Utilitarianism is a philosophy which, in its basic terms, states that the morally right option to choose among different alternatives is the one which produces the greatest amount of happiness for the members of the society. This theory can be applied both to all the life’s situations (as a comprehensive doctrine) or can be restricted only to particular situations. Interesting is the fact that the utilitarian comprehensive doctrine can be applied eithers to the actions of the political structure in a society and to the single choices of an individual. Therefore, comprehensive utilitarianism can be used to determine not only if the actions of an individual are morally right but also allows to determine which social institutions (like laws and government) are morally right or wrong. On the other side, if utilitarianism is applied only to the social sphere of life, for example to judge the institutions of a country instead of the actions of an individual, it is no more called comprehensive utilitarianism but rather political utilitarianism. …show more content…
There are four steps in this view. First, a decision H is right if H treats each one in an equal way. Second, H considers each one as equal only if H takes in consideration all people’s preferences. Third, H takes in consideration people’s preferences equally only if H maximizes the overall utility. Four, therefore a decision H is right if it maximizes the total utility. In this view the second step is challengeable. In fact, if a decision H takes in consideration all people’s preferences equally, it is possible that some preferences are conflicting. Therefore it is false to say that, even if H takes in account people’s preferences equally the outcome is that everyone is treated equally. An example can be the conflicting preferences of a minority and a majority. Even if the decision H has taken in account all the preferences, the final outcome will not equally satisfy both group (majority and