“Utilitarianism is certainly not compatible with a spiritual approach to ethics” To what magnitude is this a fair statement? Ultimately utilitarianism can be described as way of increasing the lives of most people, and spiritual ethics likewise aims to act out of empathy and want to improve the lives of others. For instance , Christianity offers certain rules that profit those in society. We can say that they are many of those rules are tied up in with the laws of the country.
For example, Murder and stealing are illegal and you could be reprimanded if you do possibly. Parts of Mill’s theory of rule utilitarianism can be applied to religious values. For example Generator compared the principle of utility to these Christian theories, “you must love your neighbour because yourself. ” And “do to others whenever you would have all of them do for you. ” In rule utilitarianism it looks at care for the consumer and therefore this may support these Christian teachings as this is a very adoring thing to do. Yet , Bentham’s theory of Act Utilitarianism will not be supported by any Christian theories mainly because it promotes locating pleasure, whether or not by obtaining pleasure this means you take action immorally.
For example , if there were a room full of around 20 persons, all of those persons hated one individual in the group. Bentham’s theory would justify the eliminating of that person as it brings about the greatest pleasure for the best number, nevertheless Christians can be totally against that mainly because it breaks the 6th commandment, “thou will not kill. ” This declaration could be seen as unfair while bringing about enjoyment for the greatest number of people could count as the most loving action to take, “agape” in Christian’s eyes. It would be one of the most loving action to take for the highest number of people, nevertheless it could goal individuals and this would break the teaching, “love thy neighbour. ” Overall Utilitarianism is not really compatible with a religious approach to ethics as some activities, for example homicide, would be regarded wrong no matter what the circumstance, specifically for Orthodox and Catholic Christian believers.
