Ethical Issues

The mood at Baileyville High School is tense with anticipation. For the first time in many, many years, the varsity basketball team has made it to the state semifinals. The community is excited too, and everyone is making plans to attend the big event next Saturday night.Jeff, the varsity coach, has been waiting for years to field such a team. Speed, teamwork, balance: they've got it all. Only one more week to practice, he tells his team, and not a rule can be broken. Everyone must be at practice each night at the regularly scheduled time: No Exceptions.Brad and Mike are two of the team's starters.  From their perspective, they're indispensable to the team, the guys who will bring victory to Baileyville. They decide—why, no one will ever know—to show up an hour late to the next day's practice.
Jeff is furious. They have deliberately disobeyed his orders. The rule says they should be suspended for one full week. If he follows the rule, Brad and Mike will not play in the semifinals. But the whole team is depending on them.  What should he do?

There are many different philosophies that have certain rules about how to go about this. According to utilitarianism, the coach should let Brad and Mike play because the two starters being allowed to play in the game will increase the chance of success, and letting the team potentially get to the finals. This would mean that the students and staff of Baileyville High School would achieve the maximum amount of pleasure, where as if they weren't allowed to play, no one would really be getting any pleasure out of it at all, except for potentially the coach. The basic rule of utilitarianism is morality equals the maximum amount of pleasure for the most people, so let Mike and Brad play and have thee general population be happy they have a greater chance at going to finals.

Kant and Plato however, would without a doubt disagree. Although Plato does say that you should do whatever is in your best self interest