Three Basic Principles of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is one of the most important and influential moral theories of modern times. In many respects, it is the outlook of Scottish philosopher  David Hume (1711-1776) and his writings from the mid-18th century. But it received both its name and its clearest statement in the writings of English philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Even today Mills essay Utilitarianism, which was published in 1861, remains one of the most widely taught expositions of the doctrine. There are three principles that serve as the basic axioms of utilitarianism. 1. Pleasure or Happiness Is the Only Thing That Truly Has Intrinsic Value. Utilitarianism gets its name from the term utility, which in this context does not mean useful but, rather, means pleasure or happiness.  To say that something has intrinsic value means that it is simply good in itself.  A world in which this thing exists, or is possessed, or is experienced, is better than a world without it (all other things being equal). Intrinsic value contrasts with instrumental value.  Something has instrumental value when it is a means to some end.  For example, a screwdriver has instrumental value to the carpenter; it is not valued for its own sake but for what can be done with it. Now Mill admits that we seem to value some things other than pleasure and happiness for their own sake—we value health, beauty, and knowledge in this way. But he argues that we  never  value anything unless we associate it in some way with pleasure or happiness. Thus, we value beauty because it is pleasurable to behold. We value knowledge because,  usually, it is useful to us in coping with the world, and hence is linked to happiness. We value love and friendship because they are sources of pleasure and happiness. Pleasure and happiness, though, are unique in being valued purely for their own sake. No other reason for valuing them needs to be given. It is better to be happy than sad. This cant really be proved. But everyone thinks this. Mill thinks of happiness as consisting of many and varied pleasures. Thats why he runs the two concepts together. Most utilitarians, though, talk mainly of happiness, and that is what we will do from this point on. 2. Actions Are Right Insofar as They Promote Happiness, Wrong Insofar as They Produce Unhappiness. This principle is controversial. It makes utilitarianism a form of consequentialism since it says that the morality of an action is decided by its consequences. The more happiness is produced among those affected by the action, the better the action is. So, all things being equal, giving presents to a whole gang of children is better than giving a present to just one. Similarly, saving two lives is better than saving one life. That can seem quite sensible. But the principle is controversial because many people would say that what decides the morality of an action is the  motive  behind it. They would say, for instance, that if you give $1,000 to charity because you want to look good to voters in an election, your action is not so deserving of praise as if you gave $50 to charity motivated by compassion, or a sense of duty. 3. Everyones Happiness Counts Equally. This may strike you as a rather obvious moral principle. But when it was put forward by Bentham (in the form, everyone to count for one; no-one for more than one) it was quite radical. Two hundred years ago, it was a commonly held view that some lives, and the happiness they contained, were simply more important and valuable than others.  For example, the lives of masters were more important than slaves; the well-being of a king was more important than that of a peasant. So in Benthams time, this principle of equality was decidedly progressive.  It lay behind calls on the government to pass policies that would benefit all equally, not just the ruling elite. It is also the reason why utilitarianism is very far removed from any kind of egoism. The doctrine does not say that you should strive to maximize your own happiness. Rather, your happiness is just that of one person and carries no special weight. Utilitarians like the Australian philosopher Peter Singer take this idea of treating everyone equally very seriously. Singer argues that we have the same obligation to help needy strangers in far-off places as we have to help those closest to us. Critics think that this makes utilitarianism unrealistic and too demanding. But in Utilitarianism,  Mill attempts to answer this criticism by arguing that the general happiness is best served by each person focusing primarily on themselves and those around them. Benthams commitment to equality was radical in another way, too. Most moral philosophers before him had held that human beings have no particular obligations to animals since animals cant reason or talk, and they lack free will. But in Benthams view, this is irrelevant. What matters is whether an animal is capable of feeling pleasure or pain. He doesnt say that we should treat animals as if they were human. But he does think that the world is a better place if there is more pleasure and less suffering among the animals as well as among us. So we should at least avoid causing animals unnecessary suffering.

Pathophysiology Of Type II Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes...

Pathophysiology of Type II Non-Insulin Dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM): Type II Non-insulin dependent diabetes is the most common. It often occurs in older adults, patients who are overweight, and patient with metabolic disorders. It can happen at any age though. The tissues in the body have built some resistance to insulin. The insulin levels in these patients can vary from low to high and can also be normal. You might be at risk of developing Non-insulin dependent diabetes if you have a family history diabetes, being obese, not exercising enough, and your age. Rosdahl (2012) notes that Non-insulin dependent diabetes patients do not need insulin for life but May or may not need it to help control their insulin levels. Most patients†¦show more content†¦Treatment for non-insulin dependent diabetes is different for everyone. For example, if a patient is obese they would have try to choose a healthier way of eating and meal planning, also include and exercise routine. For overweight patients weight management is very important. Some may need medic ation to help with insulin but not all. Pathophysiology of Type I Insulin Dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM): In type I Insulin diabetes mellitus. Usually patients who get it are younger patients. Type I diabetes signs and symptoms are extreme thirst extreme hunger, and extreme urination, which are usually always present. Just like in type II diabetes, some test that they will take for type I diabetes are fasting plasma glucose test, which is done in the morning before eating to keep track of your glucose levels and oral glucose tolerance test, which is done by glucose check in the morning, they then have you drink a liquid that is high in glucose, you wait 2 hours and finally your glucose is checked again. Treatment for patients with type I diabetes is a life time insulin injections. The pancreas and if a patient does not produce or make enough the glucose levels will rise in the blood making the patient hyperglycemic (which is high sugar levels in the blood) because they cannot enter the body cell. This is where the pati ent would need their insulin injections to help keep their blood sugar regulated. Identify and compare the signs and symptoms of Type I and Type II

