The Good, the Right, and the Obligatory
NT utilitarianism may be said conventionally to be a moral theory of the good; SJ deontology, a theory of the right. But neither the good nor the right are the same as obligatory. The way to connect these terms is to say (1) that pure utilitarianism commands one to execute the most profitable course of action, i.e., that it is obligatory to maximize the good; (2) that pure deontology commands one to respect the rights of others, i.e., that it is obligatory to obey the moral law, to adhere to one’s duties and thereby to the right; and (3) that rule utilitarianism will demand that a combined approach be followed. In other words, all morality is a set of orders or prescriptions; it says what one shall or shall not do; but different moral theories will differ as to what those orders are.
Posted: September 10th, 2008 under Ethics, Philosophy.