Utilitarianism vs. Kantianism: Child Labor in the Entertainment Industry A prevailing, yet controversial, social practice that has been occurring for hundreds of years is child labor. The thought of child labor provokes a myriad of images, ranging from children working in arduous conditions in factories to children harvesting produce from their family farm in the rural countryside. To truly define child labor in one sentence would be blanketing the built-in tensions and complexities that the practice brings about, but contextually, it can be said as work performed by minors (children under the age of eighteen) that deprives/harms their physical and mental development. Despite stringent laws enacted by governments all around the world, this
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Consequentialism is founded on the notion that an action’s morality is determined by its consequences: the better the consequences, the more right an action becomes. Following hedonistic views, utilitarianism follows the “Greatest Happiness Principle [which] holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill 1). In other words, it focuses on maximizing the greatest amount of pleasure/happiness and minimizing the amount of pain/unhappiness in a community of people. As human beings that are easily influenced by emotion, the notions of pain and pleasure serve to not only explain the reasoning for action, but also to determine the morality of action. This utilitarian view can be said to exhibit natural human tendencies to focus on our self-interests as a whole. Using a method similar to cost-benefit analysis (which determines the profits/debts a certain product/service will incur for a company, consumer or overall audience) in relation with this pain-pleasure view, utilitarianism assigns positive values or negative values based on “four [ ] circumstances: its intensity, its duration, its certainty or uncertainty [and] its propinquity or remoteness” to effects that increase happiness or decrease happiness, respectively (Bentham 37). If …show more content…
With this being said, the role that child entertainers play are vital to the economy of show business. The revenue that the children bring into the business are comparable to what many adult actors, actresses and artists spend years of their lifetime achieving. One popular example would be the internationally renowned series of “Harry Potter” that used the themes of school life, wizardry and magic, along with three young leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson to attract audiences of all ages. Not only did they dominate the box office with the series, they started the trend of fantasy-based science fiction that spread like wildfire among movie directors and other sectors like literature. Now full-fledged adults, these three entertainers have moved onto other works and careers, ranging from acting to ambassadorship, to use their fame for greater causes. Additionally, to become a child entertainer, the children themselves make a personal choice to commit themselves to their passions and dreams. In this sense, working in this industry gives the children a sense of fulfillment and pleasure. In relation to the cast of “Harry Potter”, not only did they gain reputation on a global scale and achieve their dreams of being on-screen, they were given social networks to broaden the
Consequentialism is founded on the notion that an action’s morality is determined by its consequences: the better the consequences, the more right an action becomes. Following hedonistic views, utilitarianism follows the “Greatest Happiness Principle [which] holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill 1). In other words, it focuses on maximizing the greatest amount of pleasure/happiness and minimizing the amount of pain/unhappiness in a community of people. As human beings that are easily influenced by emotion, the notions of pain and pleasure serve to not only explain the reasoning for action, but also to determine the morality of action. This utilitarian view can be said to exhibit natural human tendencies to focus on our self-interests as a whole. Using a method similar to cost-benefit analysis (which determines the profits/debts a certain product/service will incur for a company, consumer or overall audience) in relation with this pain-pleasure view, utilitarianism assigns positive values or negative values based on “four [ ] circumstances: its intensity, its duration, its certainty or uncertainty [and] its propinquity or remoteness” to effects that increase happiness or decrease happiness, respectively (Bentham 37). If …show more content…
With this being said, the role that child entertainers play are vital to the economy of show business. The revenue that the children bring into the business are comparable to what many adult actors, actresses and artists spend years of their lifetime achieving. One popular example would be the internationally renowned series of “Harry Potter” that used the themes of school life, wizardry and magic, along with three young leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson to attract audiences of all ages. Not only did they dominate the box office with the series, they started the trend of fantasy-based science fiction that spread like wildfire among movie directors and other sectors like literature. Now full-fledged adults, these three entertainers have moved onto other works and careers, ranging from acting to ambassadorship, to use their fame for greater causes. Additionally, to become a child entertainer, the children themselves make a personal choice to commit themselves to their passions and dreams. In this sense, working in this industry gives the children a sense of fulfillment and pleasure. In relation to the cast of “Harry Potter”, not only did they gain reputation on a global scale and achieve their dreams of being on-screen, they were given social networks to broaden the