Ethics Theory and Business Practice 2.2 Utilitarianism – Part Two Utilitarianism in Practice: Some Challenges And a Response

aims to outline some difficulties with using utilitarianism in practice to introduce rule utilitarianism as a response to these difficulties

two challenges to utilitarianism its conclusions often conflict with ethical intuition it offers an overly rigorous guide to action to illustrate point 1, ask students to undertake task 1 in Exercise 2.2a to illustrate point 2, describe the frequency with which we make ethically charged decisions in life and in business. Also refer to the complexity of those decisions and the difficulty associated with predicting consequences.

contrasting act utilitarianism to rule utilitarianism act utilitarianism: we should follow the course of action that will lead to the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people rule utilitarianism: we should follow rules that, if applied consistently, will lead to the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people

1. bringing utilitarianism in line with ethical intuition what general categories does the scenario under consideration fall into? what good-maximizing rule is relevant to that scenario? what course of action would be consistent with that rule? ask students to complete task 2 and task 3 of Exercise 2.2a.

using Atlas Iron’s profit to maximize the good theory in practice using Atlas Iron’s profit to maximize the good see Theory in Practice: Using Atlas Iron’s Profit to Maximize the Good

2. reducing utilitarianism’s heavy decision-making burden instead of carrying out utilitarian evaluation of all the available courses of action each time we confront an ethically charged decision simply follow whichever good-maximizing rule is relevant to that situation www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EIvJVKGfZ8 see Video Activity 2.3 this activity prepares the way for the discussion of the Principle of Corporate Maximization which comes in the next session

key points utilitarianism may lead to conflicts with ethical intuition utilitarianism can be difficult to apply in practice both of these difficulties are reduced if we take a rule-utilitarian, rather than an act-utilitarian approach to ethical evaluation