Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Arguments on Utilitarianism Essay Example for Free

Arguments on Utilitarianism Essay Which is more valuable: a game of push-pin or the study of Latin? Which has greater worth: the life of a single young girl or the lives of an entire community? These are the sorts of questions raised when dealing with the matter of utilitarianism. According to Jeremy Bentham, the father of the theory, the ultimate moral goal of human beings should be to increase pleasure and to decrease pain. To maximize the amount of time spent in content, and minimize the times of depression. And he has a point. Simply stated like that, everyone can agree that that is definitely something they want to achieve. But when his theory is applied to real-life conditions, the varying answers and resulting situations arent always applicable with such a cut-and-dry cure-all. Contrary to Benthams theory, just because doing something may seem to create an overall better situation than not doing something, it doesnt necessarily mean that it should be done. When he states his place, Bentham seems to have taken into account all of the variables. He affirms that the standards of right and wrong, and the chains of cause and effect, will influence what exactly promotes pleasure and prevents pain (306). He also recognizes that the quantity of people being affected is a contributing factor as to whether something is ultimately beneficial or detrimental (311). Drawing upon these recognized facts, Bentham goes so far as to create a virtual mathematical equation for determining utility; Including intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, and purity as factors of what qualifies as happiness, and thereby, righteousness (311). But this in itself is absurd, as it is impossible to gauge the properties he proposes. He does not, and can not, provide a scale with which to measure how certain, how intense, or how pure the goodness level of something is. Nor is he able to quantify the overall amount of utility one law or reason offers to an entire population under government; which is what he suggests at the end of his theory (312). It can be conceded that the utility of a rule should be considered during its establishment, as in general rules should be for the greater good and therefore the greater happiness. But there are other factors that come into play that Bentham neglects to recognize. In Ivans Challenge, Fyodor Dostoevsky suggests a striking situation in which utility is obviously not the lone factor in determining its morality (333). He conjures up a circumstance where a small, young girl is to be sacrificed for the edifice of human destiny, the ultimate aim of which is to bring people happiness, to give them peace and contentment at last? (333). With her death, the salvation of the entire community is achieved. At first glance, and in Benthams eyes, its a simple equation. One is lesser than infinity. Her death would be justified because the lives of so many others would be saved. But, he fails to consider human emotion. Living with the fact that a young child had to have died in order for themselves to live may not necessarily be a life of cheerfulness. Furthermore, by calling this a justified situation, Bentham is putting a price on human life. This action in itself is immoral. Also, its an example of a situation where its not really a matter of increasing happiness. Putting a value on a human life is an action in which no party is gaining or losing contentment directly. It doesnt fit into Benthams equation, and apart from it, is an immoral action that should not ethically be able to exist passively beside his main theory of morals by utility. In addition to this flaw, Bentham fails to acknowledge the notion that all pleasures are not created equal. In his first writing, The Principle of Utility, he only manages to recognize the aspect of quantity, and it is in a second, Push-Pin and Poetry, that he proceeds to debunk the possibility of varying qualities of pleasure. To Bentham, there are different kinds of pleasure, but one is not greater or better than another. He breaks them down into two different categories: 1, arts and sciences of amusement and curiosity, and 2, arts and sciences of simple and immediate utility (200). Those of amusement he associates with the fine arts, such as poetry, painting, or architecture, and are generally appreciated aesthetically (200). Those of curiosity he associates with sciences and history, such as the study of foreign languages or biology (200). Those of simple utility are more basic, such as a game of push-pin (200). They are ordinary things that can be enjoyed by anyone. He goes on to say that, prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the fine arts and sciences of music and poetry (200). His only concession is that if music and science are placed above a game of push-pin in utility, it is only because those individuals are more difficult to please (200). Nowhere does he acknowledge that those difficult individuals are correct or justified in wanting a more stimulating source of excitement. Nowhere does he consent that the thrill of curing a disease through the study of medicine overpowers the brief amusement of a board game. But, John Stuart Mill, a supporter of the philosophy of utilitarianism, does. He begins by citing a major criticism of utility, which is that many people feel that the idea of life having no higher end besides pleasure? no better and nobler object of desire and pursuit is degrading and dishonorable (201). His rebuke is that it is only degrading if the accusation supposes human beings to be capable of no pleasures except those of which swine are capable (201). This is obviously not the case. We would not be content simply rolling in mud and gorging ourselves on tangerine rinds. Humans require more stimulation and excitement in order to achieve happiness than an animal, such as swine, with lesser faculties. It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied (Mill 203). To be able to fully appreciate and understand the higher pleasures, such as love and friendship, is so much more rewarding than the simple contentments of physical gratification. Despite the truth that a fool or a swine may lead a more content life, it is only because they require less to achieve contentment. This supplements Benthams statement of a person who prefers poetry to push-pin being more difficult to please. Bentham just fails to see that human beings in their usual healthy, intelligent forms are all difficult to please. All in all, the philosophy of utilitarianism is an acceptable standard of morality? on most occasions. There will always be situations where what is truly moral does not fully satisfy the idea of existence exempt from pain and rich in enjoyments. And, contrary to Bentham, there are pleasures that are of higher quality than others, just as there are pains more severe than others. Works Cited Bentham, Jeremy. Push-Pin and Poetry. Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994. 199-200. Bentham, Jeremy. The Principle of Utility. Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994. 306-312. Mill, John Stuart. Higher and Lower Pleasures. Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994. 201-205. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Ivans Challenge. Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994. 332.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Imperialsim in Madagascar :: essays research papers

