Moore and Hastings Rashdall) tries to meet the difficulty by advocating a plurality of ends and including among them the attainment of virtue itself, which, as Mill affirmed, “may be felt a good in itself, and desired as such with as great intensity as any other good.”. Let us try to make this more precise: All this may seem rather technical but should become clearer by considering an example of a teleological and a non-teleological theory. The problem arises in these theories because they tend to separate the achieved ends from the action by which these ends were produced. Modern ethics, especially since the 18th-century German deontological philosophy of Immanuel Kant, has been deeply divided between a form of teleological ethics (utilitarianism) and deontological theories. Hedonism, for example, teaches that this feeling is pleasure—either one’s own, as in egoism (the 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes), or everyone’s, as in universalistic hedonism, or utilitarianism (the 19th-century English philosophers Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Sidgwick), with its formula the “greatest happiness [pleasure] of the greatest number.” Other teleological or utilitarian-type views include the claims that the end of action is survival and growth, as in evolutionary ethics (the 19th-century English philosopher Herbert Spencer); the experience of power, as in despotism (the 16th-century Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli and the 19th-century German Friedrich Nietzsche); satisfaction and adjustment, as in pragmatism (20th-century American philosophers Ralph Barton Perry and John Dewey); and freedom, as in existentialism (the 20th-century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre). The above schema [Def: TM] says that a moral theory is teleological to the extent that it defines right action in terms of the promotion of good states of affairs. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats. One standard way of drawing the teleological/deontological distinction is in terms of how moral theories specify the relation between the two central concepts of ethics: the good and the right. Black Friday Sale! Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Teleological ethics may be contrasted with non-teleological ethics, of which deontological theories provide the best-known example. Eudaemonists generally reply that the universe is moral and that, in Socrates’ words, “No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death,” or, in Jesus’ words, “But he who endures to the end will be saved.”, Utilitarian theories, on the other hand, must answer the charge that ends do not justify the means. Aristotle’s ethics is the most influential example of a virtue ethical theory, and the most well known example of a Utilitarian moral theory is Classical Utilitarianism. states of character, and normative properties in general. In other words, every ethical theory will propose a theory of right action and a theory of value, and explain how these theories connect up to one another. More precisely, we shall emend our earlier definition: Consider what this entails with reference to Classical Utilitarianism. The right action is the one which beings about (as its goal; hence the connection to telos) the most overall pleasure for everyone concerned. A teleological connection between the theory of right and the theory of value, therefore, emphasises that morality is oriented toward bringing about a certain goal. Classical Utilitarianism is called a teleological moral theory because it defines right action in terms of the promotion of pleasure. Another advantage of [Def 2: TM] is that it also enables us to understand Aristotle’s theory as teleological in a similar way. 1. This sample essay on Example Of Teleological Ethics provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. The rightness of an action is not determined by the goal it achieves, and this makes it non teleological as a moral theory. A deontological theory (e.g. A Classical Utilitarian would formulate this in terms of utility; quite literally, utility is that which is useful to human beings. [Def: TM] A teleological moral theory defines right action in terms of the good. This is incipient, if not fully articulate, in Mill’s formulation of the Principle of Utility, which he regards as the fundamental moral principle: “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”.