Applied Ethics Using Social Contact Theory

It is a philosophical perspective concerning the evaluation of different things involving alternatives in human perspective. Examples of things that may need evaluation to be carried out on them include; laws, rules and regulations, policies, moral standards, and personalities. This approach to ethics is a type of consequentialism since it holds that only impacts or consequences concerning the aforementioned things that can be evaluated through the application of utilitarianism can help in determining their goodness or badness and whether they are right or wrong. Generally, irrespective of what is being evaluated, it is important to identify the option that would generate the most favorable outcome. Utilitarian call this as the alternative that maximizes satisfaction. It is therefore important to include utilitarianism in any study relating to moral philosophy for it to be considered serious.

Here is an example where utilitarianism could help. Consider a trolley approaching five people working on the road. You are at the control station which is in a far distant and you are in a position of switching the trolley to approach another track that having a single worker. If you put on the switch, only one person would get killed and if you fail to do anything a total of five people are killed and now it is a concern as to whether or not to switch it on. According to act utilitarianism, an individual’s action of morality should be judged by referring to the general stated rules of morality and these specific guidelines of morality should be judged by considering whether accepting them in the moral standards generates more benefits than other alternative guidelines.

The difference existing in the two types of utilitarianism is given that act utilitarianism uses the principle of utilitarian directly in evaluating actions done by individuals. Rule utilitarianism, on the other hand, uses the principle of utilitarianism directly in evaluating rules after which it evaluates the actions committed by individuals by considering their obedience or disobedience to those guidelines acceptable in producing the best utility (Baron, p. An example is where a judge has the option of sending a thief to jail or convicting him/her with the knowledge that he/she will never commit the crime again due to certain reasons such as the criminal being old or is ill. It is known by the judge that if he sets the criminal free, there would be happiness not only from the convict himself/herself but also from the parents and all family members since they had forgiven him/her and would wish that he/she be released.

These provisions are absolute. For example, it is bad to lie with the intention of saving a life. If a person wants to kill another person and make inquiries from you the place where this individual to be killed could be, it would be considered bad if you tell lies to the murderer in as much as this could be in a position of preventing the victim from being killed. Act utilitarianism also leaves out morality based on rules since they are rigid in identifying the group of activities considered good or bad. It argues that it is wrong to take the whole group of acts as good or bad since their impacts are different if they are to be committed in various perspectives given that ethics concentrates on the possible results of actions committed individually.

The other two types include; the deontology and the virtue ethics but they are not common. The distinctions that separate them are that consequentialism considers that morality concerns itself with favorable results; deontology considers that good rules are what constitutes morality, while virtue ethics argues that it is good people that constitute morality. Secondly, utilitarianism argues that decisions should be made by considering the most possible impact on the results needed. Deontology reasons that there is a need to identify a system of rules guiding morality and they are to be followed without deviating from them. Virtue ethics on the other hand reasons that we should always aim at becoming generous, having honesty, being brave, and being compassionate towards one another.