Examples Of Act Utilitarianism

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One day, the devil appears in front of you and your best friend, BFF and makes you a deadly offer. He wants you to kill your best friend and in exchange, he will hide the body; however, if you refuse to kill your friend, the devil will go to a random town and within an hour, kill 10,000 people instead. He gives you and BFF five minutes to confer and decide what to do. Given the situation, BFF believes that the act utilitarianism is correct and argues that she should be killed for the greater good. In this paper, I will be examining the kind of argument BFF will give to convince me to kill her. I will begin by explaining what act utilitarianism is and why BFF believes as an act utilitarian that it is right to kill her. I will then assess her …show more content…
Utilitarianism states that the best action is one that maximizes utility or happiness for the greater good of many people. For example, a utilitarian may support the creation of a shelter to remove beggars from the streets as they believe that this action will improve the welfare of the greater population. Although this situation will not satisfy everyone (such as the homeless), this action will make the most people happy and contribute to the greater good. This brings us to act utilitarianism, a utilitarian theory that states that a person's action is morally right if it produces the best results (Driver, 2014). Based on this definition, individuals should analyze situations they are in and determine what actions to perform in order to create the greatest amount of social good. In the situation described in the beginning, BFF is an act utilitarian and based on the ideas of this theory, BFF believes that out of the two options the devil presented to us, killing herself is the right thing to do. She will be saving the lives of 10,000 people she never met and maximize utility for a greater amount of people. So, in the eyes of an act utilitarian like herself, sacrificing yourself is morally right as it will save thousands of people, which is the best result that could occur in this situation. BFF will most likely use this reasoning to …show more content…
Based on her reasoning, the death of 10,000 people will have a greater negative impact than the death of one person, as this action will minimalize the greater good in society. Although we may argue that it is desirable to save your best friend to maximize happiness among each other, based on the theory of utilitarianism, saving 10,000 people instead is more morally appealing as it would increase utility and happiness for more people. I believe this is a good argument by my best friend; however, one thing that BFF is forgetting about is libertarianism, the theory of individual freedom. This political theory will undermine BFF’s argument because one cannot disregard a person’s life with the belief that all those other lives are more valuable. It would not be morally right for me to take away one person’s life, even if it meant saving the lives of 10,000 people. Although this counterargument of individual freedom is justified, BFF and many others may argue that because I have the consent of my best friend, it is moral to kill her. It is her freedom to choose to die in order to save thousands of lives, and with her permission, I should not feel concerned about disregarding the rules of right conduct. Another argument that can be made against BFF’s reasoning to shoot her is that what if she didn’t want to be killed and only gave me consent to kill her, as she believes this is

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