Imperialism in Madagascar   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When someone is talking about Madagascar usually they are talking about the huge cockroaches people have to eat on Fear Factor but there is so much more to the country than that. During a time when land was being snatched up and claimed by many Euro-Asia countries little had any right or reason to have the land. This time of imperialism effected economic markets, religion, and many other things pertaining to the Malagasy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the centuries countries and mankind have always wanted one thing: power. This power can be in many forms such as money, property, friends, or technology. During the 1800s to 1914 many countries found land in Africa that had â€Å"primitive† or â€Å"incompetent† inhabitants so they claimed the country as theirs and took control of it to get more power. I believe France wanted Madagascar because it had found that the country’s land was inadequate for further growth so to posses more land they saw Madagascar and what it had to offer them, and protectorated it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During the 1600s the Portuguese, the English, and the French, successful or not, tried to colonize Madagascar. This was the first attempt of any kind to penetrate Madagascar. In 1869 the French attained and expanded their political influence in Madagascar. In 1896, after a native rebellion they won the French achieved control and made all of Madagascar a French colony.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1810, during King Radama I’s reign, the British introduced Christianity. The Protestant London Missionary Society was welcomed and converted many willing natives. This period lasted until 1835 when in 1828 Radama was succeeded, by his wife Ranavalona I, and Christianity was declared illegal. In addition all Europeans were to leave the country and trade was stopped. This era ended in 1863 when Queen Rasoherina lifted the anti-European policy and missionaries and traders were received once more.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the French’s control of Madagascar there were several rebellions with at least 15,000 natives killed altogether. The first native rebellion lasted from 1894 until 1896 when a high government official organized a resistance to the French which ended with the French exiling the queen and gaining complete power over the nation. The second was in 1916 when the French uncovered a secret nationalist society that was outlawed and hundreds of its members were taken prisoner. The largest revolt was in 1947 and lasted nearly two years. This was a major uprising against the French, who crushed the rebellion, killing between 11,000 and 80,000 Malagasy (according to different estimates).

