The principles of three philosophical theories will be used to interpret two cases in business ethics. Rule utilitarianism, the libertarian's view of rights (according to Nozick), and the libertarian view of justice will be used as guiding principles in the evaluation of the two cases. One case involves the cultivation and sale of marijuana as a bona fide cash crop in Humboldt County, California, and the other case concerns the marketing of infant formula as a better option than mother's milk. The cases are from chapters three and six, respectively, of the third edition of Velasquez' Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases.
Rule utilitarianism is an important and influential alternative version of utilitarianism (Velasquez Business Ethics 69). It is essentially an answer to the critics of traditional utilitarianism who claim that the philosophical stance does not hold up under close scrutiny. Critics claim that utilitarianism fails to deal with two kinds of moral issues: those pertaining to rights and those relating to justice. In essence, "Utilitarianism looks only at how much utility is produced in a society and fails to take into account how that utility is distributed among the members of society," according to Velasquez (69). Therefore, the rights of some individuals, and traditional concepts of justice may be sacrificed in attempts at maximizing utility.
"Thou shalt act so as to generate the greatest good for the greatest number" is a paraphrasing of the major assumption of utilitarian theory (Carper et al. West's Business and Personal Law 157). Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). As originally articulated by Bentham, utilitarianism is essentially not bound by ethical or moral duties requiring that the practitioner abide by certain rules and codes of behavior. In that sense it is outcome-, rather than duty-, based. It focuses on the consequences of an action. It doe...