The merits and draw backs of utilitarianism Essay Example for Free

The merits and draw backs of utilitarianism Essay What is utilitarianism? The greatest good of the greatest number. Simple. Or is it? In any real situation, there are many people involved; they will all be affected in different ways; there is no reason why the greatest number should receive the greatest good. What is usually meant in practice by that slogan is something like the following procedure for choosing between two or more actions. 1. Look at the state of life after each action. Look in particular at the level of happiness of each person in the various situations. 2. Add up, somehow, those levels of happiness in each case. 3. Compare the results. The one, which leads to the maximum total happiness, is the (morally) right one. The thing to notice about this is that it actually involves a lot of quite separate principles. I think it is fair to say that they are all part of the idea of utilitarianism. Someone who accepts some of them but not others may reasonably be called a utilitarian, even if they would see the procedure above as a vague outline. * Actions, as such, have no moral value. What matters is their effect on the state of the world. * In fact, the only aspect of the state of the world that has any direct moral significance is the happiness or misery of people. * In particular, only individuals matter. The only relevance of the state of a family is the effect it has on the individuals. * All people are, ethically speaking, equal, in all situations. One persons happiness is precisely as important as anothers. * It is possible to measure happiness, in the required sense, on some sort of linear scale. * It is possible to add up different peoples degrees of happiness, producing a meaningful total happiness. There is at least one important issue, which I havent addressed so far: You have to consider the entire future of the universe in order to make your decision. I shall consider the practical difficulties of this later; there is also a theoretical issue: we are presumably required to add up the total amount of happiness in a persons entire lifetime. So we need some sort of calculus for happiness! Utilitarianism has the awkward property of seeming entirely obvious to its proponents, and clearly wrong to its opponents. There are no ethical first principles, which are agreed on by everyone. On the other hand, there is a striking level of agreement about what is actually right and wrong. Of course, there are disagreements. But there is something pretty close to an agreement that (in most cases) murder, lying, rape and theft are bad, and that (in most cases) generosity, healing, truthfulness and loyalty are good. One obvious thing that these points have in common is that most of the universally agreed good things make people happy, and most of the universally agreed bad things make people sad. Furthermore, the actions usually reckoned to be the worst are often the ones that cause the most suffering. Rape, for instance, which causes lasting psychological trauma as well as involving physical injury, is generally reckoned to be morally much worse than theft. So, utilitarianism seems to do a pretty good job of giving the right answers. It seems clear to me that, all else being equal, something that makes me happy is better than something which doesnt. After all, thats one way in which I make decisions (although I wouldnt in such cases call them moral decisions). Since it seems plausible that all people are ethically equal, this means that anything that makes anyone happy is better than something which does not. This seems to lead naturally to something very like utilitarianism. However, what Ive explained as utilitarianism has a terrible problem: it does not support ethical points in certain cases. For instance, suppose that I could, by putting my grandmother through tortures, relieve a large number of people from one minutes toothache. No matter how small the amount of suffering from which each person is lifted of, and no matter how great the amount I cause to my grandmother, if the number of people is large enough then the total amount of suffering in the world will be decreased in this manner. Therefore I ought to torture my grandmother. This seems to me, unacceptable. This I see as a major weakness in utilitarianism. Of course, there are ways round this problem. For instance, we could model happiness and misery with a number system, containing values higher and lower in the sense that no multiple of one was as big as the other. So, we can get around that particular problem. But, there are others, though I wouldnt claim any of them as an actual rejection of utilitarianism. I shall take the utilitarian principles I listed above, and describe some objections to them. * Actions, as such, have no moral value. What matters is their effect on the state of the world. Is this really convincing? It doesnt seem so to me. If I kill someone, isnt there something very bad about that, even if the killing turns out to be right in terms of maximising utility? I think most people would agree that a killing of this sort would be evil. In fact, the only aspect of life that has any direct moral significance is the happiness or misery of people. Suppose I tell a lie about you to a friend of mine, who has never had and never will have any sort of interaction with you, and swear him to secrecy, this makes no difference whatsoever to your future happiness. Does that make it OK? It seems clear to me that it doesnt. Isnt there, in fact, something basically good about truth and bad about falsehood? Suppose I get enormous satisfaction from causing you minor but genuine unpleasantness. Does that mean that its right for me to do so? * In particular, only individuals matter. The only relevance of the state of a family is the effect it has on the individuals. * All people are, ethically speaking, equal, in all situations. One persons happiness is precisely as important as anothers. What about criminals? If someone is in the process of raping your wife, do you really have to consider their well being as carefully as your wifes in deciding how to go about stopping them? * It is possible to measure happiness, in the required sense, on some sort of linear scale. * It is possible to add up different peoples degrees of happiness, producing a meaningful total happiness. Is it obvious that different sorts of happiness are not easy to measure? How do you compare, the contentment person A has from knowing that his money in the bank is earning him piles of interest for his retirement, the wonder person B feels on looking at the starry sky, the thrill person C has when listening to her favourite piece of music, person Ds enjoyment of an evening listening to a stand-up comic, and so on? And how do you weigh those up against person Ps toothache, person Qs unhappy marriage? I dont know thats for sure. Lets pretend that all those problems are resolved, and that I believe that utilitarianism is correct. I now have a decision to make; for instance, I have to decide whether to cycle home in the dark without lights or to be late home. This is a trivial example; it should be easy to work it out. Not easy at all. I have to work out the entire future of the whole universe, to work out exactly how happy each person is in each case and for how long, and add it all up. Good grief! In practice, what the utilitarian recommends is entirely different. I should make guesses as to the likely effects of the actions Im considering, estimate the ends levels of happiness, and do the best I can at adding them up in my head. Anything more is impossible, and in any case I cant be blamed for things I cant predict. Id now like to suggest that there are merits to utilitarianism, despite its drawbacks. The first point is one Ive made already: utilitarianism does a pretty good job of giving answers to ethical questions. Most of us are capable of guessing what will happen if and imagining others responses to situations. Also considering the greatest good of the greatest number can be an effective way of defeating prejudices and selfishness. This ethical harmony is, after all, quite close to such principles as Do to others as you would have them do to you and Love your neighbour as yourself. Lastly, I think any theory of ethics has to acknowledge that happiness and suffering are in themselves good and bad. This is why utilitarianism does as well as it does. But clearly happiness and suffering, pain and pleasure, arent the whole story.

