(8) Prima Facie Obligations
➢ Nonconsequentialism in an organizational
context:
(a) Moral decision making involves the weighing of different moral factors and considerations.
(b) This theory acknowledges that the organization has its own legitimate goals to pursue.
(c) It stresses the importance of moral rights and especially human rights.
➢ Criticisms of nonconsequentialism:
(a) Ross maintained that moral truths are known intuitively, i.e. they are self-evident.
(b) Critics question whether intuition is always a reliable guide for establishing moral truths.
(c) They say that appeals to intuition should be critically assessed.
(d) It is not always clear how issues with conflicting rights and principles ought to be resolved.
(1) Utilitarianism Once More
➢ Rule utilitarianism: This modified version of utilitarianism aims to avoid the criticisms directed at the classical account of utilitarianism known as act utilitarianism.
➢ Rule utilitarians maintain that the utilitarian standard should be applied not to individual actions but to moral codes as a whole.
➢ Moral discriminations must be based upon the principles of an optimal moral code.
(2) Utilitarianism Once More
➢ What should an optimal moral code should look like? Rule utilitarians argue for a pluralistic moral code on three grounds:
(a) People will make mistakes if they try to calculate the results of every given action in advance.
(b) Important rules will be undermined if all individuals were act utilitarians.
(c) It is too demanding for individuals to ask them to promote total well-being.