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Utilitarianism
(redirected from Utilitarian ethics)

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Utilitarianism
The philosophy holding that moral actions must provide the greatest good to the greatest number of persons. Utilitarianism emphasizes the consequences of actions when evaluating their morality. For example, a utilitarian may regard a lie to a regulator as moral if it saves 2,000 jobs. Critics of utilitarianism contend that consequences are unknowable and argue that it could be used to defend atrocities. Utilitarians, on the other hand, argue that their philosophy is the best way to improve happiness in the aggregate.
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The Vatican's interest in PVS is also driven by its reaction to utilitarianism--especially in English-speaking nations and particularly in Australia, where philosophical utilitarian ethics is perhaps most radical.
Preserving life? The Vatican & PVS by Sulmasy, Daniel P. / Commonweal
That, my dears, is straight up, utilitarian ethics in action.
Performing seals: a nursing consultant and child of postmodernism, ... by Cottingham, Chris / Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand
This view is captured in Wordsworth's famous line "We murder to dissect," which reflects the feeling of the Romantics that the cold analytic tools of science and utilitarian ethics represent an overly rationalistic, calculating and ultimately deadening approach to life that ignores or destroys nature, feeling, beauty, and art.
Self and other: tensions within modern liberal individualism and ... by Harrist, R. Steven; Richardson, Frank C. / Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table
 
 
 
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