Two Cases in Business Ethics

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

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itarianism, could argue that marijuana use is dangerous to the individual and to society, and for this reason must be considered morally off-limits. The moral rule against marijuana smoking must take precedence over an individual's rights to raise a cash crop on his or her privately owned land. The text goes into the details of "Humboldt County Free Enterprise" on pages 170-172, and will provide the source for the discussion to follow. An article in The Washington Times goes into greater detail about the marijuana operation, and describes the federally funded local operation known as CAMP, or, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, as it is known in the rugged mountainsides of Northern California ("Pot Eradication Unit Camp" A-6). Most of the eradication efforts on the part of CAMP have been directed at the so-called Emerald Triangle of Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity counties. The rule utilitarian would be expected to ask the following question with regard to the appropriateness of growing and selling marijuana in Humboldt County: What moral rule with regard to marijuana growing would produce the greatest amount of utility for everyone affected? If one makes a list of possible moral rules, one can put each
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Approximate Word count = 3236
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)