Ethical Approaches Of The Book Justice By Michael J. Quot...

There are 6 ethical approaches in the book Justice by Michael J. Sandel: Utilitarianism, Libertarianism, Locke, Kant, Rawls, and Aristotle. These 6 approaches attempt to explain what should just and what should not. Utilitarianism focuses on the idea that, â€Å"the highest principle or morality is to maximize happiness, the overall balance of pleasure over pain.† The chapter begins with a story about four English sailors who became stranded at sea and who carefully used up all their resources before making a horrific choice between life and death. Finally when there were no other options Dudley, the captain, suggested who should die in order to save the rest of the men, he motioned to another male that they would choose Parker, the seventeen year old orphan cabin boy, they then killed the boy. For the four following days they fed off Parker’s body and blood before they were eventually rescued. Now looking at this from a utilitarian point of view killing Parker was the perfect choice, he was an orphan, therefore, he had no family and a few friends to go to, he was also very sick and was going to die either way from drinking sea water. On the other had the other men had wives , children and other relatives that would have been saddened by their death. The choices they made did indeed maximize their happiness. Another good example of utilitarian thinking is in the scenario that one terrorist suspect who may know where a bomb is hidden would have to be tortured in order to