Careers in the Operating System Field Essay -- Information Technology

The significance of the role of the Operation System (OS) in the overall Information Technology employment sector cannot be undervalued. Indeed, it is hard to talk about technical skill-sets or the practical application of such skill-sets without at least some underlying understanding of their context within a computer operating system environment. From hardware specifications and requirements, user technical support, system administration and security, to software development and system implementation, operating systems are an integral part of the information technology and computing world in all its aspects, and it is difficult to form a concrete demarcation between specialized careers in this industry and the concept of the computer operating system. Probably the most common thought of career position within the information technology arena that garners the most OS-centric job description specifics is that of the system administrator or network administrator. A system administrator is a person employed to maintain and operate a computer system or network for a company or other organization. The duties of a system administrator are wide-ranging, and vary widely from one organization to another. Sysadmins are usually charged with installing, supporting, and maintaining servers or other computer systems, and planning for and responding to service outages and other problems. Other duties may include scripting or light programming, project management for systems-related projects, supervising or training computer operators, and being the equivalent of a handyman for computer problems beyond the knowledge of technical support staff. Unlike many other professions, there is no single path to becoming a system administrator. Few co... ...roblems, I have found that the creative outlet offered by developing applications is much more satisfying to me in terms of my personal career development. I plan to re-enter the software application development job in the very near future, following graduation from RVCC. References The Enterprise Systems Staff (2006, August 8). 2006 ESJ Salary Survey, Part 1: Salaries Grow for All IT Staff Positions. Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://esj.com/enterprise/article.aspx?EditorialsID=2052 The Salary Wizard Basic Report(2006, September). Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_IT10000135.html Salary Survey Report Job: Computer Technical Support Specialist(2006, November) Retrieved November 11, 2006, from http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Computer_Technical_Support_Specialist/Salary

Measurement of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Bod)

