Essay on Utilitarian Ethics

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Week 3 Quiz Tipes

1. Read the question carefully and make sure to answer what is asked. For example, if you are asked about information technology, discuss it not abortion.
2. Answer all parts of the question. It may help to copy the question into a word document and break up into its individual parts.
3. If you are asked to use deontological or utilitarian ethics, define the terms and then apply them. When applying deontological ethics, you must clearly state the rule, principle, or duty you are using. The words rule, right, or duty should appear in your answer. The rule, right, or duty you discuss should justify or condemn the action you are discussing, When using utilitarian ethics, you must state benefits and harms of the various choices, their likelihood of occurring, and the relative level of benefit and harm. The words benefits and harms and degree and likelihood or words with similar meanings should appear in your answer.

Below are examples of how to apply utilitarian and deontological ethics.

Utilitarian ethics requires one to list benefits and harms of various choices. One must then consider the likelihood of different consequences as well as the degree of each harm and benefit.

For utilitarian ethics you must do the following: List the benefits and harms of each choice. The words benefit and harm should appear in your discussion. You must then state the likelihood of the various benefits and harms and compare their degree.

Here is an example. A restaurant chain with a bar is deciding whether it is ethical under utilitarian ethics to hire a mystery shopper to play the role of customer. The benefits of hiring such a person is that the restaurant can find out if its employees are doing their jobs, if they are stealing, if the food is being prepared the way corporate headquarters wants it to be, and if the restaurant is clean and meets other corporate standards. The overall benefits of making sure everyone is doing their job are increased profit, minimized loses, and happy customers. The harms are that mystery shoppers cost money, people may feel not trusted, and someone not doing something they should or doing something they should not, may be fired or disciplined. The benefits are sure to occur. The harm of cost is sure to occur. Some people may feel not trusted but others may not mind the mystery shoppers or feel they are a chance to show what a good job they are doing. People being fired or disciplined for misconduct is a possibility. The benefits are pretty good. The harm of cost depends on the cost in comparison to profit. If you set up the mystery shopping system in a way that good performers are rewarded, the harm of people feeling not trusted is minimal. Finally, the harm of people getting disciplined or fired (at least to me) is inconsequential since people can choose how they behave and they brought on the consequences. Assuming from a cost standpoint, the company can afford mystery shoppers, the greatest good would be
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