CHAPTER 19-ETHICS

ASSESMENT
1. Utilitarianism in different perspectives

Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and
oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm. When directed toward making social, economic, or
political decisions, a utilitarian philosophy would aim for the betterment of society as a whole.
utilitarianism, in normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English
philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill according to which an action (or
type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce
unhappiness or pain—not just for the performer of the action but also for everyone else affected by it
Utilitarianism is a species of consequentialism, the general doctrine in ethics that actions (or types of
action) should be evaluated on the basis of their consequences. Utilitarianism and other
consequentialist theories are in opposition to egoism, the view that each person should pursue his or
her own self-interest, even at the expense of others, and to any ethical theory that regards some actions
(or types of action) as right or wrong independently of their consequences
Peter Singer - his book Animal Liberation he popularized the term speciesism, which he defines
as “a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and
against those of members of other species”. He argues for the equal consideration of human and
non-human animal interests because animals have the capacity for suffering and enjoyment. He
rejects the idea that non-human animals’ interests should be considered less based on their
intelligence with the argument from marginal cases: if we should consider the interests of
infants, the cognitively disabled and the senile equally to the interests of the average human, we
should also consider the interests of non-human animals equally, for there is no relevant
property these humans have that non-human animals lack.

2. Differences and similarities of quantitative and qualitative utilitarianism

Quantitative and Qualitative: Some forms of utilitarianism assume that there are different kinds and
varying qualities of pleasure (Mill); others do not (Bentham). Qualitative utilitarians argue that mental
pleasures and pains are different in kind and superior in quality to purely physical ones. Qualitative
utilitarians must consider both quality and quantity. Quantitative utilitarians argue that mental pleasures
and pains differ from physical ones only in terms of quantity. For a quantitative utilitarian the pleasure
from eating an ice cream cone or reading a classic novel are of the same type. However, reading the
classic novel might produce a greater quantity of pleasure due to fecundity or other factors. For
a qualitative utilitarian eating an ice cream cone and reading a classic novel produce different
types/qualities of pleasure.
3. Anti-terrorism law was made primarily on the threat for terrorism in the country and protect its
people form harm. However, there have been unconstitutional aspects of the law violating human
rights of the Filipinos which is ironic because it is supposed to protect the Filipino people of
terrorism attacks not red-tag or allege its people.

4. Utilitarianism is reasonable on its objectives and goals, following the ultimate law will be good
for the many. These may help industrialize and entire country however it is does not entail the
freedom of the people of their free will which every human in the world is definitely entitled. I
am certainly against this because as a Filipino we are created by the freedom to learn and we will
certainly have a great country with the wit, freedom of people and an understanding government.