PHI1600 spc college Practice applying Act Utility
ANSWER
- Character: Jane Smith Jane Smith is a software engineer working for a large tech company called TechSolutions. She has been working on a groundbreaking project that has the potential to revolutionize the way people communicate online. The project is nearly complete, but Jane discovers a major security flaw that could potentially expose user data to hackers if left unchecked.
Ethical Issue: Should Jane disclose the security flaw to her superiors and delay the project’s launch, potentially impacting the company’s financial gains and reputation, or should she keep quiet and allow the project to launch on schedule, knowing the potential risks to user privacy?
Application of Act Utilitarianism:
Scale = Happiness (+10) ————————- Neutral (0) ————————– Unhappiness (-10)
Options →
Jane could:
- Disclose the security flaw to her superiors and delay the project launch.
- Keep quiet and allow the project to launch on schedule.
Stakeholders ↓
Jane (1 person)
- Disclosing the security flaw would result in a potential delay in her project’s launch and might affect her career progression. (-5)
- Keeping quiet could lead to guilt and moral conflict. (-3)
TechSolutions (Company)
- Disclosing the security flaw and delaying the launch could lead to financial losses and reputational damage. (-8)
- Launching the project on time could result in financial gains and improved reputation. (+7)
Project Users (100,000 people)
- Disclosing the flaw would protect user data and privacy, leading to increased happiness. (+9)
- Keeping quiet might lead to potential privacy breaches and unhappiness among users. (-6)
Conclusion: After calculating the net utility for each option, it becomes evident that disclosing the security flaw and delaying the project launch is the option with the greatest net utility. This would protect user privacy, prevent potential security breaches, and lead to overall happiness among a larger number of stakeholders, including the users. In the context of Act Utilitarianism, the morally right thing for Jane to do would be to disclose the flaw and prioritize the well-being and happiness of the stakeholders involved.
QUESTION
Description
Practice applying Act Utility and earn extra credit
- You must submit this assignment in the Extra Credit Drop Box to receive credit.
Find an ethical issue which occurred within the last year in the USA 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 – SHOULD………..?.
- 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 happiness/unhappiness 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
Options → | X could | X could | X could | X could |
Stakeholders ↓ | ||||
Stakeholder 1
Name (1000 people) |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
+10 10 x 1000 = +10,000 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
-10 10 x 1000 = -10,000 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
. +10 10 x 1000 = +10,000 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 1 will be affected by this option.
. +10 10 x 1000 = +10,000 |
Stakeholder 2
Name (1 person) |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
+10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option..
-10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
notice -10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 2 will be affected by this option.
+5 |
Stakeholder 3
Name (1 person) |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+7 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
-10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 3 will be affected by this option.
+10 |
Stakeholder 4
Name (1 person) |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
+5 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option..
-10 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
-7 |
Briefly discuss how stakeholder 4 will be affected by this option.
-7 |
Net Utility | +10,022 | -10,030 | +9,993 | +10,008 |
Conclusion – The option with the greatest Net Utility, which will bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people is __________________________________________________________.