Analysis Of Problem 4: The Justice Objection

The moral theory, utilitarianism, focuses on the idea that good equals pleasure and morally, to try and gain pleasure and happiness, we need to keep away from pain (Mill, p. 118). Utilitarianism also says that we should pursue pleasure and happiness not only for ourselves, but for as many people as possible. Although attempting to obtain these feelings sounds like something most people would not be opposed to, objections to this moral theory exist. The objection this paper will focus on is “Problem 4: The Justice Objection” (Pojman, p. 135). This objection particularly opposes rule utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism is one of the two strands within utilitarianism, the other strand is called act utilitarianism (Pojman, p. 130-131). This paper will explain what utilitarianism is, as well as, why the objection that will be

In the nineteenth century, John Stuart Mill, was a philosopher who supported utilitarianism (Mill, p. 118). Mill embraces the vision that being moral is to create as much happiness as one can (Mill, p. 118). Utilitarianism says that an action is right if it advances happiness, on the other hand, an action is wrong if it provides the opposite of happiness (Mill, p. 118). This theory holds that we should always act in a way that will create the most good for the highest amount of people (Mill, p. 123), this is known as the principle of utility. It is often difficult to do what is best for the most amount of people because, as humans, we have our own wants and tend to care about our own interests over others (Mill, p. 119). This is not necessarily a bad thing, putting yourself above others can be important in many situations. For example, when it comes to