Kantianism Vs Utilitarianism Essay
In our situation, Jane has put Rosa in a bit of a predicament. Should she accept the money and help her family, while also letting Jane continue to help the environmental charity? Should she not? If she does not, should she turn Jane in? To try and help solve this problem, we are going to focus one two branches of ethics, Utilitarianism and Kantianism. I’m going to focus on Bentham’s version of Utilitarianism, as the two lines of thinking seem to differ the most when his version is used. The odd part is, even though the two theories are so different, I believe that they will reach the same conclusion in this situation. The main idea of Kantianism is that we need to respect each other’s autonomy and treat people as ends
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Should Rosa follow this way of thinking, she would not take the money. While the money would help her family, there is a risk that the embezzling will be discovered. If that happens, there is nothing stopping Rosa from losing her job, going to jail, and no longer being able to support her family. Even if the risk is small, it is still there. It would lead to a lot of suffering for her and her family, and the reward does not outweigh the suffering that could turn up. So now the next question is should she turn in Jane? The ‘energy corporation that nets billions of dollars annually,’ will not miss the several thousand dollars that Jane is taking, and with the environmental charity depending on the money, the good far outweighs the bad. At this point, even if the embezzling is found out, Jane will take most, if not all, of the punishment, and Rosa will be able to say that she missed the small amount. She may receive some punishment, but not enough to lead to an arrest. Through this course of action, I believe that she will produce the most good, without taking much risk
Should Rosa follow this way of thinking, she would not take the money. While the money would help her family, there is a risk that the embezzling will be discovered. If that happens, there is nothing stopping Rosa from losing her job, going to jail, and no longer being able to support her family. Even if the risk is small, it is still there. It would lead to a lot of suffering for her and her family, and the reward does not outweigh the suffering that could turn up. So now the next question is should she turn in Jane? The ‘energy corporation that nets billions of dollars annually,’ will not miss the several thousand dollars that Jane is taking, and with the environmental charity depending on the money, the good far outweighs the bad. At this point, even if the embezzling is found out, Jane will take most, if not all, of the punishment, and Rosa will be able to say that she missed the small amount. She may receive some punishment, but not enough to lead to an arrest. Through this course of action, I believe that she will produce the most good, without taking much risk