A Good Man Is Hard to Find Irony Free Essays

â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† In the short story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† there is irony all through the pages. It shows how you should follow your gut instinct when you think you shouldn’t go somewhere, when you know something bad is going to happen. In the story it also talks about how the grandmother wore her nice clothes in case of an accident, she wanted to look like a lady in case anything bad was to happen. We will write a custom essay sample on A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Irony or any similar topic only for you Order Now The grandmother was constantly talking about the good in people, but was she a good woman? The first bit of irony the story throws at the reader is on the first page when the grandmother is talking about how she doesn’t want to go to Florida because that’s where the Misfit is headed. As the grandmother is trying to get her son Bailey to listen as she says, â€Å"The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did† (O’Connor 281). Now I don’t believe that the ironic twist is that the misfit was headed to Florida just like the family, I believe that the twist is that the Misfit just so happen be on the same dirt road that the grandmother asked her son Bailey to turn down later on in the story. The grandmother wanted to turn down this dirt road in Georgia because she remembered an old plantation house she had visited when she was younger. After turning down the road she then remembered that this was not the road at all, the old plantation house she had remembered was in Tennessee, not Georgia. The second major ironic twist that stood out to me was how the grandmother wore good clothes to go on a road trip, â€Å"In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady† (O’Connor 282). The grandmother wore a navy dress with a straw hat that had white violets on it. Indeed the grandmother was dressed like a lady, but did she act upon it at all times? I think she did just that, I believe she acted like a lady but was not truly one. Grandmothers cat caused Bailey to have an accident. †¦as the grandmother limped out of the car, her hat still pinned to her head but the broken front brim standing up at a jaunty angle and the violet spray hanging off the side† (O’Connor 287). At this point is when I believe that the grandmother acts as if she is a lady. If she was a true lady then maybe her clothes would not have been messed up, or there wouldn’t have been an accident at all. But there is still that piec e of thought about how the grandmother knew to dress in case of an accident. The final bit of irony is how the grandmother kept talking about good men, and how they are hard to find. When the family stops at the diner to eat she talks to Red Sammy and his wife about how hard good men are hard to find, but then she also tells Red Sammy that he is a good man because he let a couple of men charge gas. Red Sammy’s wife says there isn’t no one that she can trust, â€Å"‘And I don’t count nobody out of that, not nobody,’ she repeated, looking at Red Sammy† (O’Connor 285). After they wreck a car shows up with The Misfit and his two side kicks in it, who turn out not to be good men. The grandmother realizes real soon that the man is The Misfit, she recognized him from the picture in the newspaper. Soon after arriving Bobby Lee takes Bailey and his son John Wesley into the woods to kill them. The grandmother went on about how the Misfit could be a good man, and how he should pray. The Misfit told her that his family was good people, he just wasn’t. Soon Bobby Lee and Hiram took the childrens mother, June Star, and the baby to the woods to meet up with the boys. The grandmother then realized that she must think of something soon, because she would be next. They started talking about Jesus and how he did or didn’t raise the dead. The Misfit said that if he didn’t know but if he would have been there he would have known better and wouldn’t be the way he is now. â€Å"Why you’re one of my own babies. You’re one of my own children! † (O’Connor 293). After the grandmother said that she touched him on the shoulder and the Misfit turned around and shot her three times in the chest. This was a great short story for irony, because the grandmother was correct about most things. The grandmother knew not to go towards Florida because The Misfit was headed that way after escaping from the pen. She was right about dressing like a lady in case of an accident, because indeed there was an accident, but she caused the accident by bringing her cat along without anyone knowing. Then there is speak of a good man, is there any such thing? Red Sammy’s wife wouldn’t even think of him as a good man, if your wife doesn’t believe you are no one really can. The Misfit comes along and talks to the grandmother for a while about good people, while doing so shoots her family then her dead. ‘â€Å"She would have been a good woman,† The Misfit said, â€Å"if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (O’Connor 293). This goes with my assumption that the grandmother was just acting like a lady, and The Misfit even saw through her lies. How to cite A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Irony, Papers

Definition of Religion free essay sample

Aaron Everette Intro to Religious Thought Dr. Gibbs September 11, 2009 The Definition of Religion Melford E. Spiro a contemporary anthropologist defined religion as â€Å"an institution consisting culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings†. I prefer this definition of religion over Paul Tillich’s for one its less complicated as Tillich’s. Also because religion is basically a institution in a sense as some of us go to a place of worship in some form of another. Those places can be considered institutions for the ones wanting to worship there godly figure.Religions are culturally patterned, they interact with each other is some shape or form weather it’s through its worship figure or the way the religion is based on its believes its views of the world, the people. For instants Muslims believe when they die they go to a heaven of some sort and meet Allah. Christians believe when they die if they tried to live without being very sinful, Christian and believed in the god they go to heaven and meet Christ himself. We will write a custom essay sample on Definition of Religion or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Atheists believe in science and don’t believe in gods or worship their views say that when they pass there remains will be soaked into the earth and they come back as part of the land.So Many religions interact with each other either in bad ways or good ones. Another things Spiro States in his definition is that religion is â€Å"culturally postulated superhuman beings†. These superhuman beings Spiro is referring to would be for Christians it would be Jesus or God, for Buddhists it would be of coarse Buddha for Muslims they believe in Allah even though they have never seen or know what this figure looks like they heard his word through a massager named Muhammad.These Superhuman figures are for some a sense of hope in troubled time that we can turn too or a way to live a better live for others. We can believe worship whatever we like or what works for us that’s the great thing about the freedom of religion. Spiro’s definition is best fit cause its blunt bu t it makes you open up your mind to thing to understand others way of live.