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Utilitarianism john stuart mill 1961
John stuart mills’s utilitarian theory
Essay utilitarianism john stuart mill
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Ethical Theories
Hedonism and self-realization are ethical theories that take roots in the works of Greek philosophers and that developed many branches throughout the human history.
Hedonism is based on the recognition of pleasure (or happiness) and avoidance of pain as an ultimate goal of any human being and thus establish a moral ground for one’s acting in striving to be happy. In early stages, hedonism took individualistic forms of Cyrenaic and Epicurean theories. In order to lead a good life, the Cyrenaics propose to actively seek intense momentary pleasure (of any duration) from our everyday life maintaining that pleasures of our senses and the body are preferable to pleasures derived from the mind. In contrast to Cyrenaics, the Epicurean theory denies active seeking of pleasure in favor of avoidance of pain (in fact, Epicurean view defines pleasure as avoidance of pain) and stresses the importance of long-run mental contentment in life.
While Cyrenaics and Epicureans sought pleasure only for themselves exercising individualistic hedonism, Stuart Mill’s theory is an example of universalistic hedonism which takes into account not only the pleasure people can gain for themselves but also how those pleasure-seeking actions affect other individuals and society in general and whose ultimate goal is to increase the amount of happiness for humankind as a whole. Specifically, Stuart Mill adhered to the theory of utilitarianism (a social hedonism) that states that moral actions are right if they produce “the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of persons.” The significance of his work is in introduction of the qualitative aspect of pleasure into utilitarianism. According to Mill, there are different kinds of pleasure and the more desirable of any two kinds is the one that is agreed to be more valuable or desirable for the majority of people who experienced both. The intellectual pleasure derived from art, music, etc. is considered to be higher than physical pleasure derived from sex, eating, etc. Based on the classification of different kinds of pleasure performed by experts the moral values of the society can be developed and then followed by everyone. To avoid immoral actions that can be justified as means of maximizing happiness, Mill adheres to rule-utilitarian view which states that an action is right if it is based on a rule that maximizes happiness of the affected population as opposed to act-utilitarianism that evaluates the action itself. For example, a rule of helping others maximizes happiness in general so we should follow this rule.
Tesco’s objective is to be the ‘champion for customers’, and they want to achieve this by being number one in customer satisfaction. They want to grow globally and by doing this they ‘create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty’. Tesco is
As humans we are constantly in search of understanding the balance between what feels good and what is right. Humans try to take full advantage of experiencing pleasure to its fullest potential. Hedonism claims that pleasure is the highest and only source of essential significance. If the notion of hedonism is truthful, happiness is directly correlated with pleasure. Robert Nozick presented the philosophical world with his though experiment, “The Experience Machine” in order to dispute the existence and validity of hedonism. Nozick’s thought experiment poses the question of whether or not humans would plug into a machine which produces any desired experience. Nozick weakens the notion of hedonism through his thought experiment, claiming humans need more than just pleasure in their lives. Nozick discovers that humans would not hook up to this machine because they would not fully develop as a person and consider it a form of suicide.
Extends the group over every power of the government…… The seeds of jealously and will against the government of which
The belief in this ethical creed is that everything is right in proportion to how much happiness it brings with it, and what is considered wrong is what produces the opposite of happiness. This way of thinking still holds the value of happiness as being pleasure and unhappiness as being pain, what differs from Hedonism is that utilitarianism seeks happiness for the masses. This answers Epicurus of “what a man ought to do?” with acting as so to yield the best results or consequences for the greatest number of people affected by the decision, even if this means to put oneself in an unfortunate situation. Utilitarianism is using “good” as a means to an end. Consequentialism is a large factor to take into account when talking about Utilitarianism, as the consequences of one’s actions must be measured against the happiness of the community, meaning that every action taken by the one must be reviewed to avoid bringing unhappiness to the community or largest amount of people. A quick example of this would be a situation where Person A knows a piece of information that would cause Person B to be unhappy; it is then up to Person A to possibly lie in order to maintain Person B’s happiness. At this point Person B would be seemingly happy, but what consequences would follow this kind of act? Will the person eventually find out Person A knew this truth? How would Person B feel? Thankful? Enraged? Will hiding this truth endanger Person B? This ethical approach is seen as the preferred for a utopian society as egoism is not supported, since it would most likely bring some sort of unpleasantry or unhappiness to some members of the community. For example, one could go out to dine and have a delicious stake dinner in a fancy restaurant, and then go out and enjoy a few drinks. Arguably this can be seen
.... In addition, this company has already made adjustments in the way they are making their product by using organic cotton to improve the quality of their product. Furthermore, while Patagonia is making definite changes towards their social responsibility considering the needs of their customers while still increasing the amount of product they are producing.
