Utilitarianism: Distributive Justice

Words: 589
Pages: 3
Open Document
Political utilitarianism seems rewarding at face value. After all, its main goal is to utilize the government to promote felicity and benefit the people. However, it is not as encouraging in terms of distributive justice. While the employment of utilitarianism as a tool to analyze the State’s decisions can provide justice to many people, ultimately it disregards the benefit of individual people and can lead to distribution that is both unjust and imbalanced.
Based on its core philosophy, utilitarianism seems promising in its ability to ensure justice is administered to the most people. The State’s role, according to the ideology, is to promote the utility of the people by passing laws that lead to the best consequence for the maximum population. …show more content…
From a utilitarian standpoint, a series of inhumane and unjust actions can be taken as long as the result of the actions lead to the most gain. Is it truly justified to potentially harm a small group of people in the interest of a certain advantage for the many? Would that not be a violation of the rights of the members of the smaller group? Additionally, the benefits may not be distributed equally or even reasonably amongst a population, for the utilitarian philosophy only regards the total benefit, not whether a certain group earns a disproportionate amount compared to all the others. As a result of this, under the utilitarian views, some people can enjoy significant gains after a certain legislation is passed while the rest only receive an inappreciable benefit, so long as it represents the maximum advantage. Evidently, there are considerable flaws with political utilitarianism that make it unnecessary and potentially dangerous for the State to …show more content…
Where the utilitarian standard would favor the maximum total utility, the “difference principle,” as it is titled, would favor the most benefit for all groups of people, most importantly the disadvantaged. In this way, everyone has the ability to gain significantly from the actions of the State in a balanced manner. John Rawls’ political philosophy provides a healthy role for the State, especially in distributive justice. It ensures that everyone is entitled to justice and basic freedoms, regardless of their social status, race, age, or gender, and calls for equal opportunity, including for government office. The Basic Structure, which includes the State as well as major institutions and factors that shape society, can function only under the condition that the State is fair to all people and upholds the two principles of justice. Therefore, the means required to achieve a certain end will all have to be justified, as John Rawls’ theory is not a type of consequentialism. The government has the ability to benefit everyone and protect their entitlements to justice in John Rawls’ conception of the basic structure, which, unlike the utilitarian system, provides the maximum benefit and ensures justice for
Show More

Related Documents: Utilitarianism: Distributive Justice

Essay business ethics

Shaw and Barry distinguish two different forms of utilitarianism. What are these two forms? Briefly describe each. The first form of utilitarianism was a view by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. They viewed utilitarianism as that a person’s actions are right if they create the most pleasure, and wrong if they do not. Both men believed that pleasure and happiness were equal and considered it the ultimate value. They thought of utilitarianism as self-interest. An understanding of this is that…

Words 953 - Pages 4

Essay on 7 Philosophies

Research Paper | | Terence A. Betts | 3/27/2011 | Instructor: Kimber Cramer Davenport University | The textbook breaks down seven philosophies used in business decisions; they are Teleology, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Deontology, Relativist, Virtue ethics, and Justice. In this paper I will define each of the seven listed and compare and contrast so that it is clear to decipher each one from the other. Also I will provide an example of each philosophy to help provide further clarity…

Words 1452 - Pages 6

Business Ethics-Written Assignment for Module 2 Essay

Ethics Written Assignment for Module 2 1. Shaw and Barry distinguish two different forms of utilitarianism. What are these two forms. Briefly describe each and use examples. Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism are the two different forms of utilitarianism that Shaw and Barry distinguish. Utilitarianism refers to the greatest happiness principle for the most amounts of people. Act utilitarianism “states that we must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in a particular situation…

Words 1541 - Pages 7

Essay on defining justice

People commit it to fulfill their needs, to fit in and etc. Law: The law is a skeleton or framework for justice. It is only one institution in the study of justice. Justice study is interdisciplinary including: the study of law, philosophy, social studies (e.g. psychology, sociology, history), political science, criminology. 2 common rules apply to considering the issues and topics of justice : 1. Putting our own ethnocentrism aside 2. We must recognize the perspectives of the marginalized, poor…

Words 755 - Pages 4

Notes On Business Ethics

approach – pre-existing standards or rules -> legal/ not legal? -> social standards (societal disapproved) -> professional standards -> organizational standards 3. Principled approach – identifying “summon bonum” III. Utilitarianism – based on utility or usefulness A. Decision rule – act to produce the greatest aggregate good (sum of all harms and benefits) N (# of people affected x AMT x Probability will be affected 1 -$50,000 .99 20,000 +100 .75…

Words 4576 - Pages 19

Are inequalities ever just? Essay

Are inequalities ever just ? Considering this issue requires considering two essentially contrasted concepts which are equality and justice. In a great part of the world, it is taken for granted that all individuals are of equal moral worth, no matter their gender or ethnicity. All individuals therefore are treated equally by the law and should be granted equal fundamental rights, such as liberty of expression or the right to vote. However, there are great (and increasing) inequalities in terms…

Words 2320 - Pages 10

midterm study guide Essay

but members of the society should agree upon these standards. Stage 6 - Universal Principles - People follow these internalized principles of justice, even if they conflict with laws and rules. Five Ethical Frames of Reference presented to-date: Utilitarianism, Individual Rights, Distributive Justice, Virtue Ethics, The Duties of Care - Utilitarianism is the moral doctrine that we should always act to produce the greatest good for the greatest number, and that our action should produce the greatest…

Words 1354 - Pages 6

Module 3 Questions Essay

more widely needed. A drug that can be useful should ethically be available to a society regardless of the profits they could make with more widely needed drugs. Utilitarianism can apply to this because in rule utilitarianism actions are right if they produce maximum happiness and wrong if they do not. The actions of rule utilitarianism are not individualized, rather held to a moral code or rules set that will produce maximum happiness (Shaw & Barry, 2013, p.77). The moral code and guidelines would…

Words 1304 - Pages 6

Health Care Essay

morally good decisions based on values and beliefs about life, suffering, health and death. My thesis statement is healthcare is a right to every resident of the country. Access to healthcare depends on the principle of justice (equitable distribution of resources and fairness). Justice in healthcare includes allocation which is the process for determining which resources would be distributed for healthcare for individuals and within populations. There are three levels of healthcare allocation. Social…

Words 2167 - Pages 9

Employee Motivation Is Critical to the Success of an Organization. Discuss How Managers Motivate Their Employees by Using the Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Illustrate Your Answer with Academic Literature Review and Examples. Essay

Introduction The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. For doing this managers should be able to motivate the employees. One of the most important yet difficult responsibilities of a leader in any organisation is motivating staff (Staren, 2009, pp.74-77). Well motivated employees can lead to the result of higher productivity; higher performance and it can also help to improve the work quality and profits across all the departments. There are many theorists have…

Words 3031 - Pages 13