Kantianism and Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kantianism and Utilitarianism - Essay Example On the other hand, Kant postulated his theory, Kantianism that offers ethical guidelines that help people in making ethical decisions. This paper will focus on evaluating a euthanasia case of Brophy, using utilitarianism and Kantianism. Brophy is a patient in persistent vegetative state, whose wife expressed the intent of carrying out passive euthanasia. Using the views from the two philosophers, this paper will examine whether euthanasia is an ethically right choice. Kantianism Immanuel Kant described a deontological ethical philosophy titled as ‘Kantianism’. He made it evident that in his view, duty, good will, and moral worth were critical aspects in determining of the action taken. He opined that duty was the only reason that should motivate an ethical action (Abel 24). According to him, human beings are moral agents that should use reasoning while making ethical decisions. In his view, one could only settle on morally worth decisions when guided by goodwill and duty . Kant embarked on defining the universal laws that determine the duty of making morally worthy decisions. He formulated two different versions of the categorical imperative. The first version was the universal law that defined that humans must act in a manner that qualifies categorization as universal. The second version of the categorical imperative highlighted that it was critical for humans to consider humanity as the end and refrain from regarding it as merely a means (58). Kant describes certain maxims that were critical as guidelines for making ethical decisions. These principles were the product and reason and were namely duty, goodwill, and categorical imperative. Therefore, the will determining why an individual carries out a certain action cannot receive underestimation in deontology. He advanced his views to highlight that the only way in which an individual could exhibit good will was through taking action out of duty. In Kant’s definition, good will denotes the ability of human beings in taking decisions based on principles. Acting in fulfillment of duty refers to actions motivated by good will and not feelings, emotions or self-interest. Duty and good will are moral principles that complement each other. Kant also highlighted that actions motivated by duty exhibited moral worth. He placed emphasis on the need for actions to depict a sense of moral worth (49). Moreover, Kant explained the value of dignity towards human beings. He emphasized that it is critical for people to act in ways that exhibit the dignity for others. Utilitarianism This moral theory is the work of philosopher Mill. The central principle of the ethical view is that actions taken should produce happiness and pleasure to a large number of people (59). The moral theory emphasizes the value of making considerations of the potential consequences of actions. Mill opined that an ethical decision is one that translated to a measure of happiness and pleasure to people. If more people found pleasure and happiness in the decision, then he considered the specific action more ethical. According to this moral theory, decisions should have a basis on the benefits they can offer to the society (68). His philosophy encourages the compromise of individual interest while focusing on promoting a higher sense of ‘common good’ in the society. The central principle of this moral theory is the ‘greatest happiness principle’. This principle implies that judgment of actions occurs according to the measure and proportion that they cause happiness or its reverse state (84). Mill opined that highly ethical actions cause a high level of happiness

Crime and Law enforcement (Do the UK police discriminate against Essay

Crime and Law enforcement (Do the UK police discriminate against ethnic minority groups) - Essay Example belonging in ethnic minority groups would not be regarded as acceptable especially in countries, like the United Kingdom, where the protection of equality among all the people in the country is one of the governmental priorities. In order to understand and evaluate the behaviour of British police towards the ethnic minority groups, it would be necessary to refer primarily to the general context of these groups within the national territory (percentage of population, main activities and involvement in criminal actions and so on). The existing legislation related with these groups should be also mentioned ensuring that the principle of equality is applied on all the aspects of life of people with the particular origin. It should be noticed that a major problem regarding the evaluation of the British police practices towards the people of ethnic minority groups is the fact that no recent data are available in relation with the presence of these people in the British population. Probably because a long process is required for the retrieval of the relevant info, the last available data on the percentages of ethnic minority groups in various aspects of British life refer to 2004. A series of photos people of ethnic/ minority groups in Britain is presented in the Appendix section (Figures 2-4). The presence of ethnic minority groups can be characterized as limited. In fact, in accordance with the most recent evaluation of the origin of people living in UK (in 2001) it was estimated that ‘92.1 per cent of the UK population described themselves as white (though not necessarily British); the remaining 7 per cent  (4.6 million) belonged to non-white ethnic minority groups’ (ESRC, 2007, online report). However, in the years that followed it would be normally expected that this percentage has been differentiated – the percentage of ethnic minority groups in UK is expected to having been increased. In the percentage mentioned above the level of Asian people is rather