John Stuart's Philosophy

The core ethical concepts and questions of philosophy include freedom, liberty and happiness. According to John Stuart’s theory, the moral action evaluation is with respect to the consequences the action has to the society. Any individual in the world has the right to do what he wants as long as the actions do not harm others. This is in line with Stuarts harm principle. The society has no right to intervene into the activity that is self-regarding. Stuart, however, argues that the society can intervene only if the action is the individual is acting in a way that can cause a lasting harm to him or her, or to the actors’ property. In this regard, the gay marriage victims have the right do what they want since this act does not harm anybody in the society.

The government of Texas enacted laws that prohibit gay marriages in the state. According to the theory, it infringes on human rights. However, the society can bar gay marriage on the principle of the societal responsibility to procreate. The principles of utility are grounded, when the case at hand involves saving somebody from a misdeed that cost the rest of his or her life. From the principle of liberty, despotism is an acceptable form of government that is backwards in development. According to this argument, failure to save a drowning child is harm by itself. In this point of view, the government may enact any law to save its citizens from deviations from the norms of the culture. The greatest happiness principle guides people to do all they want to produce the greatest aggregate of happiness for a reason. The liberty of happiness is present such that any one exercises rational capacities to achieve a higher rank of existence. This contradicts the basic freedom principle with its basic requirement that anybody has to act in a way in line with the doctrines of the society.

 The core ethical theories hold to the contemporary way of life. An example is the legalizing of gay marriage in the United States. However, Texas enacted the laws to prohibit the act from taking place on its soil. The law according to the ethical theories is from the two different perspectives of the theory. From the perspective of human rights, law is prohibitive of the basic freedom utilitarian, since it prohibits the gay from extracting their maximum happiness from their lives without harming anybody else. On the other perspective, the theory of liberty gives some limitations of the freedom offered to a human being, if it is causing a lasting problem to the person or property of the person. Comparing two fields of study, the government of Texas practiced despotism to prevent its people from drowning in the ocean of gay marriage. If this marriage persists, the government will be running short of laborers, hence economic failure.

Either the act of human beings is for pleasure, or the act is pleasure itself. From the philosophy of liberty and authority, both to make a desirable future for the citizen govern the acts by human beings. In respect to gay marriage, the authority is imposing rules that govern the conduct of its citizens. The gay part of the citizens must feel deprived of their freedom and happiness. In line with the principles of Stuart, the actions of gays have no harm to anybody besides the two who are practicing. However, the society looks forward to the future of the perpetrators of this law that is doomed. The despotism rule of saving a drowning child here now holds in that the people practicing might not have a bright future. From the human rights perspective, the government is depriving these citizens a great opportunity of happiness. The human rights activists must argue that the citizens of the Texas state have no freedom.

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