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know the victim is your son. Kant’s formulation of the categorical imperative over-
simplifies the decision making process and denies that, in reality, values have a
fundamental role in the application of the theory.
Kant’s theory assumes that we can remove individual preferences and deduce our moral
duty from pure reason. But this is not possible. If reason actually worked this way, then
there would be no ethical dilemmas; each person, using reason, would be able to
deduce and act on the categorical imperative in any given situation. And presumably,
employing pure reason, all individuals would deduce the same moral obligation. In
reality, however, the morality of action reached is dependent on the individual
evaluation of the evidence within the context in which the decision is made. Through
reason we can establish our moral duty, but not without values to guide and inform our
decisions.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory most closely associated with the English
philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarians argue that the rightness
or wrongness of actions can be judged by the amount of happiness promoted by an
action. This theory is in direct contrast to Kant’s. Where deontology is concerned only
with moral duty and the rightness of an action itself, utilitarianism is concerned only
with the outcomes of actions and how much pleasure or happiness is produced by the
action.
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the
Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion
as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the
reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the
absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.
Mill, 1972, p. 7
The utilitarian formula, however, raises two fundamental considerations. Firstly, should
maximisation of happiness be the ultimate consideration in deciding the right or
wrongness of actions? Secondly, if we are primarily concerned with maximising
pleasure and minimising pain, how are these to be calculated?
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