Util/Kant Views Janet Faces Interesting

Util/Kant Views

Janet faces interesting questions that need to be answered before she can decide on a path to take to progress through her life. Using the utilitarian approach she must first analyze the issue by identifying the different courses of action that are available to her. Janet has two or three primary courses of action which she can take. These courses of action include the following; 1). Do not take the job with Karen but continue to pursue other job openings as they become available. 2). Take the job with the company that Karen is employed by, but continue to look for other more 'ethically appealing' opportunities. 3). Take the job with Karen's company and put forth the best efforts of which she is capable of, concentrating on doing a good job at marketing snuff to youngsters.

Once Janet has identified these courses she must then ask who will be affected by her action and also what are the pros of such action as compared to the cons of the same action. In this case the pros include the fact that she would be working in a fast-paced environment, doing what she wants to do, and learning how to market a product that could help her to establish her credentials in an industry that would quickly leave her behind if she was unable to get her foot in the door. The cons of working for the company would be that she would be developing ad campaigns that target young children with an addicting substance that could affect their health for the rest of their lives, and could eventually lead to an early death. In this case, according to the utilitarian approach, Janet would probably choose to not accept the position with Karen's employer.

The reason she would not would be because even though it would benefit her immensely it would not provide the greatest benefits and the least harm to the most amount of individuals, in fact the exact opposite would be true.

If, however, Janet were to approach this same scenario from the Kantian point-of-view, she might choose to accept the position with Karen's company, even though it would not provide the greatest benefits for the most people. Immanuel Kant, in the 18th century espoused a philosophy that said that an individual's right to choose for himself was one of the most basic rights of mankind. Kant said that what separated humans from animals was that humans have a dignity based on their individual right and ability to choose freely what they will do in their own lives. Kant said that it is a violation of that dignity to not allow for such individual choices.