From this one could say it is actually difficult to determine if one’s life is good or better than another’s life. As you look at the theory of Quantitative Hedonism, the presence of pleasure and absence of pain are the only aspects that can determine an intrinsically good life. To further explain this idea, I will use the example of the deceived business man. A businessman believed that his life was good and he experienced plenty of pleasure in his life to make his life good, so since that’s what he thought, it was true to him. However, behind the aspects of just how he felt about himself and his life, in actuality his wife was cheating on him and someone was stealing from him. Therefore, making it evident that his life was not good. Nonetheless, after you look at it from the Objective List Theory, the view on the man’s life and situation alters. From an outer look of this theory, the average observer would say that he really hasn’t achieved anything in his life. He is letting other people run his life because of the way he views his values and well - being, therefore, resulting in him being cheated on and deceived by the people around him and consequently takes away his freedom and knowledge of his own life. He becomes unaware of the circumstances he is in as well as the people he is associated himself with and
Epicurus was admittedly a Hedonist, and this philosophy has had a huge influence on his work. Especially so on his death argument. Hedonism is, “the doctrine that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself for a person, pain the only thing that is bad in itself for a person.”
Philosophical Ethical Theories As we know, philosophers divide ethical theories into three major classes. They are Metaethics(descriptive), Conceptual(applied), and Normative(prescriptive). Metaethics basically takes the scientific approach to concocting where exactly our ethical principals and philosophies come from (Feiser, 2005). Descriptions and explanations of moral behaviors and beliefs are provided on the basis of facts studied by such specialists of anthropology, sociology and history (Beauchamp & Bowie, 2005).
The pain in which people are avoiding can be psychological/ emotional, or physical. Hedonism can be acknowledged in two ways; the way the constitution stresses it is the ‘pursuit of happiness’, but some people do not use this as a way to better themselves. It is meant to be used as a means to better one’s self and strive for excellence. Whereas people use this as a reason to use substances to alleviate pain and discomfort stemming from a physical sensation, or from
John Stuart Mill claims that people often misinterpret utility as the test for right and wrong. This definition of utility restricts the term and denounces its meaning to being opposed to pleasure. Mill defines utility as units of happiness caused by an action without the unhappiness caused by an action. He calls this the Greatest Happiness Principle or the Principle of Utility. Mill’s principle states that actions are right when they tend to promote happiness and are wrong when they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Happiness is defined as intended pleasure and the absence of pain while unhappiness is defined as pain and the lack of pleasure. Therefore, Mill claims, pleasure and happiness are the only things desirable and good. Mill’s definition of utilitarianism claims that act...
(Jhally, Kilbourne, Rabinovitz, 2010) The amount of money put into advertisement worldwide in 2011 was $464 billion. (Pavlik, McIntosh, 2014, p. 268). In our society, sexism has become a normal part of our everyday life based on the ads we constantly see and because of the society we live in. Women are represented in ads as objects and not as human beings. The advertising is convincing us that the most important goal for a woman should be to become “the perfect woman” and for a man to find one. Dove has a commercial called “Evolution” demonstrating the idea that “the perfect woman” does not truly exist. They show the transformation in which models go through before photo or video shoots. The makeup applied to create a flawless face and the hair extensions attached to create the ideal look are only the beginning of the issue. After the photographs are taken, we are taken through a visual process of the editing done to the images: Bigger eyes, smaller nose, bigger lips, higher cheekbones, slimmer face, bigger chest, smaller waist, smoother skin, these are only a few of the changes they make while editing these pictures. These ads create an unrealistic and unattainable idea of
This emphasis on religion continued deep into the Renaissance, as the Church was one of the few organizations that could fund such massive un...
MIll presents a form of hedonism that is quite contrary to its usual connotation. His "utilitarianism" is a principle stating that every person desires more happiness than pain and that actions are moral if they are condusive to this desire. Utilitarianism is empircally based, or centered around observation. Rather than seeking pleasure in any form, Mill contends that some pleasures are greater than others. He believes that, as humans, we are capable of intellectual pleasures rather than simple animal pleasures, and that these intellectual pleasure provide much more quality, which is far superior to quanity. Thus need a way to discern between which is more worthwhile. According to Mill, the only reasonable way to do this is to look at the
Hedonism means to live only for pleasure. It means not thinking about the consequences of your actions as long as make you happy. It’s a total abandon of all responsibilities. This type of lifestyle often has negative results. I mean, look at the hippies, and how their hedonistic society turned out. They are all either in rehab centers or have kids running around with names like “Moonbeam” and “Starchild”. But enough hippie bashing - let’s look at how the Hedonistic way of life is integrated into The Great Gatsby. Let’s take the parties for example. Gatsby has a party just about every week, no matter what. He has tons of people come over, and they party all night. Gatsby has tons of booze at his parties, and no one thinks of consuming anything but alcohol.