Ethics and Utilitarianism Essay

What is Utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is an ethical framework for effective moral natural action. Its a philosophical concept that holds an action to be held right if it tends to promote gaiety for the greatest number of people. The essence of utilitarianism is in its concept of joyfulness and infliction. It defines the morally right actions as those actions that maximize pleasure or happiness and minimize pain or evil. Utilitarianism is all about making the right choices that entrust consequently promote the greatest amount of happiness.It can be traced all the way concealment to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, but the name most frequently associated with utilitarianism is that of Jeremy Bentham. According to utilitarianism, we should evaluate an action by looking at is consequences, weighing the good set up against the bad effects on all the people affected by it. If the good outweighs the bad, it tends to be a good action if the bad outweigh the good, it tends to b e a bad action.(DeGeorge 45) Ethical principles and theories are the foundations of ethical analysis beca drug abuse bring significant characteristics to the decision-making lick. Every single speculation shows different points such as predicting the number and fol lowing ones duties to others in order to reach an ethical decision. But an ethical theory 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(prenominal) harm, respect for autonomy and justice. Using utilitarianism in ethical business practice would consider 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 make a moral decision. Utilitarianism should be employed in all business decision-making process to maximize effe cts and minimize negative outcomes. Businesses seek to make a profit.The cost-benefit analysis is a form of receipts calculation. Most business often use cost-benefit as a decision making tool. Companies attempt to find out how much something is going to cost them before taking any actions that should result in consequences favorable to everyone involved. Just simply put, the gild could make 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 Ford Pinto Case as an example.The Ford Pinto was sold with dangerous design faults in the fuel tank in which management knew the problem existed. (bizcovering) In a roll 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 bur ned and disfigured. Then at that place were many other incidents that resulted in Ford being 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, yet 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 high hat judged by the utility or usefulness 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 change of U. S. arms to Iran for the release of hostages that were held by Iran, he replied, Lying does no t come easily to me. But we all had to weigh in the balance the difference surrounded by 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 maximum 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 transcription apart from divine revelation and biblical morality. Utilitarianism focused on results rather than rules. 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.Logic rather than devotion to biblical principles guides the ethical decision-making of utilitarianism. While Jeremy Bentham developed his ethical system around the idea of pleasur e 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. Mill used the same utilitarian tophus 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 right choices that will consequently promote the greatest amount of ha ppiness for the greatest number of people. Work Cited DeGeorge, Richard T. Business Ethics. seventh 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.