In Justice: What 's the Right Thing to Do?, Michael Sandel, a philosophy professor of Harvard University, brings up a discussion about a typical philosophical question:
If you are a doctor in the emergency room, and six patients who have been in a terrible trolley car wrack come to you. Five of them were moderately injured and one was severely injured. You could spend all day caring for the one severely injured victim, but in that time the five victims will die, or you can look after the five restore yet during that time the severely injured victim will die. What will you do? (Sandel) In this case, deontologists should find it difficult to make a decision because whoever they decide to save, according to deontology, the action of sacrificing …show more content…
Because the moral rule will not change, and thus people are able to make a more objective decision based on the rule. However, there are also some arguments against deontology. One of the most influential arguments is that deontology is ineffective and paradoxical. According to the doctor cases which mentioned above, Deontologists feel difficult to provide a clear direction or answer to the question like whether people should sacrifice five moderately injured victim or the severely injured one. Both options are going to sacrifice someone. This is an emergent accident that all victims are waiting for curing, and everyone might die during the period of hesitation. Therefore, deontology, in some cases, is …show more content…
Moral rule is not a determining factor for the rightness or wrongness of an action, but the consequence of the action is. As Bentham says, “By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness." Based on Bentham’s idea, people against him argue that utilitarian devalues and distorts the meaning of morality. It instills a selfish concept in humans encouraging them to become unscrupulous in order to benefit themselves. Besides, the idea that human being is to pursue pleasure and avoid from pain based on hedonism. It is harmful for humans because this idea might become an excuse for humans to escape from their obligation of being parts of the
If you are a doctor in the emergency room, and six patients who have been in a terrible trolley car wrack come to you. Five of them were moderately injured and one was severely injured. You could spend all day caring for the one severely injured victim, but in that time the five victims will die, or you can look after the five restore yet during that time the severely injured victim will die. What will you do? (Sandel) In this case, deontologists should find it difficult to make a decision because whoever they decide to save, according to deontology, the action of sacrificing …show more content…
Because the moral rule will not change, and thus people are able to make a more objective decision based on the rule. However, there are also some arguments against deontology. One of the most influential arguments is that deontology is ineffective and paradoxical. According to the doctor cases which mentioned above, Deontologists feel difficult to provide a clear direction or answer to the question like whether people should sacrifice five moderately injured victim or the severely injured one. Both options are going to sacrifice someone. This is an emergent accident that all victims are waiting for curing, and everyone might die during the period of hesitation. Therefore, deontology, in some cases, is …show more content…
Moral rule is not a determining factor for the rightness or wrongness of an action, but the consequence of the action is. As Bentham says, “By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness." Based on Bentham’s idea, people against him argue that utilitarian devalues and distorts the meaning of morality. It instills a selfish concept in humans encouraging them to become unscrupulous in order to benefit themselves. Besides, the idea that human being is to pursue pleasure and avoid from pain based on hedonism. It is harmful for humans because this idea might become an excuse for humans to escape from their obligation of being parts of the