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Midterm Exam Q1
Compare and contrast the utilitarian and Kantian schools…
Midterm Exam Q1
Compare and contrast the utilitarian and Kantian schools of thought on the best criteria for moral assessment. Carefully explain the role that impartiality plays in each and ways their assessments can conflict.
Moral Assessment
considered moral assessment is free from bias and distorting passions. We generally trust such a judgment unless there is a reason to doubt it.
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Utilitarian
right actions are those that directly produce the greatest overall happiness, everyone considered.
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Kantian
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single categorical imperative with maxims, self-evident and based on reasoning
universal (applying to all persons) and absolutist, moral laws that have no exceptions.
Impartiality
From the moral point of view, all persons are considered equal and should be treated accordingly.
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Kant’s theory: moral law applies to everyone the same way (absolutist), the rights and duties of persons override any consequentialist calculus.
Kant vs Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism: the rightness of an action depends solely on its consequences, on what results the action produces for the individuals involved.
Kant: the consequences of actions for particular individuals never enter into the equation. An action is right if and only if it possesses a particular property—the property of according with the categorical imperative, of not involving a logical contradiction.