Exploring Scheffler's Aspirations in Moral Theories

1674 Words4 Pages

For years many philosophers have tries to create a perfect working system of what they think morality is. In all the claims of what morality is none could agree. So each wrote their own ideas on what morality entail thus presenting the augments to the public in the judging of why and which theory was the best. However, Scheffler in his, Morality’s demand and their Limits, evaluate all the concepts that the ideal moral theory must have. This essay will discuss the ideas that Scheffler presents in relation to John Stuart Mill moral theory of Utilitarianism. Scheffler gave three aspiration explaining what an ethical theory concept of morality must have. He stated them as: Pervasiveness, Stringency/ demanding and overriding. Pervasiveness speaks …show more content…

Just think, what good is a moral/ ethical theory if you can just ignore some parts of the theory by saying it doesn’t apply to me or forget about it. Overriding is explain in that nothing should top morality. Morality is then therefore a law unto itself. These ideas will be used to question and explain if Utilitarianism is an ideal moral theory. Utilitarianism emphasize two big ideas, the greatest happiness principle and that each action should be judge to be moral by their consequences. The Greatest Happiness Principle states that, the action that produces the greatest happiness for everyone is the best course of action to be taken. So this paper will evacuate how The Greatest Happiness Principle of Utilitarianism can fits in the areas of Scheffler ideals of Pervasiveness, Stringency/ demanding and overriding. Explain why even if Utilitarianism fits the aspirations description of what a true moral theory is many would not consider this the way to live. While the Greatest Happiness Theory would considered to be the ideal feature of an ethical it fail to predict the future, will is why I argued on the base on Scheffler theory …show more content…

But Scheffler had “to concluded that this theory in question cannot be acceptable” (Scheffler, pp, 536). The idea of The Greatest happiness theory is that a person must consider the consequences that his action has on everyone. The theory demands that you must consider that the feeling of your daughter to that of a homeless man. This idea is impractical because no one would want to live in a world where you are subjected to rein in your emotions to match a society idea of acceptance. This is why this theory could not work. While it is true that there is a golden rule that states to do onto other as you would have them do unto to you. Everyone should be treated with equality, yes, but not everyone matter to a person. No one would follow this theory. No one would want to follow this theory it is inconvenient to all those involved. If for example say at you want to be a gift for your daughter and they are a homeless family, this principle states instead of buying the gift for your daughter you should give the money to the homeless family. The happiness that the gift would have brought your daughter would be nothing compared to the happiness that they money given to the homeless family would cause. The fact is that you should forsake your love one for a stranger. The idea that everyone should be treated equality would require that everyone being poor, because if you are giving all

Open Document