Utilitarianism

Assignment Topics
Choose ONE of the following topics:
1) Euthyphro’s dilemma
Socrates poses a challenge to Euthyphro to say whether something is good (holy) because the gods
have commanded it, or whether something is commanded by the gods because it is good. Explain
in your own words what the difference is between these two options. Why might someone think
the first option is philosophically problematic? What are the implications of accepting the second
option presented by Socrates?

2) Utilitarianism
Imagine the following scenario:
George, who has just taken his PhD in chemistry, finds it extremely difficult to get a job. He
is not very robust in health, which cuts down the number of jobs he might be able to do
satisfactorily. His wife has to go out to work to keep them, which itself causes a great deal
of strain, since they have small children and there are severe problems about looking after
them. The results of all this, especially on the children, are damaging. An older chemist,
who knows about the situation, says that he can get George a decently paid job in a certain
laboratory, which pursues research into chemical and biological warfare. George says that he
cannot accept this, since he is opposed to chemical and biological warfare. The older man
replies that he is not too keen on it himself, but after all George’s refusal is not going to
make the job or the laboratory go away; what is more, he happens to know that if George
refuses the job, it will certainly go to a contemporary of George’s who is not inhibited by an
such scruples and is likely if appointed to push along the research with greater zeal than
George would. Indeed, it is not merely concern for George and is family, but (to speak
frankly and in confidence) some alarm about this other man’s excess of zeal, which has led
the older man to offer to use his influence to get George the job… George’s wife, to whom
he is deeply attached, has views (the details of which need not concern us) from which it
follows that at least there is nothing particularly wrong with research in CBW. [from
Bernard Williams in Utilitarianism: For and Against]
Assuming that George is offered the job in the above scenario, according to utilitarianism what is he
morally obliged to do? Do you agree with utilitarianism about what is morally required in this
situation? Explain and defend.