Flaws with Utilitarianism Essay

Among the near glaring problems that I see with utileism is its inclusion of animals under the umbrella that blankets this theory. It seems positivistic that there exists an inordinate number of cases where the consequence that is against the crush interest of an animal is favorable to earthly concern, yet that dictating work is one that has been continu whollyy taken and condoned by the universal public. This is a fundamental challenge, as the Utilitarian school of thought decrees that the sport and pain experienced by all individuals, including animals, has tint worth and must be considered when find out the net benefit of an actions consequences.The most drastic and prevalent of examples that one could come finished to enlarge this contradiction would be the practice of employ animals to provide food. It can non be argued that it is in the best interest of a cow, a chicken, or another animal to be slaughtered to serve the dietary needs of mankind. Accordingly, Util itarian conclude suggests, in direct op maculation to the intuition of humanity, that it is chastely impermissible to kill the animals.While a Utilitarian philosopher might provide the counter-argument that such(prenominal)(prenominal) is natural club of the world that there exist a hierarchical food tree. Further they would insist that the greater well behaved is that humans be nourished and provided for by the meat, for our pleasance is superior in quality to that of the beast. This reasoning, however, is flawed in two dashs. Initially, the method by which meat finds its way to grocery stores for our purchase and eventual consumption is not one governed by the ways of disposition, but quite an is one engineered for efficiency by humans.Animals are wampumpeag forcibly, then nourished with specific intent of managing avoirdupois weight content, meat flavor, and healthiness, each of which discounts the Utilitarian claim that nature makes our carnivorous methods ethically per missible. Secondly, and perhaps more fundamentally, such a claim is in direct contradiction to the Utilitarian tenet that each individual has equal value regardless of identity or stature. Because humans could be sufficiently nourished without the killing of animals, it cannot be argued that the consequence of causing death to an animal is like or less substantial than that of feeding a man.Conversely, there exist equally as many a(prenominal) challenges to raise had the ethicist taken the alternate position that animals have equal value and accordingly that their joy is impermissibly infringed upon when they are killed for human interest. Arguments could be presented for a bevy of actions taken on a mundane basis by society as a whole. One might address the particular that using animal testing for the advancement of medicine has benefits that overbalance the pains. Similarly, man the development of land effectively kills the previously animal inhabitants, it is an accepted r esult that society has displayed it is free to disregard.In each of these cases, the majority of society condones such behavior, as evidenced by their existence as common public practice. While it is undeniable that antagonist to each behavior does exist, the magnitude of this resi locating is out-of-the-way(prenominal) outweighed by those in finding the long term benefits worthy of the negative consequences. In the end, it grows apparent that while it may be valuable to consider the interests of animals when cypher the net benefit of a given action, neither their pleasure nor their pain should be equated to ours.Such a principle has been introduced through the ethical thought taste The Dilemma of the Swine. Resultantly, human existence constitutes higher pleasure that does that of an animal and we are often better served by making such a distinction through intuitive analysis rather than applying Hedonistic Calculus. The fact that Utilitarianism can be forced into contradict ions regardless of the stance they choose makes the inclusion of animals under their ethical umbrella a significant problem.