Rule Utilitarianism Essay Example for Free

Rule Utilitarianism Essay Mills Utilitarianism brings an extended concept of Benthams philosophy and a response to Kants deontological philosophy. The basic concept of utilitarianism is to act in such a way as to create the most pleasure or the least pain. This is the guideline because, as Mill states, we desire happiness; happiness is maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. However, is utilitarianism viable? There are many arguments for it, but just as many against. First, utilitarianism allows for the good of all. Mills wrote, Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Because morality is based on the greatest pleasure the more people who benefit from an act, the more moral it is. This prevents a single person from only acting for his own benefit by requiring the consideration of his acts on others. It also allows difficult moral decisions to be made on a governmental level by considering the needs of the many. For example, it is policy in a hostage situation to refuse to give in to the captors. This is morally justified even if it endangers the lives of the hostages because the greater pain lies in encouraging future hostage situations by yielding to the captors. Another positive aspect of utilitarianism is that there is a purpose to the morality. One acts morally because it causes pleasure and happiness, or prevents as much pain as possible. In fact pleasure and freedom from pain are the only ends desirable in and of themselves. This differs from the deontological concept of philosophy, where an act is not good because it causes pleasure, but only when it is done out of duty from universal maxims. This also creates problems of motivation that are avoided by Mills Utilitarianism. According to Kant, saving a mans life for a reward or other personal gain is immoral because of the motivation, however Mill would find that this act is indeed moral because saving a life, no matter the intention, prevents the most pain and causes the most pleasure. Not only is there a purpose behind utilitarian morality, but there is also an inherent flexibility within utilitarianism. Because each act is examined for its moral worth, there is not the rigidity that is found within Kants universal maxims. With Kants deontological philosophy creates moral dilemmas when an act that would seem to be moral goes against a universal maxim. For example, a universal maxim of Do not kill would need to be broken in a situation of self-defense. While Kant provides for this with a universalization rule, utilitarianisms individual examination of each act allows morality to be more specific and adaptable. While a murder would almost always be immoral, killing in defense of self would almost always be moral. A negative to utilitarianism is that, though adding to flexibility, the individual evaluation of an act takes time. To do this mental weighing of pleasure and pain before every act, or even every major act, is not only time consuming but many times self-defeating. Situations that require an immediate action cannot wait while everyone ponders the morality of their potential actions. In fact, it could be posited that a person must ponder the morality of stopping to ponder the morality of the original action. That path leads to turtles all the way down. Mill does have a response to this however: the state of passive sensibility, and though originally an offshoot from it, may in time take root and detach itself from the parent stock; so much so, that in the case of an habitual purpose, instead of willing the thing because we desire it, we often desire it only because we will it. Or simply, habit will allow us to make decisions without always having to ponder the consequences. However as many people are not typically faced with emergency situations, they wont be able to develop a habit for the very situations that require the most immediate attention. Perhaps a more serious problem with utilitarianism is that it can be used to justify acts that society would consider unjust. A common example is slavery: if 95% of the population can be made happy when the other 5% is enslaved is slavery not the greatest good? Utilitarianism allows society to sacrifice the individual, or even the minority for the majority. If by speaking one lie, a person could save 4 lives than that lie would be a moral act; but if by killing one man, that same person could save 4 lives wouldnt utilitarianism find this too to be a moral act? Fortunately Mill has a response to the idea of removing an individuals rights for the good of the whole. . In chapter V of his essay he writes, To have a right, then, is, I conceive, to have something which society ought to defend me in the possession of. The reason for this, Mill states, is general utility. It is generally better to protect the rights of every man, because this will lead to the most happiness. However, it seems there is still a way to put society before the individual. Because the reason for protecting individual rights is general utility, if violating those rights will cause the least pain, as compared to pain for the whole society, it would be general utility to violate these rights. But perhaps it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice one for the good of all. Utilitarianism has some strong arguments both for and against. And it also has another out because there is a distinction between two different types of utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism examines each action for its moral worth, but rule utilitarianism creates general values of moral worth. Does rule utilitarianism help answer some of the negatives of utilitarianism? It definitely solves the issue of time. With rule utilitarianism a person no longer must consider his every single move. There are general guidelines that cover the everyday situations. That downside is that there cant be good guidelines for extraordinary situations, so the issue of time being required when there is the least time to spare is still present. Rule utilitarianism also protects the rights of the individual. Taking into account general utility allows a general rule to be made guarding every persons rights. This isnt to say the rule couldnt be broken, but it would require extraordinary circumstances that made the general utility violate the rule. Overall, utilitarianism is a viable option as a system of morality. http://www. utilitarianism. com/mill1. htm- online text of Mills Utilitarianism.

