Utilitarianism and the Suffering of Some Essay

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UtilitarianismUtilitarianism is the idea that the right course of action is that which would produce the greatest common good. In the story of Seaman Holmes, for example, the captain orders the seaman to throw several of the male passengers overboard in order to keep the leaky vessel afloat. The crew reluctantly does as told, and the next day the vessel is saved by another ship. The captain and crew, however, violated the law of the sea, which says that the crew should always sacrifice its own life first for the good of the passengers and the ship. In this case, the crew sacrificed some of the passengers in order to keep the ship afloat and everyone else alive. They chose one common good—survival of the majority of the passengers—but they went about it in a way that enabled them to sacrifice others rather than themselves, and so there was a trial. The only one to stand for trial instead of fleeing was Seaman Holmes. He acquitted himself nobly by saving a child during the rescue, and this in the eyes of the court was just cause to see mercy granted to him for his ignoble actions in violating the law of the sea. Here we have in this…

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…with cruelty—it is the captain’s worldview in the story of Seaman Holmes: those who would preserve their own lives and happiness will sooner sacrifice the life and happiness of others, even in the face of a law that forbids it. Utilitarianism is not a just philosophy or moral framework.

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It lacks the virtue of the virtue ethics system. It is this lack that Le Guin laments in her story of the Omelas and the people who ignore suffering. Utilitarianism pretends to have moral standing based on utility, but really what is this other than a cop out and diversion away from the demands of virtue….....

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