Examples Of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an idea in ethics in philosophy. It says that good is something that depends entirely on how happy it makes the greatest number of people. The thing which is the greatest good gives the most amount of happiness to the greatest number of people. For example, if killing one innocent person means that 20 people can be stopped from being killed then it is a good thing. Another example would be if beating one person up means that 100 people can go on an amazing vacation in the sun for a week then it is good. These good decisions are usually called “Utility” or usefulness. The theory was really popular in the 18th and 19th century, many philosophers talked about it but some of the main ones and that made it really popular are Jeremy

If there is a bomber who plants a bomb in a building downtown and it would kill and harm thousands of innocent people but the only way to find the bomb was to torture the bomber. I would torture him because it would save thousands of lives at the cost of one, which is what someone who believes in utilitarianism would say. It’s the only logical decision to make because why would you want to end the lives of thousands because you don’t want to harm one person. Utilitarianism is already in our lives today, when the government passes laws they vote and whatever the majority is will decide wither it gets passed or not. When we vote for a new prime minister, councillor or even a class president that all gets decided by what the majority chooses which a perfect example of what utilitarianism is

His mom died when he was only ten years old and his dad sent him to Queen’s College at the age of 12. He got a bachelor of arts degree once he graduated. Throughout his life he learned a lot and stated that utilitarianism does not defend individual rights, Bentham was also really open about this. He did not call it “Utilitarianism” at first it was John Stuart Mills who named the idea, at first Bentham said “Act so as to produce the greatest good for the greatest number”. He was influenced both by Hobbes’s writings about human nature and Hume's writings on social utility. He is known for saying that humans are ruled by two main things pleasure and pain. We want pleasure and to avoid pain. He also made sure everyone knew what the principle of utility was because he wanted it to be the standard of right action. Actions are good when they are going to encourage happiness, or pleasure, and are bad when they cause unhappiness, or pain. Combine this standard of rightness with the view that we should always try to promote our overall happiness and you get utilitarianism. Bentham also benefited from Hume's work, in many ways their approaches to philosophy were totally different. Hume rejected the egoistic view of human nature; he was also focused on personality evaluation in his system. He said that “actions are important evidence of character”. Bentham was also really interested in social reform. While reflection on what was morally wrong