The Ethics of Consequences Utilitarianism

Questions: 1. Outline the reasons why utilitarian argue that under some circumstances lying can be justified ethically.2.Use this example to illustrate the difference between act and rule utilitarianism and discuss the objections to each position.3.Using examples discuss the possible strengths and weaknesses of consequentialism and when discussing lying in the context of youth work or human services work.4.Draw conclusions about whether consequentialism can ever justify lying to colleagues and clients in human services work. Answers: 1. There are a number of reasons that lying can be justified ethically under some of the circumstances. One of the examples for the same can be considered with the help of the police chief. It can be assumed that the police chief has been terrorized for a long time by a child rapist. If it is found that the rapist has did because of some circumstances. Now the fear of the rapist is the past, but they couldnt be convinced that he would be a rapist (Hinman, 2012). If the same policeman has arrested another person as a rapist who only has six months to live, will it be useful? The public will feel that the town is safer again. The man to be punished will die soon and he will also get the better care in the jail in comparison to the streets. The Utilitarian act may actually be useful in convicting the man though he was to die soon. Here the police has told lie to the people that there is no rapist in the town but it is justified as the people will live a better life. 2. The example of the policeman mentioned above is related to act utilitarian. Its objective is to ensure that the man is convicted. It is important to ensure that the Rule Utilitarian needs to ensure that the rules are applicable without qualification or if they have the specific qualification. The rule states that one should keep the promise made to the dead. Also, if the rule utilitarian believes that they can make the qualification in cases related to following the rule, it would lead to the bad consequences. For example: if someone breaks the promise which he made to the dead, they are someone who can think like an act utilitarian. The may also admit that they can disregard the rule when the utility demands the same. Thus, again act utilitarian seems to collapse. 3. Consequentialism is a completely normative ethical theory. This states that ethical action and the proposed method are considered important for deciding which act is the right and an ethical act. Strength of consequentialism is that it can be applied ubiquitously because each and every result have some of the consequences which can be measured. In addition to this, it can be applied systematically. In order to explain this, an example should be studied. Suppose, there is a group of people who are enslaved but are provided with some of the comforts such as house, nutritious food and good working hours (Hinman, 2012). Also, they have entertainment such as television, movies, music etc. for free for being a good slave. Because of this, the slaves dont feel discontent about their state in life. The masters on the other hand feel that they have slaves and are happy about them. But, the ultimate consequences of the act are that they are slaves. Also, slavery is something which cant be j ustified. 4. Consequentialism is something in which the results only lie on the final consequences of any incident. This is important to be considered as it can help the people to live their life in a proper manner. If the people are constantly under fears and tension, they will not be happy. But lying to the colleagues and clients in the human services work can be useful in many ways. References Hinman, L. (2012).Ethics: A pluralistic approach to moral theory. Nelson Education.