Utilitarianism As The Principle Of Happiness Philosophy Essay

Utilitarianism As The Principle Of Happiness Philosophy Essay According to John Stuart Mill (author of Utilitarianism), utility is happiness, and happiness is pleasure minus pain. Widely known as a universal hedonism, utilitarianism is an ethical philosophy in which the most ethical acts are those which serve to increase the happiness for the most people or at the very least, decreases the suffering for the most people. Nonetheless, albeit with the fact that happiness is recognized as a universal though objectively valuable goal , utilitarianism has been for centuries recognized as the doubt of most moral philosophers, criticized for being impractical, cold and distant from individual rights and the real complexities of life. Bernard Williams is one of the critics, who brought about explicit series of objections against utilitarianism in his book, A Critique of Utilitarianism (Williams 1973b). Obviously, it is impossible for me to cover all areas concerning utilitarianism and so concentrating on morality objections, I will first of all attempt to present Bernard Williams integrity objection and the well known counter-examples against utilitarianism. Then, I will try to counter these objections, and rebutted Williams argument with stern objections as well, with Mills Utilitarianism as my reference. At the end of this essay, I hope to show that utilitarianism is indeed right, and likewise, moral intuitions are without a doubt unreliable to be used as a base in criticising utilitarianism. From what I can understand, Williams believes that utilitarianism fails to recognise the reality of complexities in life, the value of integrity, and as I mentioned earlier, individual rights. Morality comes with the recognition of individual rights and if decisions or judgments are made based on numerical value of the greatest number of happiness in a situation, the happiness of this lesser number group is ignored. Hence, integrity failed to be satisfied. In order to maximize the number of happiness, simply favour the largest number of members in a group and this irked the mind of Williams. Moreover, according to Williams, a normal utilitarian man wouldnt be able to fulfil the demanding ridiculous principle of utilitarianism. It is asking too much of an individual person and so because of that the theory must be flawed. From experience itself we can be sure that morality indeed, does not require so much of us.   Yet, the latter argument of Williams can still be argued as it is not that the theory is demanding, it is just that people dont want to fulfil their moral obligations, and that we just dont like being told to do what we dont want to do.   After all, a moral theory that wouldnt ask us to do what we dont want to do would be useless. Critics of utilitarianism have never fail to construct hypothetical situations where in each of them is the definite clear expectation of what the utilitarian would say, and it is also clear that the saying of the utilitarian would always be potentially wrong in almost all hypothetical cases. These counter-examples against utilitarianism do not conclusively show that utilitarianism is wrong, but indeed they are common reasons why people are rejecting it. And so because of that, I will present two such common counter-examples and the expected utilitarian response for these counter examples. First Counter-Example: Hypothetically speaking, there would be a television show of the future, a show where a person is taken and subjected to tortures on the show.   This is a pay-per-view show that costs a good amount of money to get.   Only people who want to see the show will ever see it, but there are a large number of people who get a great amount of pleasure from seeing this plus all the profits go to charity.   This isnt a regular program, it may only happen once.   Should this show be made? Speaking in a utilitarian manner, it is indeed right to give a green light to this show as even though, it is really sad and bad for this one person, it is however, brings a lot of happiness and pleasure to those who will see it (obviously thousands of watchers). Moreover, all the profits will go to the charity thus benefited a lot more people! Clearly, the benefits outweigh the harms. But obviously, it is indeed still wrong to torture people. This could indeed be the main argument of the opponents. Regardless of the benefits, it is still a violation of that tortured mans rights. Furthermore, to enjoy watching the torture could indeed be more morally wrong than to be physically involved in the show. Second Counter-Example: Jim, a botanist travelling in South America, comes upon a public execution in a small town. A military captain has lined up 20 Indians. He explains to Jim that they have been chosen at random from the local population, which has recently been protesting against the government. The captain offers Jim a guests privilege. If Jim wishes, he can select one of the Indians and shoot him; the other nineteen will then go free. Otherwise, the execution by the captains henchman, Pedro, will go as planned. Utilitarianism seems to claim that it is obvious that the right thing to do is for Jim to just select one of these Indians to be shot at, so that another 20 lives could be spared. To not choose, or refusing to choose could lead to unhappiness of 20 persons, whereas to choose could only cause unhappiness of one. And so as we are referring to the theory of maximizing utility, to lose one is better than to lose 20. However, the objector will claim that it is just obvious that this is the wrong thing to do.   