When faced with a moral dilemma, utilitarianism identifies the appropriate considerations, but offers no realistic way to gather the necessary information to make the required calculations. This lack of information is a problem both in evaluating the welfare issues and in evaluating the consequentiality issues which utilitarianism requires be weighed when making moral decisions. Utilitarianism attempts to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to experience; however, no method of reconciling an individual decision with the rules of experience is suggested, and no relative weights are assigned to the various considerations. In deciding whether or not to torture a terrorist who has planted a bomb in New York City, a utilitarian must evaluate both the overall welfare of the people involved or affected by the action taken, and the consequences of the action taken. To calculate the welfare of the people involved in or affected by an action, utilitarianism requires that all......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1325
Approximate Pages: 6 (260 words per double-spaced page) |