Utilitarian Case Study
Utilitarian Case Study
Philanthropist for a day~
If you have not read our lesson this week about utilitarianism and its main proponent, John Stuart Mill, you should do so before beginning this assignment. You’ll play a starring role: you act as a philanthropist, with part of your endowment to distribute, using ends-based ethics, a share of your resources. It need not be a direct money payment; it can be practical assistance with employment, housing, amenities, debt, education, or any other desired positive consequence. The amount is up to you, and the way you utilize the greater good. There are twelve applicants. How will you decide?
This week’s assignment follows this article about twelve Americans interviewed by the N.Y. Times in the autumn of 2020. (Links to an external site.) All had fallen on hard times. Imagine your philanthropic charity’s board of trustees as your audience. Use two or three quotes or paraphrases from Mill’s work (this requires library research) to support your decision, but you’re not writing primarily as a philosopher. Rather, you’re a benefactor who has grown to trust this philosophy in your profession. Now you’re applying it to assist recipients from among the twelve individuals–imagine they each applied for assistance from your charity. This assistance will draw from the endowment you’ve set aside for your enterprise to support good works. How many you choose to reward–that’s where Mill guides your utilitarian calculation. All? Some? One? None? Whether you award a financial or a practical form of assistance is up to you–this is an option you adapt to the ends desired.
You should walk your trustees through your decision from beginning to end. If this were a math assignment, you’d show your work. It’s not a math assignment, though, so the only wrong answer is one that you don’t effectively support.
Note: You may find that the real you does not actually agree with the utilitarian choice, or even that the utilitarian choice is not one a charity would ultimately support. That’s okay! You’re an imaginary zillionaire. You’re simply practicing arguing from this perspective. The funds and the method are what you’ll explain.
Each of you uploads only his/her own version, and his/her particular choice of principles, applications, and examples–these are up to you, individually.
A one-sentence thesis laying out the presentation’s guiding idea and the main points supporting it (the main points occur in items 2 and 3, below). No separate title slide is needed, as this part segues into:
Two main slides, one that explains your chosen situation, and one that explains how utilitarianism applies, to select from among the twelve “recipient candidates” we imagine from your assigned NYT article. How many you reward is your decision, as you use Mill’s concepts to justify your judgment. These slides should have in-text citations for all quotes, paraphrases, and outside information that you use as support for your ends-based explanation. Address specifics about how you support your distribution of assistance.
A third body slide that explores why you rely on Mill’s consequentialism in explaining how the “greatest good” is so important to “long-term happiness” that it underlies the aid you’re awarding. Include citations if applicable.
A conclusion that reflects upon your thesis and how you’ve supported it. Add what insights you benefited from and from whom in your “set” classmates. Be sure in this assignment to connect it to Mill explicitly.
Your collaborative set will benefit from your meeting with classmates, to brainstorm, and perhaps find a common problem or predicament to narrow in on. If you use illustrations, they aren’t casual clipart, but related to the topic precisely.
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