Current utilitarianism was created by mixing Jeremy Bentham’s account for utilitarianism and John Stuart Mill’s account for utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham’s account for utilitarianism focused on pleasure. He defined utilitarianism by recognizing the fundamental role of pain and pleasure, approving or disproving the actions based on the amount of pain or pleasure brought on by the consequences, equating good with pleasure and evil with pain, and in return measuring whether pleasure exceeded pain. This means that Bentham’s utilitarianism takes an event and determines whether or not it should occur based on the pleasure or pain that it will bring. His idea is to maximize the pleasure and minimize the pain that is brought upon by choosing an event. In John Stuart Mill’s account for utilitarianism he used Bentham’s approach but changed the term pleasure to happiness (Cavalier, “Utilitarian Theories”). According to Aristotle, happiness is more personal than pleasure. By this he means that happiness arises from the soul while pleasure arises from an event or activity (Kaurt, “Aristotle on Pleasure”). By Mill changing Bentham’s definition of utilitarianism he allowed the measurement of what is considered to be a good decision to have a more personal affect.
Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. It is a moral theory that allows a person to look at all of the possible outcomes and choose the outcome that they believe will bring about the most happiness to the most amount of people. This means that the moral theory is not black and white like other moral theories, for example, Kantism. This moral theory relies on the person deciding on the outcome that is the best for the situation (“Utilitarianism”).
According to Mill’s utilitaria...
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...appiness and pleasure within the world. Utilitarianism allows the world to be seen in all of its shades of grey while still allowing a person to make a decision that is morally sound. This is what make utilitarianism stand out from the rest of the moral theories. I believe that utilitarianism is a sound moral theory.
Works Cited
Cavalier, Robert, Dr. "Utilitarian Theories." Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy. N.p., 2002. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Kaurt, Richard. "Aristotle on Pleasure." Aristotle on Pleasure. Philosophy.lander.edu, 9 Oct. 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2014
Pojman, Louis P. “Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism.” Exploring Ethics. Ed. Steven M. Cahn. Third ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. 126-134. Print.
"Utilitarianism." California State University, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .
Mill, John Stuart. "Utilitarianism." Gendler, Tamar Szabo, Susanna Siegel and Steven M. Cahn. The Elements of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 77-80.
The main principle of utilitarianism is the greatest happiness principle. It states that, "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure" (Mill, 1863, Ch. 2, p330). In other words, it results with the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people that are involved.
Nielsen, Kai. “Traditional Morality and Utilitarianism.” Ethics: The Big Questions. Ed. James Sterba. Blackwell Publishers, 1998. 142-151.
Mill, J. S., Bentham, J., & Ryan, A. (1987). Utilitarianism and other essays. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Pojman, L. (2002). 6: Utilitarianism. Ethics: discovering right and wrong (pp. 104-113). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that approaches moral questions of right and wrong by considering the actual consequences of a variety of possible actions. These consequences are generally those that either positively or negatively affect other living beings. If there are both good and bad actual consequences of a particular action, the moral individual must weigh the good against the bad and go with the action that will produce the most good for the most amount of people. If the individual finds that there are only bad consequences, then she must go with the behavior that causes the least amount of bad consequences to the least amount of people. There are many different methods for calculating the utility of each moral decision and coming up with the best
Utilitarianism is a theory aimed at defining one simple basis that can be applied when making any ethical decision. It is based on a human’s natural instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
Driver, J. 2009. The History of Utilitarianism. [online] Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/#JerBen [Accessed: 14 Mar 2014].
In its political philosophy utilitarianism provides an alternative to theories of natural law and the social contract by basing the authority of government and the sanctity of individual rights upon their utility, or measure of happiness gained. As an egalitarian doctrine, where everyone’s happiness counts equally, the rational, relatively straightforward nature of utilitarianism offers an attractive model for democratic government. It offers practical methods for deciding the morally right course of action - “...an action is right as it tends to promote happiness, wrong as it tends to diminish it, for the party whose interests are in question” (Bentham, 1780). To discover what we should do in a given situation, we identify the various courses of action that we could take, then determine any foreseeable benefits and harms to all affected by the ramifications of our decision. In fact, some of the early pioneers of utilitarianism, such as Bentham and Mill, campaigned for equality in terms of women's suffrage, decriminalization of homosexuality, and abolition of slavery (Boralevi, 1984). Utilitarianism seems to support democracy as one could interpret governments working to promote the public interest and welfare of citizens as striving for liberty for the greatest amount of people. While utilitarianism at its heart is a theory that calls for progressive social change through peaceful political processes, there are some difficulties in relying on it as the sole method for moral decision-making. In this essay I will assess the effectiveness of utilitarianism as a philosophy of government by examining the arguments against it.
Mill, John Stewart. "Utilitarianism: John Stewart Mill." Fifty Readings Plus: An Introduction to Philosophy. Ed. Donald C. Abel. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 416-25. Print.
Utilitarianism is a movement in ethics which began in the late eighteenth centaury and is primarily associated with the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and was later adapted and fully developed by John Stuart Mill in the ninetieth century. . The theory states that we should try to achieve ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory of ethics. Teleological theories of ethics look at the consequences to decide whether an action is right or wrong. Utilitarianism is defined as a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of it consequences: specifically: a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible
Utilitarianism can be defined as: the right action is the one that produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarians seem to believe that humans only have two desires, or motivations: happiness and pain. They want as much happiness as possible and the least amount of pain as any other action. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, meaning that whether it is right, depends solely on its consequences.
Utilitarianism is the view of considering everyone’s benefit as equally important versus only considering my own. For any action, the morally correct thing to do is cause the greatest amount of happiness or pleasure or benefit for the greatest number possible; while at the same time causing the least amount of pain or unhappiness for the smallest number possible.
Utilitarianism is the theory that one ought to maximize the happiness and minimize the unhappiness of as many people (or sentient beings) as possible (Nina Rosenstand). According to Utilitarianism, an action is morally right if its consequences lead to
Utilitarianism is defined to be “the view that right actions are those that result in the most beneficial balance of good over bad consequences for everyone involved” (Vaughn 64). In other words, for a utilitarian,