Find an ethical issue which occurred within the last year or find an ethical issue faced by a fictional character.
TITLE - type the name of the person or article title and the philosophy you are applying.
Example - President Obama - Act Utility
If you use an article be sure your article was published within the last year.
SUMMARIZE - In paragraph one give a summary of the article/person/character, in case I am not familiar with them.
ETHICAL ISSUE - State the ethical issue that person faced - Use proper format - Make it bold print and a SHOULD QUESTION.
APPLICATION - Using the steps outlined in your text, apply each step to the situation. Fully show your application. Use a chart as seen in your text.
Helpful hint - Don't forget if a stakeholder is more than one person (a group, a family, a business etc.) estimate how many are in the group and multiply the happiness number you generated by the number of persons in the group (see text).
CONCLUSION (last step in the application) - Choose the best option. If that person were a true Act Utilitarian - what would that person have done. What would the Utilitarian theory say is the morally right or best thing to do?
Be sure to see Sample Format below
SAMPLE FORMAT
Summarize the article or briefly discuss the character and the issue surrounding the character.
Helpful Hints
The main ethical issue is stated in the proper format and a happiness/unhappiness scale is added.
The number I determine will represent happiness/unhappiness is added.
I then multiply that number by the number of stakeholders if there is more than one stakeholder.
Lastly the options columns are added showing the option(s) with the highest net utility.
Applying Act Utilitarianism - Using a chart as shown in chapter 5.
Ethical issue - What should X do about _________________?
Scale = Happiness +10---------------------------0--------------------------- -10 Unhappy
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Options →
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X could
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X could
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X could
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X could
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Stakeholders ↓
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Stakeholder 1
Name (1000 people)
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
+10
10 x 1000 = +10,000
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
-10
10 x 1000 = -10,000
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
.
+10
10 x 1000 = +10,000
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
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+10
10 x 1000 = +10,000
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Stakeholder 2
Name (1 person)
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
+10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option..
-10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
notice
-10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
+5
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Stakeholder 3
Name (1 person)
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+7
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
-10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+10
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Stakeholder 4
Name (1 person)
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
+5
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option..
-10
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
-7
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Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
-7
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Net Utility
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+10,022
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-10,030
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+9,993
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+10,008
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Conclusion - The option with the greatest Net Utility, which will bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people is ___.