strengths of utilitarianism
- people will naturally and instinctively do the greatest good for the greatest number. for example going to Nando’s because 3/5 people wanted to go there.
- it is non-religious , therefore can be used by everyone
- it is democratic decisions are made by what the majority thinks is right
- mill considers the minority
weaknesses of utilitarianism
-confuses what’s popular for what is right
-Bentham included agent-neutrality said we should ignore our emotions however it is in our nature
tyranny of the majority- majority’s pleasure may harm the minority
-impossible to predict all harmful outcomes of a decision
who posed the question should we kill one healthy person to donate their organs to five ill people, and what is it a criticism of?
Judith Thomson - utilitarianism
strengths of situation ethics
- people would generally agree love is a good thing
- relative
- considering the consequences of your actions is a good thing to do
- relative to modern day Christians
- autonomous “not under law but under grace”
weaknesses of situationism
- > “if men were angels, then situation ethics would be the perfect ethics” Bishop Barclay, however, they’re not angels and therefore cannot be trusted to follow love honestly.
- > Hobbes said we are naturally wicked and evil
- > people have different interpretations of what love is even though fletcher wanted to make the love he was discussing clear it is inevitable for there to be some misconceptions.
- > William Barclay argued to “discard law is to discard experience”
- > it can allow evil in the name of love
- > discarding rules is not practical for modern day GB since we have had them for generations. JSM, we need rules as a guideline
- > St Paul “love is the fulfilling of the law”
strengths of natural law
- > john Finnis said that a man absent of knowledge life and friendship etc cannot flourish
- > objective, guidelines which are easy to follow
- > values human life
- > relevant to modern day Christians – 59.3%
- > DO GOOD AND AVOID EVIL can be accepted by everyone.
- > an action is not just about what we do externally but what we do internally ‘doctrine of the double effect’
weaknesses of natural law
- > society is becoming increasing secular
- > Kai Nelson - There is no basic human nature present across all societies and cultures
- > Karl Barth - Natural Law relies too much upon reason - human reason is too corrupt to be trusted and not enough on the grace of God and revelation
- > Vardy & Grosch - Aquinas’ view of human nature is too simplistic
- > G.E. Moore - Good cannot be defined through nature, it is a naturalist fallacy. Goodness is unanalysable and cannot be defined by any reference of nature
who said there is no singular human nature across all cultures
kai nelson
who said human reason is too corrupted
Karl Barth
who said Aquinas view on human nature is too optimistic
vardy
strengths of Kantian ethics
- > its clear and fixed
- > distinction from duty and preference
- > doesn’t require faith
weaknesses of Kantian ethics
- > lacks motivation, even though we know are duty we are not compelled to do it.
- > it’s too optimistic everyone cannot be expected to be moral all of the time.
- > ross argued that an act is a prima facie duty when there is a moral reason in favour of doing that act but it can be outweighed by other moral reasons. For example, telling the truth.
- > anthropocentric, suggests animals have no value.
- > conflicting maxims, if a murder asks where someone is do we follow the maxim don’t lie or don’t expose others to violence.
- > every situation is unique, imaging people doing something you do once all the time is unrealistic.
- > peter Rickman – whilst we have duty to tell the truth are we not also obligated to protect a man’s life
what did ross argue about moral actions
an act is a prima facie duty when there is a moral reason in favour of doing that act but it can be outweighed by other moral reasons. For example, telling the truth.
how did Rickman support the criticism of conflicting maxims
whilst we have duty to tell the truth are we not also obligated to protect a man’s life
