PHL 509 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Deontological Ethics, Bioethics, Consequentialism
Document Summary
Ethics based on the notion of a duty, or what is right, or rights, as opposed to ethical systems based on the idea of achieving some good state of affairs (see consequentialism. ) or the qualities of character necessary to live well (see virtue ethics. The leading deontological system is that of kant. The ethical theory advanced by bentham, both james and j. s. mill, sidgwick, and many others, that answers all questions of what to do, what to admire, or how to live, in terms of maximizing utility or happiness. As well as an ethical theory, utilitarianism is, in effect, the view of life presupposed in most modern political and economic planning, when it is supposed that happiness is measured in economic terms. In j. s. mill"s statement of the doctrine, actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness".
