Ethics and Utilitarianism Essay

What is Utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is an honourable framework for effective moral operation. Its a philosophical concept that holds an action to be held castigate if it tends to crowd happiness for the great number of battalion. The essence of utilitarianism is in its concept of pleasure and inconvenience. It defines the morall(a)y flop actions as those actions that maximize pleasure or happiness and minimize pain or evil. Utilitarianism is all about making the right choices that will wherefore promote the greatest amount of happiness.It can be traced all the guidance back to the superannuated Greek philosopher Epicurus, but the name most oft associated with utilitarianism is that of Jeremy Bentham. According to utilitarianism, we should evaluate an action by looking at is consequences, slowness the good effects against the bad effects on all the peck affected by it. If the good outweighs the bad, it tends to be a good action if the bad outweigh the good, it tends t o be a bad action.(DeGeorge 45) Ethical principles and theories ar the foundations of ethical analysis because bring significant characteristics to the decision-making process. Every single surmise shows different points such as predicting the outcome and following atomic number 53s duties to others in order to reach an ethical decision. but an ethical possible action can only to be useful if the theory is directed towards a common set of goals. Ethical principles are the common goals that each theory tries to achieve in order to be successful.These goals include beneficence, least harm, heed for autonomy and justice. Using utilitarianism in ethical employment organisation practice would strike the good and bad consequence for everyone the action would affect, treat everybody as having tinge rights, with no bias towards self, and would use it as an objective, quantitative way to arouse a moral decision. Utilitarianism should be employed in all business decision-making pr ocess to maximize effects and minimize negative outcomes. bloodes seek to bind a profit.The cost-benefit analysis is a form of utility calculation. Most business often use cost-benefit as a decision making tool. Companies get to find out how much something is going to cost them before victorious any actions that should result in consequences favorable to everyone involved. Just simply put, the gild could move over a profit while the consumer benefit from the product. To understand the definitions and concepts of the theory, in relation to business ethics, I will use the get across Pinto vitrine as an example.The Ford Pinto was sold with dangerous purpose faults in the give the axe tank in which management knew the problem existed. (bizcovering) In a hand over, the fuel valve had a tendency to leak fuel. That did not stop design and production, they rushed to assemble the vehicle and costs were kept low in order to sell the auto for $2,000. It was successful, until one year four people died and one little boy horribly burned and disfigured. Then on that point were many other incidents that resulted in Ford existence sued and had to pay millions in compensation.The cost-benefit analysis demonstrated an abuse of utilitarian principles to suit their needs, because the engineers were aware of the flaws, to date the company continued to sell the car without safety modifications. Utilitarianism, far from being a self-serving approach to moral issues, demands careful, objective, and impartial evaluation of consequences. This philosophy is based on the belief that the moral and ethical value of ones action should be judged by the consequence of such action.But utilitarianism states that the morality of an action is best judged by the utility or returns of such an action. During the 1980s, Oliver North had to explain why he lied to congressional committees about his role in the Iran-Contra affair, the sale of U. S. arms to Iran for the release of hostages that were held by Iran, he replied, Lying does not come easily to me. But we all had to weigh in the balance the difference between lies and lives. Norths conduct was an example of utilitarianism, his method of justifying his acts of deception is a form of moral reasoning.So long as a course of action produces supreme benefits for everyone, utilitarianism does not care whether the benefits are produced by lies, manipulation, or coercion. Utilitarianism was once a radical philosophy. It attempted to set forth a moral system apart from divine revelation and biblical morality. Utilitarianism rivet on results kinda than encounters. But now has been embraced by so many simply because it seems to make a good deal of sense and seems relatively simple to apply. It provided for a way for people to live moral lives apart from the Bible and its rules.logical system rather than obedience to biblical principles guides the ethical decision-making of utilitarianism. While Jeremy Bentham deve loped his ethical system around the idea of pleasure and built it on ancient hedonism which pursued physical pleasure and avoided physical pain John Stuart lounge modified this philosophy and developed it apart from Benthams hedonistic foundation. submarine sandwich used the same utilitarian calculus but instead focused on maximizing the general happiness by calculating the greatest good for the greatest number.Whereas Bentham established act utilitarianism, Mill established rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarian holds that each individual action, in all its concreteness and in all its details, is what should be to the utilitarian test. (DeGeorge 47) Rule utilitarian holds that utility applies appropriately t classes of actions rant than to given individual actions. (DeGeorge 48) According to Mill, one determines what is right by comparing the consequences of all relevant factors of diffeerent rules for a specific circumstance.In conclusion, utilitarianism is all about making the r ight choices that will consequently promote the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Work Cited DeGeorge, Richard T. Business Ethics. 7th Ed. New Jersey Prentice Hall. 2010 Applying Utilitarianism to Business Ethics The Ford Pinto Case. Annie Lundy February 6, 2009 Utilitarianism. utilitarianism. com. Henry R. West. n. d. Calculating Consequences The Utilitarian Approach to Ethics. Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez. n. d.