The Authors Sedgwick, Gould, and Otto :: Compare Contrast Comparison

Sedgwick's Hope Leslie, Gould's Dinosaur in a Haystack, and Otto's How To Make an American Quilt The authors Sedgwick, Gould, and Otto use structure in their books to get their points across. Sedgwick, author of Hope Leslie, divides her novel into two parts and chapters. Gould, author of Dinosaur in a Haystack, uses his book to present specific, autonomous essays and state his own views through literary snobbery. Otto, author of How To Make an American Quilt, divides her chapters up by first presenting instructions on how to make a quilt and then a story of one of the ladies of the quilting circle. Each book is structured by division of chapters and individual ideas of characters/essays. Although each author has specific moral ideas, each presents his/her ideas to the reader for the him to analyze for himself. Without this insight into the author's mind, one would not be able to relate to what the author writes about, even in some small way. Through this insight, each author guides the reader in how to think and feel. Sedgwick writes about feelings of love and honor. She describes in her own way what each character believes and how they will respond to changing variables. Gould writes to inform readers about his beliefs. He expresses through "logic and science" how his theories are correct. Otto writes about a quilting circle in a small town, where each individual has an existence comprised of a whole. Telling each feeling that every character has gives the reader a sense of oneness, of openness towards these characters. By writing about these thoughts and feelings, the reader is provided not only with insight into the characters but also insight about the way the author views society. By expressing their views in each book, the authors compel readers to delve deeper into one's soul, to evaluate each part of it. What each author does in his/her own unique way is point out the flaws of society he/she sees and wants to fix. Sedgwick wants the opinion that females have to marry to be reevaluated and also past events researched to discover what happened in the past (ancestry). Otto wants people to learn from past mistakes, because "life is too short to make your own." Gould wants people to be logical and scientific about everything: They [creationists] claim, above all, that evolution generates no predictions, never exposes itself to test, and therefore stands as dogma rather than disprovable science.

Dell Computers (a): Field Service for Corporate Clients [Hbs 9-603-067]

Case: Dell Computers (A): Field Service for Corporate Clients [HBS 9-603-067] 1. What are the key challenges DELL should be concerned with as it enters the large scale server market? Support service in server market is more critical than in personal computer market, especially when the server is a large scale one, since a problem in server even for a short time could cause serious problem in the customer’s business. Having realized the importance, competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM reduced their response time to enhance the quality of their support service.Dell also is extraordinarily committed to high-quality service, they proposed the response time as short as four hours. In order to accomplish their guaranteed lead time in highly volatile situation, Dell has two big challenges. (1) They should train number of technicians for a high cost. Support service for servers cannot be mainly depended on call center or service website as Dell did for personal computers. (2) T hey have to keep their inventory higher than desired in their operating philosophy where they believed there is an inverse correlation between the amount of inventory and the quality of information. . Should DELL outsource the four hour service level support or should DELL provide the service with in-house resources? Why or Why not? Dell should provide the service with in-house resource if they are to â€Å"win† in the server market because it has been successful in personal computer market with the strategy of â€Å"Dell direct model†. The computer manufacturer’s strength in personal computer market was to deliver high quality products and services tailored to meet customers’ needs.Potential corporate customers will consider purchasing Dell’s server expecting the same thing for servers. Just like Kapoor was wondering, the customers will not buy their servers, if the quality of Dell’s products and services were worse than its competitorsâ₠¬â„¢. If Dell outsources the support service, the quality of service and products will decrease for two reasons. First, they cannot keep entire control over the support service if they cannot train their own technicians.As the case says they value the experience in customer interaction resulting in high quality of their service. They cannot expect the same thing from another company who would do the service on behalf of Dell. Second, Dell has been able to improve the quality of its products by directly interacting with its clients and using the feedback from support service. If Dell loses the source of information or compromise the quality of information, the company will have difficulty to maintain its reputation in product quality.The information from the in-house support service will also help to keep its server parts inventory lean, given they can better estimate the needs of those parts with more accurate information. Of course the company could reduce training cost by outsourc ing support service. However, the price elasticity in server market is lower than in personal computer market since the potential problem that can be caused by bad support service and product is critically serious. Reliability is more important than the cost or the price they could reduce by outsourcing and compromising the quality of their service and product. . If DELL outsources the service support, then should it use IBM as a vendor to provide the service support? Why or Why not? Dell should not use IBM as a provider of the support service even if it decides to outsource the service. IBM may seem to be an attractive service provider because they are the one who can do the job the best. The company has more than 135,000 specialists in support service as well as long and extensive industry experience. However, IBM is a competitor in server market, the strongest one considering their market share.Even though IBM is willing to provide service to Dell, we cannot be sure that it will provide the same quality of service to Dell’s customers as to their customers. Furthermore, if IBM could interact with Dell’s customer frequently, there always is a chance for them to take the customers from Dell. The service provider could obtain critical information regarding Dell’s product, which could also be a cause for competitive loss for Dell. Again, Dell should not lose its opportunity to directly interact with their customer especially to their worst enemy in order to win in the market.

