Ethical Theories: Criticism, Deontology, And Utilitarianism

Ethical theories are solutions to difficult situations that many people may encounter in their lifetime. Many philosophers have come up with ways of telling right from wrong and giving advice and guidelines on how to deal with certain situations. Philosophers think that by following ethical theories, you can live a happy, meaningful life. After learning about many different ethical theories, there are certain ones that I believe are the best (most convincing) theories, and the worst (least convincing) theories. An ethical theory that stuck out to me the most was Utilitarianism. This is a theory in normative ethics. Jeremy Bentham was the original founder and defined utility as the “aggregate pleasure after deducting suffering of all involved in any action” (IEP) and John Stuart Mill later expanded the concept of utility and included in the quality of pleasure, while focusing on rules. These two …show more content…
They are very different but have a few similarities. They are similar because they are both concerned with potentially determining what human actions are correct and what actions are wrong. They also both attempt to specify and justify moral rules and principles. Overall, both of these ethical theories are directed mainly towards necessities. Beyond these similarities, there are no others between Utilitarianism and Deontology.
However, there are a handful of differences between these to theories. They take very different approaches to understand what is good and what is bad. Utilitarianism bases its judgments on the consequences of someone’s actions. This theory is also concerned with how our actions turn out. Deontological reasoning is the exact opposite. This theory is mainly concerned with the motives behind our actions. Our actions are good or bad because of why we do them. Everything is based on intentions, which can be good or bad depending on why we do them. Good intentions come about if we do good