Monday, January 13, 2020

Comparing and Contrast the Chemical Disasters at Bhopal

In today’s modern society, as many countries have been developing very fast, the technologies are reaching high standards of level, for example, the high qualities weed killers and the liquid cleaner. However, as the big invention occurring, the more and more mistakes will be going on, because some technologies, such as weed killer and liquid cleaners are chemicals. With no doubt, chemicals are really harmful for human beings. As people all know that, toxic chemicals are used in the industries, which have to be safely covered and provide very serious use instruction, such as wearing long gloves, safety shoes or masks.However, even the chemicals are under several instructions, but people may have made some serious mistakes which caused a huge damage and large amount of death to people. In this essay, I am going to write about the two disasters that caused a lot of injures by the explosion of poisonous chemicals, which located in India and Italy. According to Shrivastava (1996), on the night of 2/3 December 1984, an enormous accident happened in Bhopal, India, the highly poisonous and unbalanced chemical gas was escaped from the factory and continue to spread over the city which caused by the lack of the attention and care ness.Apart from that, Marchi and Funtowicz and Ravetz (1996) states that in the 10 July 1976, a powerful weed killer which named 245T was exploded in a small town which located near Milan, the 245T contained the most powerful and toxic chemicals, it can kill any live stocks and human very easily, the accident was caused by man made unmanaged instructions and the toxic dioxin was spilled to the atmosphere. Between these two accidents, they were all caused by people not nature. Unlikely, these two took places in different period and locations. Luke (1984) believed that the Bhopal accident was caused by the ignorance of experts.This factory was built in a crowded population environment, and because they against the rule of US safety standar d, too much amount of MIC was contained in the store and due to the huge quantity of it, the tank was not strong enough to hold the chemical, as the safety manual required at o degree, the safety system was broken down and water leaking in to it and set off the reaction. The chemicals were released into the air. Bhopal and Seveso were similar in that, according to Marchi & Funtowicz & Ravetz (1996) because of the unmanaged instructions and the ignorance, the disasters had a substantial damage and effect.According to Gail (2003), the Indian Government made a great effort in trying to manipulate the situation, yet all their attempts failed to provide the sufficient supply of medical services and food supply. There was not enough place for all the injured people to get medical treatment. That is because of the large number of injuries and the lack of doctors and medicine. Added to this, doctors at Bhopal had no idea of what kind of affection they were dealing with. Unfortunately, most people arrived at the hospital when it was too late, others died while waiting for their tern to see a doctor.Similar to Bhopal, Seveso suffered from lack of immediate responses and from ignorance of what exactly happened and what gases were released. Late decisions of evacuation and other responses were made, after the government first move of realizing and defining the accident and its possible consequences. B. De Marchi, S. Funtowicz, and J. Ravetz (1996), believe that Seveso had a better response than Bhopal, when a comparison between the two disasters were made. The Italian Government had more ability to absorb the affects in a shorter period of time.Unlike Bhopal, the process of recovery was reasonably good, due to the smaller affects, less damage and the high financial capability. There were compensations to victims, redeployment to people lost their jobs and there was some control on health long-term effects by monitoring them through a practical planned program. The main di fference between the effects of the accidents at Bhopal and Seveso is that many people died at Bhopal, whereas there was no any death cases reported in any article at Seveso. Death is considered a short-term effect. David (2002) believes they were roughly 7000 death cases at Bhopal.Baines (1993) mentioned other short-term effects at Bhopal such as difficulty and eye irritation. Similar symptoms appeared on Seveso survivors. Added to this, Shrivastava (1996) points out that people exposed to the released gas had some other short-effects such as cough, vomiting and chest pains. Long-term effects at Bhopal mainly were eye-sight weakness and high possibility of getting different kinds of Cancer. No long-term effects are in detail in â€Å"The long road to recovery†, (B. De Marchi, S. Funtowicz, and J. Ravetz 1996), neither in â€Å"Environmental Disasters†, (Baines 1993).These disasters had involved so many people, some were dead, and some were seriously injured . Also, so me people may have a great risk of getting the negative effect in their rest of lives. Due to these happened , there must be someone stand up and taking the responsibility for the huge damages and waste . In the disaster of Bhopal , the company which involved in was union Carbide , this company in USA was decreased their value of stocks by this failure. Furthermore, the Union Carbide in India has to accept to pay the funding for the patients and for the damages.Even though, the American company against to accept the legal responsibility which done by themselves. But, the local government and a lot of lawyers have sued the company, and they won the beat, so they got the funding for the injured families and hospitals. (â€Å"Bhopal India† DIS Covering Science). In contrast, according to â€Å"The long road to recovery†, by B. De Marchi, S. Funtowicz, and J. Ravetz (1996), the company of the Seveso had paid for the hospitals and government and any hurt, and they will be m ore concern about how to do the securities very carefully and reasonable.To avoiding these things happen again, every people and individuals have done something to prevent these kinds of disasters. First of all, according to the articles, local government had legislate some issues for caring the chemicals and warning people who were working with the chemicals must pay a lot of attentions on it. Also, the companies which producing the chemicals have to be located far from the high proportions of people in the neighborhoods and providing the knowledge for hospitals about how to cure the chemical disease.In conclusion, every one and society have to do something to avoid the disaster happen, because no one wants to die or wants to see other people dead. So, from these two disasters, People have studied how to prevent the disaster happen, and not just blame some one to take responsibility after the disasters. Even though these two serious events had happened years ago, it still named the one of the worst industrial disaster in the world, because many innocent people were died for it, and too many people had to injure the painful during their rest of lives. Essay Foundation 001Academic writing Comparing and contrast the chemical disasters at Bhopal in India and Seveso in Italy Student full name: Li Fei Lu (Lulu) Teacher: Chris Beard Essay length: 1190 words Reference A chronology of events at Seveso and Seveso adapted from B. De Marchi, S. Funtowicz, and J. Ravertz (1996) Seveso: A paradoxical classic in The long road discovery: Community responses to industrial disaster Edited by James K. Mitchell: United nations University Press. â€Å"Bhopal, India. † DISCovering Science. Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Reproduced in student Resource Center.Detroit: Gale, 2004. http://galenet. galegroup. com/servlet/SRC downloaded 26 November 2004 Cancer fears haunt survivors of Italian chemical disaster (1997) Cancer Weekly Plus Retrieved January 23, 2005, from the Expanded A cademic Database David, L (2002) Night of the Gas New Internationalist p34 (2) p9 Retrieved January 23, 2005, from the Expanded Academic Database Shrivastava, P (1996) Long-term recovery from the Bhopal crisis in The long road to recovery: Community responses to industrial disaster Edited by James K. Mitchell: United Nations University Press (adapted)

