Monday, February 23, 2009

utilitarianism and moral rights?

Lyons makes an important distinction about the question the argument pertains to on page 124 saying, "our question is not whether utilitarianism or efficiency analysis could regard such institutions as justified or morally defensible. Our question is what significance such a theorist must attach to that fact when it comes to evaluating conduct in the context of those rules; for example, in determining how an official in such a system should behave".

I'm struggling with the term "human welfare" and how it is applied in a utilitarian sense. Lyons concludes "the aim of promoting some value like human welfare is as relevant to individual acts as it is to social institutions; the later application does not rule out the former. But unless utilitarianism is restricted, its direct application to conduct undermines respect for the very rights it wishes to endorse" (pg 136).

After re-reading this conclusion and thinking more about 'how an official in such a system should behave' that I feel a bit confused. Would such an official choose an action he was ordered to do if he felt that it did not maximize the overall human welfare even though the institution he belongs to was said to promote the overall human welfare?

1 comment:

  1. That is where my confusion is too! Did we discuss this in class today at all?

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