To complete this essay the following areas need to be looked at: - 1) What is utilitarianism 2) The advantages of utilitarianism 3) The disadvantages of utilitarianism 4) How utilitariani

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Introduction

To complete this essay the following areas need to be looked at: -

  1. What is utilitarianism
  2. The advantages of utilitarianism
  3. The disadvantages of utilitarianism
  4. How utilitarianism relates to business

Utilitarianism is concerned with providing the greatest good to the greatest number. In this context Utilitarianism states that good is measured in terms of happiness. Utilitarians are concerned with looking at the consequences of actions rather than the actual act itself. It states that you should not worry about the act at all so long as the end result is happiness for the most amount of people then that action is good. You must maximise the benefit and minimise the costs.

In terms of business the "Socially" responsible course for a business to take is the one that will produce the greatest net benefits socially or impose the lowest net costs. Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) one of the most famous Utilitarianists and considered by many to be the founder of Utilitarianism believed you could determine which action was "good" by comparing the beneficial and harmful consequences of each. The right course of action from an ethical point of view would be to choose the policy that would produce the greatest amount of Utility -that is the greatest amount of good in terms of happiness. Velasquez summarised the utilitarian principle holds that ‘An action is right from an ethical point of view if and only if the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total of utilities produced by any other act the person could have performed in its place.’(Velasquez, 2001). Jeremy Bentham said ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.’ (Bentham, 1781-5).

In other words he is saying that any action you take is the good and right action so longs as no other action with result in a consequence with a larger amount of happiness.

Utilitarianism believes that you can measure amounts of pleasure and pain. It believes you can therefore measure and add the quantities of benefits produced by an action and take away the measured quantities of harm the action will have, and thereby determine which action produces the greatest total benefits or the lowest total costs. Put simply its saying that amounts of pleasure and pain can be given a numerical value and added or subtracted to get a final result. The right action is not the one that produces the most Utility for the person performing the action, but the one that produces the most Utility for all persons affected by the action (including the person performing the action). Problems with this are how happiness and utility are measured. If a mass murderer is put to death for a crime, is it right because the most people get utility from the punishment?  

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Utilitarians believe that as well as looking at the immediate consequences of a action you must also try to look at all foreseeable future cost and benefits and any indirect effects. Therefore Utilitarians when deciding what is the right action they must do 3 things: -
1.Determine what alternative actions or policies are available to them at the time
2.For each alternative action estimate the direct and indirect benefits and costs that the action would produce for each and every person affected by the action for the foreseeable future.
3.The alternative that produces the greatest sum total of Utility must be chosen as ...

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