The captain can use a fast acting extinguisher that would result in blasts of steam putting out the fire, but this will kill the men trapped in engineering . • What should he do?

  2. Utilitarianism • Learning Objectives • To understand the role of ethical theories in moral decision making. • To explain and understand the key ideas of Utilitarianism.

  3. For the Greater Good • Utilitarianism is an ethical theory behind the justification ‘for the greater good’ • Theory focuses on the ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number’

  4. Teleological Theory • Teleological comes from the Greek word Telos meaning end. • The theory looks at the consequences , the results of an action, to decide whether it’s right or wrong. • For a Teleological thinker, the end justifies the means.

  5. Consequentialist • Utilitarianism focuses on the results of an action, this makes it a consequentialist theory as it focuses on the consequences of an action. • Utilitarianism is thus the opposite of a deontological ethical theories which concentrate on moral rules that cannot be broken.

  6. Jeremy Bentham • Was a child prodigy and received his degree at 15 years old. • Concerned with social conditions of his time and was a political philosopher and a political radical. • Advocating that whatever is done is society should be judged on right or wrong according to how it benefits it’s citizens. • He maintained that putting this principle into practice would provide justification for social, political, and legal institutions. • He was a Hedonist. • Hedonism is a term used to describe an attitude that makes happiness the goal of life.

  7. Principle of Utility • Utility here means the usefulness of the results of actions • The Principle of utility is often described as ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ • Good is defined in terms of pleasure and happiness and so an act is right or wrong according to the good or bad that results from the act, and the good act is the most pleasurable. • Since it focuses on the greatest number, Bentham’s theory is Quantitative.

  8. Back to the moral dilemma....... • A naval warship is in battle. It receives a severe hit to the engineering section and a fire breaks out. If the fire continues, the ships munitions could explode, killing the whole crew. The captain can use a fast acting extinguisher that would result in blasts of steam putting out the fire, but this will kill the men trapped in engineering . • What should he do?

  9. The Dark Knight • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4GAQtGtd_0

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