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John stuart mill utilitarianism essay
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Act utilitarianism contends that we should act to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. This view could endorse actions such as sentencing an innocent man to death if this would produce the most amount of pleasure. Utilitarianism holds that the standard of morality is the promotion of everyone’s best interests. As formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, this view holds that only pleasure or happiness has intrinsic value. More modern utilitarians hold that other things besides happiness have value, such as power or beauty. Our textbook considers only traditional utilitarianism and uses “good” to mean pleasure. Bentham held that happiness could be calculated using a hedonistic calculus, which determined
how much pleasure an act produced according to criteria such as the intensity of the pleasure, how long it lasts, how certain it is to occur, and how likely it is to produce additional pleasure. Bentham seemed to endorse act utilitarianism. Many ethicists note that this above problem is generated by focusing on acts rather than general rules. instead of focusing on acts, we should try to find those rules that will have the best consequences if they are followed. It is, however, not clear that we can work out which rules will have the best consequences. Moreover, it seems that rules will have exceptions if they are to produce the best consequences—but then these exceptions will lead us back to the same problem as is faced by act utilitarianism.
According to the book Shafer Landau an act utilitarianism is “the version of act consequentialism that says that only well-being is intrinsically valuable, and so says that an act is morally right just because it maximizes overall well-being” (Shafer Landau, G1). In the other words, it means that the act that produces the maximum of the happiness at that time than any other act. Another similar example of this act for the better understanding is, if I have a friend and being with her gives me the most happiness than being with any other friends at that time, but it does not give the same happiness to her and I am unaware about it at that time then it’s also defines as an act utilitarian. It is act utilitarian because I am still getting the most happiness at that time.
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that states that an action is considered right as long as it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. This theory was first proposed by Jeremy Bentham and later was refined by J.S Mill. Mill differs from Bentham by introducing a qualitative view on pleasure and makes a distinction between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. John Hospers critiques utilitarianism and shows that rule utilitarianism under more specific and stricter rules would promote utility better. Bernard Williams believes that utilitarianism is too demanding from people and instead believes virtue ethics is a better solution. Williams seems to have only considered act utilitarianism instead of rule utilitarianism, which may have better responses to the problems proposed by Williams. Sterling Hardwood purposes eleven objections to utilitarianism which can be used to help make compromise between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. I will argue that rule utilitarianism can be formed in such a way that it avoids the problems that arise from Williams, and Hardwood.
For more than two thousand years, the human race has struggled to effectively establish the basis of morality. Society has made little progress distinguishing between morally right and wrong. Even the most intellectual minds fail to distinguish the underlying principles of morality. A consensus on morality is far from being reached. The struggle to create a basis has created a vigorous warfare, bursting with disagreement and disputation. Despite the lack of understanding, John Stuart Mill confidently believes that truths can still have meaning even if society struggles to understand its principles. Mill does an outstanding job at depicting morality and for that the entire essay is a masterpiece. His claims throughout the essay could not be any closer to the truth.
Utilitarianism defined, is the contention that a man should judge everything based on the ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. In other words Utilitarianism states that good is what brings the most happiness to the most people. John Stuart Mill based his utilitarian principle on the decisions that we make. He says the decisions should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should weigh the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that benefits the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human beings are endowed with the ability for conscious thought, and they are not satisfied with physical pleasures, but they strive to achieve pleasure of the mind as well.
Case: You are at home one evening with your family, when all of a sudden, a man throws open the door. He’s holding a shotgun in his hands, and he points it directly at your family. It seems he hasn’t seen you yet. You quietly and carefully retrieve the pistol your father keeps in his room for home protection. Are you morally allowed to use the pistol to kill the home invader?
people’s overall happiness and this is what God desires, so in fact this theory includes God
Classical utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory which holds that an action can only be considered as morally right where its consequences bring about the greatest amount of good to the greatest number (where 'good' is equal to pleasure minus pain). Likewise, an action is morally wrong where it fails to maximise good. Since it was first articulated in the late 19th Century by the likes of Jeremy Bentham and later John Stewart Mill, the classical approach to utilitarianism has since become the basis for many other consequentialist theories such as rule-utilitarianism and act-utilitarianism upon which this essay will focus (Driver, 2009). Though birthed from the same utilitarian principle of maximising good, rule-utilitarianism and act-utilitarianism provide two very different accounts on how the maximising of good should be approached. This essay will compare these two approaches and try to ascertain whether rule-utilitarianism is indeed preferable to act-utilitarianism.
