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Utilitarianism Topics
- Utilitarianism theory supports actions that bring happiness and contends to activities that may lead to harm or unhappiness. Utilitarianism supports the right moves, which brings joy to a more significant crowd. Utilitarianism rejects the moral codes that constitute orders, customs, and traditions engineered by supernatural beings or leaders (Yarkova). Utilitarians believe that morality is justifiable a positive impact on human beings. Utilitarianism shows some type of consequences of actions, policies, and laws that determine an effort is good or bad. Whatever the decision is, it must aim for an option that will maximize the utility. For utilitarianism to be understood, three things must be considered: what actions are considered good, whose efforts are being maximized, and whether the policies are right based on their actual consequences.
- A) To argue that having children is wrong, the author cites a philosopher named Benatar, whose position rests on what he calls “the asymmetry between pain and pleasure.” How does he use this distinction to argue that having children is wrong?
Philosopher David Benatar argues that being created is wrong because of the “Asymmetry between Pain and Pleasure.” It is a good thing if the pain would be absent where nobody faces sufferings, but the absence of pleasure is wrong if the person existing misses on it. Missing joy is terrible if it goes ahead to result in actual pain (Tube). Benatar argues that if some will suffer and feel responsible for creating people to experience pleasure, then avoiding suffering is what matters. Benatar describes his argument in utilitarian terms. His views weigh the negatives and positives of creating and the consequences of having a child against another. The positives outweigh the negatives when they produce maximum harm, and the harm of existence is greater than the pleasure experienced.
- B) Christine, Overall believes that Benatar’s theory is defective and designs three criticisms that demonstrate the reasons and the forth indicating that if Benatar’s thesis is correct, it would contain dangerous consequences. In her first criticism, Overall agrees with the assumptions that value can be credited to pain and pleasure absence even when there lacks entity that will feel that absence. Overall makes a proposition of a thought-experiment. She concludes that the absence of pleasure is wrong at times. The second criticism queries the context that suggests that the lack of things is valuable when no one can experience it. She indicates that Benatar abuses the moral language since avoidance of something bad is not beneficial to non-existence because the advantage cannot by then be experienced. She contends with Benatar’s idea that it is preferable to non-existence over existing because non-existing preferences cannot be felt. The third criticism bases its argument on Benatar’s treatment of existence and non-existence like ordinary features of a person. Overall suggests that these features can be disadvantageous, neutral, or advantageous. Overall, it is not sensible to see that existence is an advantage or a disadvantage because existence is necessary to experience pleasure or pain. The last criticism does not show that Benatar’s asymmetry is flawed but indicates this theory’s negative implication. If the asymmetry were right, then the responsibility not to create would be protection for wellbeing and not appeal to the symmetry.
- C) When considering just the utility of children or their parents, utilitarians aim to maximize the utility of the whole system and think about the consequences for everyone and the future when deciding whether to have children. From a utilitarian perspective, it would be wrong to sire children if it meant that they are brought to a life of sadness and pain, which may argue that minimizing suffering has more importance than maximization of happiness.
Kantian Topics
- Kantian ethics comprises a set of universal principles that guide moral behavior and is applied to all humans regardless of the situation or context. Kant’s moral philosophy rejects the utilitarian idea since it is a deontological normative theory. It contends that the rightfulness of actions demonstrates how fruitful an outcome is. Kant suggests an action’s moral value is determined by motive and not the consequence (Pollok). Kantian ethics indicates that specific actions such as lying, murder, and theft are prohibited even if those actions bring more happiness than sadness. According to Kant’s theory, whether an action is right or wrong is not dependent on their consequences but depends on whether the duty is fulfilled.
- A) Direct violence is intentionally harming others physically; the author uses an example of punching someone in the face. Structural violence is where society’s social structures harm people by depriving them of the basics need satisfaction. The author illustrates this with a situation whereby one would buy medicine and raise the prices not to afford it and die. Professor X’s response to systematic genoism is usually to advocate for equal law like the Mutant Registration Act, which would discriminate against many mutants and expose them to dangers. Xavier assumes that humans do not understand mutants because they are afraid of them. Professor X rejects direct violence as a means to achieve his goals.
