Before we jump to the core topic, let me humbly state that this is merely my knowledge as a high school student. Do forgive for any mistakes made.
In life, we will always have to
face decisions. And in order to do that we seek guidance by what we call as Ethics.
So, what is ethic? Ethic is a set of moral principles that influence people’s
judgements to make certain decisions, it help us determines which is right and
which is wrong. However, life is hardly ever black and white, and I do believe
that every decision has their own plus and minus —just like a double-edged sword.
If that’s the case, then how does ethic define whether or not something is
morally right? In ethical terms there are theories that represent the
viewpoints from which individuals seek guidance as they make decisions, because
not everyone makes decisions in the same way and employ the same decision rules.
For individuals, the ethical theory
they use for decision making guidance emphasizes on certain aspect of an
ethical dilemma which will lead them to the most ethically correct resolution according
to the guidelines within the ethical theory itself. One of the most basic ideas
in moral philosophy is the distinction between Utilitarianism and Deontology.
Both of these schools of ethics help us make the right choices —or good ones,
but that’s exactly where their differences stand.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory
that weigh the morally right course of actions in any situation by its
consequences, meaning that the right decision is the one that produces the
greatest balance of benefits over harms for everyone affected. The problem with
utilitarianism is that it can recommend actions that seem to violate common sense
morality, because as long as a course of action produces maximum benefits for
everyone, utilitarianism does not care whether the benefits are produced by
lies, manipulation, or coercion. Utilitarianism also based its decision on
prediction of what the outcome may be, but in reality, no one can be certain
that their predictions will be accurate.
While on the other hand, deontology
is an ethical theory that sees moral value in an action itself rather than the
outcome it may lead to. In deontology, the consequences of an action are not
taken into consideration when measuring what is morally right, which is the total
opposite of what utilitarianism stands for. This ethic system believes that
doing the right thing means to follow proper rules of behaviour, or in another
word, doing things by the book. Just like utilitarianism, deontology has its
drawbacks too. In theory, deontology works like a charm, but in real life it is
not as easy as that. There are many situations where deontology is hard to
apply, for example what happens when we have to choose between two evils? If
utilitarianism got critics for being ignorant of moral intuitions about right
and wrong, deontology can stand too firm on rules which resulting in being
insensitive to the actual harm.
To better understand what these two
school of ethics stand for, I’m going to use some moral dilemma situations and
show how utilitarianism and deontology work. Imagine you’re a CIA agent and you
receive an information about a plot to set off a bomb in the central of a big
city. You manage to capture a suspect, who the CIA believed has information
regarding where the bomb is planted. Would you torture the suspect to reveal the
bomb's whereabouts? Do you think that the dignity and right of one person can
be violated in order to save many others? In this case, utilitarianism believe
that it is permitted to torture the suspect, because if we see the bigger
picture, we will understand that its thousands of lives at stakes. If it is
what it takes to obtain a greater good as the end result, then based on
utilitarianism, we should do it. Whereas for deontology, that aspect is not
what we should highlight. Deontology believe that in any given circumstances,
torturing people is wrong and unethical, no matter what the consequences are.
Next, I’m going to refer to a
condition in a movie as an example to get a better view of the differences
between utilitarianism and deontology. Imagine that the world is facing an
apocalypse, where there is lethal disease that spread rapidly and turn anyone
infected into something cannibalistic and without sanity. In order to find a
cure, scientist believe that they need to experiment on children. Now, what do
you think? Is it permissible to experiment on children to find a cure? Utilitarianism
would say that if experimenting on children is what it takes to saves a world
worth of lives then that’s what we should do —considering the scope of the
result. Whilst deontology would say that no matter what, experimenting on
children is wrong because treating human as if they’re just an object is
inhuman and it defies the moral ethics.
Despite their differences,
utilitarianism and deontology do agree about the immorality of stealing,
killing, etc. Although so, they do it for different reasons based on their
distinct perspective. For example, both utilitarianism and deontology agree
that theft in general is bad, and why is that so? Utilitarianism may say that
it is bad because it deprives people of their property and in result, they
would feel anxious and unsafe. While a deontologist would say that theft is
wrong because it violates property rights, which is something that people
should respect. This two different point of view is often stated in terms of “the
good vs the right”, because the conflict between these two ethical theories
is usually a case of getting good results versus doing the right thing.
The
thing about life and decision making, is that at the end of the day it’s not
always just about choosing between right or wrong, because it is much more
complex than that. Ethical dilemmas aren’t easy to solve. We
make decisions based on what we believe is right and what is best for
us, but not necessarily for everyone else. So, which team are you on, the good
or the right?
Source:
https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/getting-good-results-vs-doing-the-right-thing/
https://sites.psu.edu/psy533buban/2016/02/05/l03-deontology-vs-utilitarianism-the-eternal-battle/
https://www.dsef.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/EthicalTheories.pdf
