A utilitarian person is usually characterized as having a desire for practical benefits. The concept of utilitarian means imbued with narrow practicality, limited by immediate interests, needs or prescriptions of utility motives, benefits (Mensah & Agyemang, 2020). This means that such a person will see a valuable advantage in having the sheriff lie. The choice of the path of lying and condemning an innocent person will be that there will be no riots in the city that can lead to destruction and casualties. Naturally, every resident wants to protect himself from the dangers on the streets of his hometown, but still, everyone is afraid of serious crimes and is eager to punish the perpetrators. In addition, the person they want to convict is not liked in the city, and people will be glad that he was punished. Therefore, according to utilitarianism, lying will be the most profitable and practical option in this case.
For a utilitarian, in this case, a critical reflection would be that there is a person who is hated in the city and whom, if necessary, people would be happy to get rid of through prison punishment. In addition, people will be able to live in peace knowing that the criminal has been punished and is already serving time in prison. The Kantian are guided by the principles of ethics, which means that they would disagree with the utilitarian and insisted that punishment be applied only to the guilty person (Mensah & Agyemang, 2020). Even though there would be riots in the city, it would still be unfair and cruel, according to ethical considerations, to detain a person hated by residents and not guilty.
Reference
Mensah, R. & Agyemang, E. (2020). A comparative philosophical analysis of the Kantian principle of moral theory and the utilitarian theory: Applications and critiques. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(3), 127-131. DOI: 10.33140/JHSS.03.03.02