John Stuart Mill argues that the rightness or wrongness of an action, or type of action, is a function of the goodness or badness of its consequences, where good consequences are ones that maximize the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. In this essay I will evaluate the essential features of Mill’s ethical theory, how that utilitarianism gives wrong answers to moral questions and partiality are damaging to Utilitarianism.
Philosophy has offered many works and debates on morality and ethics. One of these works is the concept of utilitarianism. One of the most prominent writers on the theory of utilitarianism is John Stuart Mill. He suggests that utilitarianism may be the guide for morality. His writing on utilitarianism transcends through the present in relation to the famous movie The Matrix. In the movie, people live in a virtual reality where they are relatively happy and content and the real world is filled with a constant struggle to survive. The movie revolves around Neo, who tries to free people from the virtual world in which they live. In light of utilitarianism, freeing these people would be morally wrong. In this essay, I will first explain John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism and some objections it faces. I will then talk about utilitarianism’s relation to The Matrix and why it would be morally wrong to free the people and subject them to the real world.
The theory states that it should be applied to every action. The Hedonic Calculus is a formula that is used to calculate what course of action gives the best balance of happiness over unhappiness. I am using a scale of one out of ten for the Hedonic Calculus values. One represents the greatest unhappiness and ten represents euphoria. According to Act Utilitarianism, the morality of situations change on a case to case basis. Another key point of Act Utilitarianism is that of the utility principle or the greatest happiness principle, is that the main idea of Utilitarianism and is the ultimate standard on which Utilitarianism think we should base moral right or wrong. One example the book gives is the right action in any situation is the one that tends to produce the greatest possible balance of happiness over unhappiness for the greatest possible
Both Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, had thoughts of the Principle of Utility and what it should be like. Bentham believes that the Principle of Utility depends on pain and pleasure and Mill believes that the Principle of Utility depends on higher pleasures and lower pleasures. Pain meaning evil and pleasure meaning good or greater benefits and higher pleasures meaning that action was good which would lead to a higher level of happiness and lower pleasures meaning bad which would lead to a decreasing level of happiness. Therefore, a normative ethical theory that has come through from this and it is Utilitarianism. The definition of Utilitarianism is a course of action that maximizes the total
The ethical theory of utilitarianism is associated with the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism essentially is the theory that good is what causes a person pleasure and evil is what causes a person pain. Bentham’s utilitarianism is sometimes titled Act Utilitarianism because it focuses on individual actions A “right” action, according to Betham, is one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Where a “wrong” action is one that would cause more pain than pleasure. Before a person commits an action, they should look at the consequences that it can have on the individual and others. Hedonic Calculus is a method in determining how much pleasure or pain an action will elicit. Hedonic Calculus consists of seven criteria including intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent. Each criteria can be given a score between -10 (worst pain) to +10 (highest pleasure). The action becomes ethical and moral if there is an overall net happiness for everyone that is affected. An acti...
According to John Stuart Mill the moral theory of Utilitarianism “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to promote the reverse of happiness.” “By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.” (P.229) Essentially it means providing the most happiness or pleasure for the most people whom are all weighed equally, with utility equating to the greatest happiness. Rule Utilitarianism on the other hand “determines what is morally right, however, it doesn’t consider the utility resulting from individual acts, but from generally followed rules and practices.” (P. 136) Rule Utilitarianism says something is right if a certain rule promotes the greatest number of happiness when it exists versus when it doesn’t exist ultimately leading to the utility of good or positive consequences.
Morality as a whole tries to create a distinction between right and wrong, good and bad. Making decisions should arguably always be aimed towards good. Under the philosophical doctrine of Utilitarianism, philosophers like Bentham and Mill recognize that human kind should make their lives useful and good through bringing about happiness or pleasure. The idea of the “Greatest Happiness Principle was introduced by Bentham, who was a Utilitarian predecessor to Mill. According to Mill, human lives should abide by the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” This principle states that actions are good as they tend to promote happiness; and bad as they promote the reverse of happiness, therefore humans should make a conscious choice of action that will lead
Act utilitarians like Bentham believe that an action is right or wrong depending on what good will the society results from it. Even if the action individually is not necessarily morally right as long as the ending result is beneficial for the society, that action is then considered right. For act utilitarians the end justifies the mean. Actions are also evaluated individually. It may be right for Tim to steal a pen in situation A but wrong for Ben to steal one in situation B. It will depend on the