Ethics & Society Assignment Coversheet

Phil 27 Ethics & Society Assignment Coversheet

Students are expected to follow UCSD polices on academic integrity in completing all class work. These policies prohibit plagiarism or collusion. Plagiarism means to take and use another person’s ideas and/or manner of expressing them and to pass these off as one’s own by failing to give appropriate acknowledgement. This includes material from any source, staff, students or the Internet – published and unpublished works. Collusion is the presentation of work which is the result in whole or in part of unauthorized collaboration with another person or persons.

By submitting their work with this coversheet, students pledge that they have complied with UCSD’s policies on academic integrity in completing the assignment. More information about UCSD’s polices is available at:

http://libraries.ucsd.edu/locations/sshl/guides/preventing-plagiarism/ucsd-policies.html

Insert question text here: Compare cultural relativism to either utilitarianism or deontology. Which theory is better and why?

Insert main text word count here: 1818

Insert essay here.

Xinwei Zhang

04/21/2014

TA: Chirag

Lamey

Utilitarianism and Cultural Relativism both have their own unique appeals, the former for its intent to increase overall happiness in a society, and the latter for preventing us from criticizing other cultures for their unique practices. Both of these philosophies seek to consider the greater good of others as well as one’s own good—Utilitarianism by allowing us to make decisions to benefit society as a whole and Cultural Relativism by allowing us to tolerate other societies and their unique moral codes. However, Utilitarianism should be embraced more than Cultural Relativism because it has the potential to impose change and progress upon society, while Cultural Relativism indicates that everything established is already correct. Utilitarianism carries out change for the better upon a society by allowing its members to think of solutions to existing problems to increase net happiness for everyone, increasing equality, and sacrificing a smaller amount of happiness to attain greater happiness.

Introduction: What are all these concepts about? What do they set out to achieve?

Utilitarianism and Cultural Relativism, though both appealing, have very different aims and concepts. Utilitarianism can be seen as goal-oriented, and always on the move to change society for the better. John Stuart Mill argues that Utilitarianism focuses on taking into account not only the quantity, but the quality of happiness attained when taking a particular action. In the chapter What Utilitarianism Is, Mill distinguishes a higher quality of happiness from animalistic happiness, which focuses on short-lived pleasure. He defines a higher quality of “happiness” as a pleasure that one would choose over another pleasure even if it’s accompanied by discomfort. He also clears up the misconception that happiness is equal to contentment. Mill proposes that those who seek higher happiness are often questioning the world and the limitations of their society by saying that “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied” (Mills 121). This indicates that a utilitarian is always questioning his or her society and the established norms that appeal to the majority. Because they are constantly questioning the society, people who follow Utilitarianism may appear as rebellious individuals amongst their culture, which people may look down upon for breaking the established rules. However, many cases in history, such as Rosa Park’s act of defiance that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Farber’s manipulation of Jimmy’s Fund to engage the United States into awareness for cancer, have proven that sacrificing conformity and defying society’s rules ultimately benefits society as a whole. Therefore, Utilitarianism can be seen as a means to guide society in the right direction by questioning what is already established.