Title: Laboratory 2: Measurement of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) Objective To determine the amount of oxygen necessary for biological oxidation of wastewater effluent and determine the amount of oxygen required by bacteria while stabilizing decomposable organic matter. Methodology Apparatus ; Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) meter, Dissolved Oxygen bottle (DO bottle), pipette, Teflon tape, dilution water, incubator machine. Procedure; Add 300 ml dilute water then take DO reading immediately Closed properly and keep into the incubator (200C).Take reading for the next 5 days Add 3 ml dilute water and fill up with dilute water until 300ml then take DO reading immediately Figure 1 Precaution Samples for BOD analysis may change greatly during handling and storage. Testing should be started as quickly as possible. To reduce the changes in those samples which must be held, keep the samples at or below 4 °C. Do not allow samples to freeze. Samples may be kept for no more than 48 hours be fore beginning the BOD test. Students assign to prevent interference from chlorine. Because chlorine is such a strong oxidizing agent, it will inhibit the growth of living bacteria in the BOD test.Any samples containing residual chlorine must be pretreated to remove chlorine before the test is run. This is done by adding sodium sulfite to the sample. Samples with extreme pH values and samples containing disinfectants such as residual chlorine must be treated prior to testing. Caustic alkalinity or acidity can prevent bacteria from growing during the course of the BOD test. To prevent this, samples which have pH values higher than pH 8. 0 or lower than pH 6. 0 must be neutralized to pH 7. 0 before the test is performed. Result 1) 3 ml sampleGroup| Sample| Result| First day (1st)| Fifth day (5th)|   |   |   | DO| Temp| DO| Temp| | | | (mg/l)| (0C)| (mg/l)| (0C)| 1| Blank| 1st| 9. 20| 25. 8| 9. 26| 20. 3| | | 2nd| 9. 16| 25. 8| 9. 30| 20. 4| | | 3rd| 9. 13| 25. 8| 9. 31| 20. 5| | | Mean| | 25. 8| | 20. 4| | Waste Water| 1st| 9. 24| 26. 2| 8. 73| 20. 5| | | 2nd| 9. 12| 26. 2| 8. 77| 20. 6| | | 3rd| 9. 10| 26. 2| 8. 79| 20. 7| | | Mean| | 26. 2| | 20. 6| 4| Blank| 1st| 9. 14| 25. 9| 9. 04| 20. 5| | | 2nd| 9. 16| 26| 9. 02| 20. 5| | | 3rd| 9. 15| 26| 9. 01| 20. 5| | | Mean| | 25. 97| | 20. 5| | Waste Water| 1st| 9. 08| 26. 2| 8. 31| 20. | | | 2nd| 9. 05| 26. 3| 8. 34| 20. 7| | | 3rd| 9. 02| 26. 4| 8. 35| 20. 8| | | Mean| | 26. 3| | 20. 73| 5| Blank| 1st| 9. 10| 25| 8. 86| 20. 5| | | 2nd| 9. 11| 25| 8. 88| 20. 5| | | 3rd| 9. 10| 25| 8. 86| 20. 5| | | Mean| | 25| | 20. 5| | Waste Water| 1st| 9. 10| 25| 7. 82| 20. 5| | | 2nd| 9. 11| 25| 7. 82| 20. 5| | | 3rd| 9. 11| 25| 7. 84| 20. 5| | | Mean| | 25| | 20. 5| The BOD of the sample can be calculates using the equations provided in the following First Equation is provided by the standard method BOD5= mgL= D1 – D2P Second Equation is BOD5= mgL= D1 – D2 -B1 – B2 P Where;D1 : DO of the diluted samp le immediately after preparation, mg/L D2 : DO of the diluted sample after 5-day incubation at 200c, mg/L B1 : DO of the control before incubation B2 : DO of the control after incubation P : fraction of the wastewater sample volume to total combined volume Group| Sample| First day (1st)| Fifth day (5th)| BOD5| BOD5| | | DO| Temp| DO| Temp| (mg/l)| (mg/l)| | | (mg/l)| (0C)| (mg/l)| (0C)| (1st Equation)| (2ndEquation)| 1| Blank| 9. 16| 25. 8| 9. 29| 20. 4|   | 52| | Waste Water| 9. 15| 26. 2| 8. 76| 20. 6| 39| | 4| Blank| 9. 15| 25. 97| 9. 02| 20. 5|   | 59| | Waste Water| 9. 05| 26. 3| 8. 33| 20. 73| 72| | | Blank| 9. 1| 25| 8. 87| 20. 5|   | 105| | Waste Water| 9. 11| 25| 7. 83| 20. 5| 128| | Discussion From the equation, the result are totally different, it is because second (2nd) equation actually are specialist for seeded sample. Since that, it does not suitable and can’t be used to calculate the BOD level. BOD test is a biological test; dependent on the actions of t he microorganisms found in the wastewater and, as such, is subject to a number of variations. These variations can be caused by a number of factors, including changes in temperature, weather, composition of incoming sewage, in plant operations, and sampling points.Results can vary widely from day to day, or even hour to hour. . Form the result we found that the the BOD level in group 5 is 128mg/L, Group 4 72mg/L is quiet higher rather than Group 1 39mg/L. When BOD levels are high, dissolved oxygen (DO) levels decrease because the oxygen that is available in the water is being consumed by the bacteria. Since less dissolved oxygen is available in the water, fish and other aquatic organisms may not survive. If referred to the IWK website, BOD5 at 200C is 20mg/L for standard A and 50mg/L for standard B.Its mean only sample from group 1 is under control and can be entitled as clean. High level of result from group 4 and 5 may resulted by the input of nitrates and phosphate. Nitrates and phosphates in a body of water can contribute to high BOD levels. Nitrates and phosphates are plant nutrients and can cause plant life and algae to grow quickly. When plants grow quickly, they also die quickly. This contributes to the organic waste in the water, which is then decomposed by bacteria. One of the major disadvantages of the BOD test is the time lag between the collection of samples and the final calculation of results.This makes the BOD test a poor test for determining whether or not operational changes are needed. In addition, the rate and degree that organic matter in wastewater is decomposed (or oxidized) by the normal bacteria present in a sample is largely dependent on the characteristics of the organic matter. For example, some organic matter (like sugars or starches) are oxidized very easily and rapidly, and will almost always result in measurable â€Å"BOD†. Other organic matter, however, is sometimes resistant to biological oxidation, and may require spec ial â€Å"acclimated† bacteria to oxidize the material and to show a â€Å"BOD†.Although this is what actually happens in nature, it causes significant variation in BOD results from sample to sample. Conclusion, high; level of BOD reflects to the DO which it will be decrease. Which is mean the water quality if poor. References Unknown. (n. d. ). Indah Water. Retrieved from http://www. iwk. com. my/v/knowledge-arena/effluent-standards Unknown, A. (n. d. ). Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) – Overview. Retrieved from Polyseed. com: http://www. polyseed. com/misc/BODforwebsite. pdf

