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The Law and Morality Essay
The Law and Morality Essay
1.Introduction
2.Different perspectives of the problem:
a. Utilitarianism
b. Kants theory
c. Libertarianism
d. John Rawls's approach
3.Conclusion
2.a. Utilitarianism.
As the matter of fact, utilitarianism functions upon the principle: The greatest
happiness for the greatest number. The base of the theory is the maximization the
number of people obtaining the good, which is often interpreted as pleasure. John
Stuart Mill interprets this good as the cultural and spiritual happiness, so the more
people are spiritually happy the best. Another interpretation of utilitarianism is its flip-
side form, which proclaims the prevention of the greatest amount of harm for the
greatest number. This case can be analyzed from two different perspectives of
utilitarianism: the act and the rule utilitarianism.
According to the act form the surveyor should act in a way that everybody would feel
happy. The rule utilitarianism emphasizes the fact that the happiness of the majority can
be achieved only through following the general rules stated for people. From the act
perspective the situation should stay the same, as all the parties are happy. The
company has the pipeline right in the place it wanted it to be, Mr. Mander is calm,
because the pipeline is not on his territory, Mrs. Kildare gets the money she needs not
to just make ends meet, and the surveyor has to be calm because he has fulfilled the
duty and carried out the task professionally right. If it has not been for a coincidence
they would have never revealed the fact of the incorrect pipeline location. It does bring
the surveyors certain distress, but they promulgate the fact it would lead to harm to
all of the parties.
The Company will have to relocate the pipeline; Mr. Mander will be disturbed, Mrs.
Kildare will lose the last hope to live better and not to starve and the surveyors will still
feel bad for Mr. Kildare and their reputation will be damaged. So nothing should be
changed from the act-utilitarianism perspective. The rule-utilitarianism claims the
importance of the legal part of the case and the necessity to do what is legally right and
that is to acknowledge Mr. Mander with the report and therefore with the enlarged sizes
of his land property. He has a legal right to know about it and his further actions will be
his own choice.
According to Kants theory the surveyors not interfering in the matter is like lying to
Mr. Mander and not fulfilling their legal obligation as of professionals. This certainly
leads to a contradiction, because if everybody would conceal information for the good of
one person (Mrs. Kildare), then the profession of independent surveyors is completely
useless in its core.
The surveyors have to act along with the universal law, which proclaims the non-
contradictional reality. Kant says that every person needs to live its life and not take the
cargo of other peoples troubles. Those in trouble are not to sit and wait for help,
which would make a contradiction, too. In this case the subjective attitude of the
surveyors towards Mrs. Kildare should not be taken into count at all. Sympathy has
nothing to do with obligation. And the surveyors good attitude towards Mrs. Kildare will
remain what it is. The surveyors have to act the way their obligations dictate them. In
this case it is doing all the further actions such as going to the Companys office and
fulfilling the professional ethical duty of making sure that the report results are known
by all the needed sides, without feeling sorry for anybody.
2.c. Libertarianism.
The core of the libertarian theory is that all people should act according to their own
will, and this is the main liberty in their life. The only condition is that these actions do
not interfere with the liberty (including property) of others. According to the Libertarian
theory the Gas Company as the embodiment of the Government is not an exception. In
this case the Citizens Gas Company has interfered the liberty of Mr. Mander as it is
using his property without him knowing it. Nevertheless, the independent surveyors
have no right to keep silence about the matter as therefore they would use Mr. Manders
liberty against Mrs. Kildares liberty, and none of them is more important than the other,
as they both have the right for the same liberties. The fact that Mr. Mander was not
polite and nice to the surveyors does not change anything. The surveyors should reveal
the fact of concealing the information and if they really feel sorry for Mrs. Kildare they
may turn to private charity and help her the way the want and can. It is their liberty to
do it. The surveyors have personal responsibility for identifying the borderline properly;
therefore they have to do everything possible to make the Gas Company use the correct
results.
3. Conclusion.
All of the listed above theories propagandize different values, nevertheless all of them
talk about justice and morality, and therefore judge what is ethical and what is not. The
aim of every single one of them is to achieve harmony, though the ways of achievement
often differ. The best solution out of this difficult situation is the one provided by Kants
theory and Libertarianism. One has to do what is his obligation to do and not to and
helping others leads to a contradiction. Why to help only Mrs. Kildare and not Mr.
Mander? Better to treat them objectively and fulfill the call of duty, as the silence would
damage the surveyors reputation much deeper in case of somebody revealing the
incorrect pipeline location.