“Well, that is their opinion.” “Everyone has different morals.” “A person’s values may be different from yours.” These are common platitudes many people use to explain why some people or cultures uphold certain values while downplaying others. If this question of whether or not all ethics are relative, it is obvious that all ethics are not relative. This means that there are guidelines that everyone should follow; therefore, ethics are not whatever a person or culture wants them to be. Since all ethics are not relative, the question arises as to what set of ideas or theory is the best to follow. The most effective out of the broad spectrum of ethical theories would be utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the most useful theory in ethics, since
…show more content…
An argument that this claim brings up is that there are other ethical theories that endorse social harmony, with their purpose being to point out flaws in modern thinking and suggest solutions to better humanity. Although this can be argued as true, utilitarianism is the theory that best promotes this social harmony. Utilitarian philosophers enforce impartiality, meaning that all decisions should consider all beings capable of suffering, or otherwise called the moral community. Now, this is not to say that the action that creates the greatest amount of happiness is the best from a utilitarian perspective. This misunderstanding can be taken as one group in the situation gaining most of the happiness while the other group gains only a small bit of happiness. It would be like giving the favorite child dozens of toys for Christmas while the other child receives only a few pieces of candy. There needs to be a net balance of happiness over unhappiness, like both children getting an equal amount of toys. There is also the argument of minorities’ happiness being pushed aside, thinking that whatever benefits the greatest amount of people must be done. This is not so, since minorities would be part of the moral community and therefore would need to be equally considered when making a
An argument that this claim brings up is that there are other ethical theories that endorse social harmony, with their purpose being to point out flaws in modern thinking and suggest solutions to better humanity. Although this can be argued as true, utilitarianism is the theory that best promotes this social harmony. Utilitarian philosophers enforce impartiality, meaning that all decisions should consider all beings capable of suffering, or otherwise called the moral community. Now, this is not to say that the action that creates the greatest amount of happiness is the best from a utilitarian perspective. This misunderstanding can be taken as one group in the situation gaining most of the happiness while the other group gains only a small bit of happiness. It would be like giving the favorite child dozens of toys for Christmas while the other child receives only a few pieces of candy. There needs to be a net balance of happiness over unhappiness, like both children getting an equal amount of toys. There is also the argument of minorities’ happiness being pushed aside, thinking that whatever benefits the greatest amount of people must be done. This is not so, since minorities would be part of the moral community and therefore would need to be equally considered when making a