Reference no: EM133448865

Questions

1. What objections have been raised against Utilitarianism? Are these significant objections, or could a Utilitarian easily answer them (or perhaps safely ignore them)?

There are lots of them, and Rachels categorizes them for us a bit. Let's try to name them all here, but focus on only one per post so as to minimize confusion.

2. What strategies might Utilitarians invoke to respond to these objections? (There are 3 that Rachels discusses)

3. What is Rule Utilitarianism and how is it different from the original Utilitarian theory? How does switching to Rule Utilitarianism help to avoid the objections raised to the original theory?

4. Now that you've seen the theory, the objections and the responses to the objections, do you think that Utilitarianism is a plausible moral theory, or that it has too many flaws?

5. To what extent do you use Utilitarian thinking (without necessarily thinking of it that way) in your everyday life, when faced with moral (or even non-moral) decisions? Give specific examples.

6. Find a specific example of Utilitarian reasoning in the media -- online article, newspaper, TV, etc. Explain how it's Utilitarian and post a link, if possible.