Killing a persons life is still wrong for whatever the reason is. From what that I can deduce, the two counter-examples have one thing in common that is our sense of Morality or our moral intuitions clashes with the principles that utilitarianism hold. Indeed, opposite commands. Nevertheless, it does not mean that utilitarianism must be wrong or flawed. First of all, the arguments made by these counter-examples can only be conclusive if only our moral intuitions are correct.   However, as we all know, our moral intuitions are volatile due to the complexities of life and due to the significant numbers of gray areas that could result in confusion, according to Mill, that is why we refer to moral theories in the first place. Since it is unclear to us of the universal approval for moral intuitions, the critics cannot use their moral intuitions as the base for rejecting a moral theory which is in this case, the moral theory of utilitarianism. Indeed, of course, for example, stealing is a disgrace yet to think of it now, maybe our other supposed to be right moral beliefs might be wrong. Yet, is stealing really wrong? What about Robin Hood? Is he a hero or just a plain mere thief? The point that Im trying to state here is that we dont really know which are right and which are wrong. Our moral beliefs are inconsistent.   Some may percei ved certain things are right. Some may not. And so, we cannot know that our common sense moral intuitions about The Torture Show or Jim and The 21 Indians are right mainly because we dont really know which of our moral beliefs to trust. Second of all, the counter-examples are based on complicated moral situations; and truth to be told, biased as have they are design in such a way that the morally right answer seem obvious.   In reference to Jim and the 21 Indians, let me re-describe the situation to highlight the utilitarian benefit. Indeed, it is hard to overlook how terrible the consequences would be if 20 Indians are to be killed, when Jim has the power to prevent that. We must acknowledge the fact that, yes, although it is easy to sympathize with one innocent unfortunate person, we must also sympathize with the other 20 people, each of whom will suffer greatly if they are to be killed.  In this case, the morally right action is not obvious.  The situations presented are almost always unusual and extraordinary they are situations that one is unlikely to come across, much less to be prepared for when one does come across it.   And so conclusively, we based our moral intuitions on our moral educations. Mor al education is applicable to our daily lives and if it was to be applied in aggravating counter-examples and in every possible situation, it is indeed impossible. And so because of that, moral intuitions are not valid and any objections based on them are flawed and can be disregarded. Conclusively, these could somehow rebut the arguments made by William on the basis of integrity and morality. Conclusively, we can actually deduce that things that are morally wrong usually involve the harming of people and things that are of high moral values such as charity work, heroic deeds all contribute to the welfare of the people. Moreover, it is not a coincidence that wrong actions harm people and right action help people.  Indeed, utilitarianism claimed that the reason that right actions are right is that they help people, and the reason that wrong actions are wrong is because they harm people.   The basis of morality is inside the principle of utilitarianism. You make people happy when you help them and you make them unhappy when you harm them. And so, conclusively, as long as a person accepts that it is best to help people as much as possible and hurt them as little as possible, he or she must accept that utilitarianism is right! Works Cited/References: Crisp, Roger 1997: Routledge Philosophy Guide Book to Mill on Utilitarianism. E. Goodin, Robert 1995: Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy. Mill, John Stuart (Reprinted in Penguin Classics 1985, first published in 1859): On Liberty. Would you kill someone to save one hundred people? CreateDebate. Retrieved on 15th November 2009, from http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/ould_you_kill_ someone_to_save_one_hundred_people Utilitarianism Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved on 12th November 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism Bernard Williams Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved on 12th November 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Williams Introduction to utilitarianism. Retrieved on 16th November 2009 from http://www.utilitarian.org/utility.html Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill Retrieved on 18th November 2009 from http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill2.htm