Light is Like Water as Magical Realism Essay - 1089 Words

Light is Like Water as Magical Realism Latin author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written many short stories and novels that are considered to be Magical Realism. Some of these works are The Ghosts of August, One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Light Is Like Water. In Light Is Like Water (December 1978), the use of various fantastic elements along with the realist elements is what defines this story as Magical Realism. The exclusive magical element of Light Is Like Water is light because Toto and Joel use it as water. The use of light as water comes into use when Marquez says that the light begins to pour out of the broken light bulb (158) Light†¦show more content†¦To achieve this effect, Marquez also uses the characteristic of de-familiarization of the skin-diving outfits to allow the boys to go diving into the light. The light having the physical properties of water happens when a metaphor becomes real (Faris 176). The metaphor that Im speaking of is when Toto asks Marquez why the light went on with the touch of a switch (158). Marquez answers the boy by saying, Light is like water. You turn the tap and out it comes (158) This characteristic allows the brothers to row on top of the light as if it is water. The use of light as water is an example of the closeness or near-merging of two realms, two worlds (Faris 172). The two realms that I speak of are the realm of reality and the realm of the imaginary. This element becomes obvious when the two brothers filled the apartment to depth of two fathoms, dove like tame sharks under the furniture, including the beds, and salvaged from the bottom of the light things that had been lost in darkness for years (159). The reaction of Marquez to this event is the reaction of acceptance. This is evident because Marquez describes the scenes as though he had witnessed the events that took place. 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