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The Conflict And Functionalist Theories Behind Social Class

Inequality materializes the upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class. In Australia, social class is a widely recognised concept, however some individuals, particularly the wealthy people, will argue that social class in non existent, that with hard work anyone can achieve, what they set their mind onto. The social stratification system, is based on objective criteria, including wealth, power, and prestige. The Australian notion of equal opportunity, insinuates that social class does not affect, the opportunities someone will have in life. However many sociologist, will argue that social class does create an underlying disadvantage, amongst groups in society, in particular education and health, of an individual is impacted. In this essay, I will strive to critically examine, the conflict and functionalist theories, behind social class. This will allow me to determine, weather some groups are constrained, or advantaged, by their current social status. Max Weber (1864-1920), a well known German sociologist, saw society was organised into status groups, with a common lifestyle. There are three factors, that determine an individuals chances in life which are, economic, status and power. When all these factors are combined, these elements create better circumstances, for an individual. It can therefore be noted, that an individuals social class, can have a large influence, on many parts of their life. A significant issue for sociologist and society, isShow MoreRelatedFunctionalist View Of The Law Making Process1349 Words   |  6 Pagesour laws. Three out of many theories of lawmaking processes are the Rationalistic model, Functionalistic view, and Conflict perspective. Rationalistic models view laws as a rational way of increasing protection for members of society from crimes which are â€Å"socially injurious† (Vago 2012). 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