Unit 2 – the Developing Child

Unit 2 – The Developing Child D1) The main aspects of social development for Children aged 4 years are; * They like playing and socialising with other children as this helps progress things more like speech, confidence and social skills. * Take turns and share (most of the time); may still be rather bossy. * Seek out adult approval. So if they were to hurt themselves they would still go to an adult or when they are tired they would still go to an adult for comfort. * Understand and obeys simple rules (most of the time). Capable of feeling jealous, for example if you were to show another child more attention than another child, this child would become jealous and may show anger. * Begin to understand things more like, danger, feelings and reasons toward things. * Have more of an imagination, for example they may have imaginary friends and can make up stories. Children with learning disabilities might not reach these mile stones like children without disabilities. Childcare work ers need to plan for these children so that they can meet their individual needs.According to Tassoni, page 41, â€Å"For children, this area of development is important too, as they will want to play with other children and have to learn to share and be with others in group situations, such as in school. D2) The main aspects of social development for children aged 5 years are; * Now choose their friends, for example, they have certain friends they like to play with. * Takes turns, shares (sometimes) for example, when drawing and sharing pencil crayons. * Enjoys co-operative activities and also group play. * Says please and thank you when offered something to eat or drink. Shows kindness to other children, inviting them to play and being helpful. * Resolves conflicts before seeking adult help. * Carries on with conversation with adults and children. D3) One suitable method of observing the social development of children aged 5 years could be to carry out a time sample observation. This is used to record the time, interaction, who their socialising with, so I would write down the initials of the child they were socialising with, the activity like drawing or painting, and the comments that I would write about the whole observation.I could record this by taking photos and then storing them into the child’s personal records and development file so I could use this as evidence towards their development and social skills with other kids. I would carry this out for 5 minutes every half hour, during the course of the morning. D4) One advantage of this observation method would be that you are able to observe the child to find whether they are struggling with anything like a subject, and we are able to see if they’re not socialising very well or whether they are withdrawn.One disadvantage of this method is that the child maybe camera shy and may stop socialising and interacting once I start to take photos of the development that is taking place. This woul d affect the whole observation as there will be no progress being made so I would not be able to record anything. D5) A child’s social development may be affected by the transitions in their lives such as a family member, they may have bonded with, could have died and this would affect the child a lot.Such as, the child may start showing aggressive behaviour towards people and may get frustrated easier when they find a task difficult. This would make the child regress. A positive transition could be that if the parent or parents take their child to places such as play areas, the child would be able to socialise with other children and they will see their parent socialising with other parents. This would make the child to be more confident and help make friends easier. This would positively influence the child to socialise and interact with other children.D6) Snack and Meal times help support a child’s social development. It helps because the children are more likely to sit next to their friends. While they are eating they lunch, it is common that most children will tell each other what they have to eat and drink and if they have animal shaped biscuits they may play a little game like zoos, and this helps their imagination and social development. This is called associative play. D7) Inclusive practice means that everyone should be included into activities, no matter what their nationality is, or their sex or whether hey have disabilities. It is important to include everyone in activities because if someone was left out, it may make them feel unwanted, lonely, may make their confidence drop, they may show anger and it will also cause unwanted behaviour. Everyone should be included in activities as it helps make new friends, boost self-confidence and help them socialise better. All activities should meet the need of all children especially if there are any disabilities. C) If a child was in a nursery and a parent was to give birth to a baby, this ma y affect the child which is in nursery.It may affect them because the new born baby will be receiving a lot of attention so this may make the child in the nursery, feel left out as the child is used to being the only child and all the attention being on them. This will cause anger and the child may stop sharing things with other children and become selfish and the child may regress in everything they have accomplished, such as they could wet themselves, behaviour will become bad and they may also stop talking about issues.B1) When a child is moving house a practitioner can support the child in this transition by making it a fun process and a fun thing to be doing. The practitioner could ask what colours their bedroom is going to be, what they are going to have in it and where they want everything to be placed. Practitioners can even make their time at their setting as fun as it can be so it takes the situation of the child’s mind or they could even read them a story about mov ing house to help the child understand it is not always a bad process.B2) Observations can be used to identify individual needs. Observations are important to be carried out because it identifies if a child is struggling in a certain area for example, they may have problems with numbers like counting, spelling simple words, participating in group activities or trouble socialising. Once the problem is identified then the person observing can the deal with the problem and help the child where they are struggling. This is why it is important to observe each child separately and carefully.A*) It is important that practitioners understand, the pattern of development of children, from birth to 16 years because; at each age and stage there are different mile stones for them to reach. These are like goals that are set to be accomplished. The practitioners need to know this so they can help the child progress in what the child is capable of achieving. If the practitioner did not know the mil estones for each stage then the practitioner could be holding the child back or aiming to high for what they want the child to do.Also at each stage the child will show different behaviours and the practitioners need to know what they are, otherwise the practitioners might think it’s inappropriate. They might tell them of when the child is actually showing behaviours that are expected in a child of that age. The behaviour may be caused by learning disabilities, so the practitioner would need to know how to handle the situation appropriately, or even call in a professional to help the need of that child and help the child progress.A*) Routines are important for young children because it adds structure to their day. This helps because they like to know what is coming next so they don’t get confused. The main parts of the routine, e. g meal times, coming in in the mornings and home time, in a setting should be kept the same daily this could include, children coming in in the morning and hanging their coats and bags up straight away, then sitting down for circle time and share news with their friends for 15- 30 minutes, then they will have free time to do messy things or play what they want to play to socialise.Free time gives the children the opportunity to develop their physical skills and social skills. After free time they will be called for snack time. During snack time it is important for children to get the right nutrients for the energy they need and use. Then they will have free play again for about an hour and a half then it will be lunch time, then story time, then they would be told to go and get their coats and bags to go home. Then the children will be called out one by one when their parents can be seen.When I was in placement at a nursery I saw they had a set routine that met the needs of every child, this worked because the children were aware of what is going on and what is happening next. I saw that this also helped their behaviour because they knew what they were doing as soon as they came in. Therefor in the future when I work with children I will know that keeping to a set routine, helps get through the day easier, without any confusions or uncertainty and everyone including staff knows what their role is for the day. Penny Tassoni Childcare and Education Cache Level 2 Published by Heinemann 2007

How Different Stages Contribute Towards A Successful Outcome

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