Comparing and Contrast Emilia and Desdemonas love for...

â€Å"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.† (Martin Luther King, Jr.) In the play Othello this quote shows relation to how love occurs among the main characters. This is highlighted though the relationship that Emilia and Desdemona have with their respective husbands. Throughout, the relationship of these characters with their spouses will be analyzed. The relationship between Emilia and her husband Iago will be expressed as well as the relationship between Desdemona and her husband Othello. Then the similarities and differences between the two relationships will be compared. Emilia and Iago had a very complex relationship. They do not have a strong and equal relationship displaying love. This is not†¦show more content†¦Emilia chose to do what is expected and marry a man of her own kind. Unlike Desdemona, who chooses to step outside of her comfort zone. As a result leaving the two with very different dynamics of a relationship. The similarities between Emilia relationship and Desdemona relationship is that they both are married to men who are involved in the army. They are both patriotic as they try to defend their nation, from anything that tries to. They both have a huge responsibility in protecting there country from war. Desdemona and Emilia both had downfalls in there relationship. The downfalls in Emilia s marriage is the way in which she allowed herself to be treated. Since the beginning of the play, she knew that she wasn t getting treated properly by her husband,nonetheless she stayed with him. Desdemona s downfall began when her husband stopped trusting her. The way he began asking her so many questions and developing that huge rage towards her,led to the fall in there relationship. For him to accuse her of infidelity was the breaking point in their relationship, while Emilia s fall started from the day she married Iago. Overall, love plays a huge role in the difference between these two dominan t relationships in the play. It plays a big contribution to the characters downfalls. Emilia searches for love from the person ,whom should be offering it to her the most. This as a result leads her to think that adultery is okay. In additionShow MoreRelatedDiction of Othello1473 Words   |  6 Pagescreates dramatic irony. The effect of this type of diction is that the reader has a clearer and comprehensive understanding of what exactly is going on. He uses imagery several times in the describing of various people as animals or in terms of comparing things. Most of the imagery pertains to Othello and his various travels or especially his jealousy. This use of imagery and diction is effective because in addition to having merely an idea of what is going on the reader can have a mental pictureRead MoreThe Creation of Tension and Suspense in Othello by William Shakespeare1677 Words   |  7 PagesOthello is a tragedy because of the deception and betrayal of Iago which causes many people to die. The play explores many different themes each trying to convey a specific message. The main themes of the play are betrayal, revenge, love, trust, honesty, racism and social hierarchy. These are only some of the themes explored in the play. White men were seen as trustworthy, respected people and arrogant, like Iago for example. Black men however, were racially abused because Read MoreRacism In Othello Essay1414 Words   |  6 Pagescan be used to justify problematic or racist worldviews. In Christianity, white can be used to symbolize anything righteous: one’s purity, virginity, or innocence. When cleansed from sin, one becomes â€Å"white as snow† (II Corinthians 5:21). In stark contrast, black is representative of darkness, suffering, and sinfulness. It is said that God is light and that when Satan fell from Heaven, he was no longer in God’s light, only existing in darkness (John 1:5). Jennings 2 It would be quite simple for oneRead More Comparing Heroes and Villains in Measure for Measure, Othello, and Hamlet2339 Words   |  10 PagesComparing Heroes and Villains in Measure for Measure, Othello, and Hamlet According to John Steinbeck, Heroes are innocent; villains are cunning. This statement likely regards the internal aspects of characters, such as intellect, reasoning/motivation, and morality/responsibility, as indicated by consistency in action and/or articulation, as in direct speech or soliloquy. An examination of the heroes and villains in Measure for Measure, Othello, and Hamlet can determine whether Steinbecks