- B) Magneto is a revolutionary who is interested in philosopher Franz Fanon’s argument that the victims of colonialism are justified to use direct violence to overthrow colonial occupation, contrary to Professor X, who rejects direct violence in favor of peace where peace is the absence of violence as means to achieve his goals Professor X believes that there can be the absence of violence in the systems he lives under are still standing which is not possible in genoism. Change in for him comes by a democratic process and support liberalism. Magneto uses a lot of direct violence to kill people in the “X-men First Class.” Magneto understands that humans and mutants might be equal in writing, while existing systems exempt the mutants. The author gives an example of cartoons. Magneto says he does not think that beast will be tried fairly in a human court even though the law used is the same for humans and mutants. Contrary, Xavier thinks that genoism is grounded in fear of the unknown, but Magneto does not believe that. For example, in the comics, there is an island nation called Genosha, where mutants are enslaved and sold to labor markets to keep the state running and profitable. In the comics, the author states that the US government experiments on mutants to produce weapons but not out of fear but to maintain its strategic military advantage.
- C) Professor X is against the use of direct violence and favors peace, but he sides with structures that maintain structural genoism and all the violence they inflict. “Magneto rejects structural violence whereas he uses a lot of direct violence” (Philosophy Tube). Direct violence has been used to achieve good like independence for some nations. Magneto is right by using his methods to advocate for mutant s equality, but to X-men and Professor X, his ideology is acceptable in using direct violence. For a Kantian, I will join Professor X’s school and become an X-men because Kantian ethics prohibits acts of violence, even if those actions are meant to bring justice.
Prima Facie and Virtue Ethics Topics
- Virtue ethicists emphasize the significance of inner character traits like faithfulness, integrity, honesty, and courage. According to Aristotle, his concern was on what defined a good person and not what defined an action as good ( Skelton 13). A prima facie is an obligatory duty that binds another thing unless other obligations trump over it. It stresses how people should live their lives. Prima facie, or what is referred to as actual duties, is supposed to be done unless it violates the more substantial or equal duty.
- A) The author states that Rick shuns scientific methods instead of making observations, asking questions, formulating a hypothesis, making predictions, testing, and gathering data. The author adds that ”Rick does not develop theories which could be used to feedback into the process experimental process”( Idea Channel). In one scenario, Rick injects Morty into a homeless man’s body, and then Rick states that he cannot cure death. As a result, the author considers Rick is a shoot from the hip results now and questions later kind of scientist. Rick’s scientific process is anarchic as it results; hence the author considers him an inventor rather than a scientist.
- B) Paul Feyerabend criticizes the thoughts of science and scientific methods. Feyerabend states how scientists are expected to specialize, consider their pursuit’s future more than its history, and are encouraged to treat intersections with other goals like art, ethics, or philosophy. His imagination is restrained as he writes about an imagined scientist. Feyerabend’s language ceases to be his own. This is demonstrated in scientific facts, independent of opinion, belief, and cultural background. In comparison, Rick wears the effects of his own culture, morals, and biases on his sleeve, and he is blatant about it. Feyerabend believes that scientific methods emphasize many constraints on continuation while ignoring the more human properties of discovery in science. Anarchism is proposed as an alternative scientific method is an excellent medicine for epistemology and the philosophy of science. Anarchism is one where anything goes and all forms of inquiry working together. This could describe rick where he is unconcerned with expectations and abandons most of the scientific process.
- C) The author means that rick is not concerned with searching for scientific knowledge to be humanitarian at all. The author argues that actions conflicting the society what it considers sacred are one way to achieve breakthrough pursuit for truth should not be secondary to experience because moral ethics dictates so. It is morally right to say that truth does not matter as per moral relativism, which states that for different periods according to other cultures, there exist different moral values; hence there saying that truth does not matter may be good for a particular crowd. The ethical rule is, therefore, dependent on culture.
In conclusion, the concept of ethics has been discussed in various scenarios to explain ethical principles and theories, critique ideal utilitarianism when considering good or bad in procreating, and prima facie duties in ideal scientific ideology. Kantian ethics has also been applied to discuss the entertainment world of films and comics.
Works Cited
Benatar, David. “Not “Not ‘Better Never to Have Been’”: A Reply to Christine
Idea Channel. Is Rick from Rick & Morty The Ideal Scientist? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios. YouTube, 26 Aug. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZLN1PN3L4I.
Overall, Christine. “Why have children.” The Ethical Debate. Cambridge (2012).
Philosophy Tube. X Men: Is Magneto Right? | Philosophy Tube Ft NerdSync. YouTube, 29 July, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xE6Pb5y9hs.
Pollok, Konstantin. Kant’s Theory of Normativity: Exploring the Space of Reason. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Skelton, Lauren. “Ethical Theories and Perspectives on End-of-Life Decisions.” Dialogue & Nexus 4.1 (2017): 13.
Yarkova, Elena N. “Utilitarianism as a Philosophy Of Education.” The Education and science journal 5 (2016): 11-24.