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Pros And Cons Of Utilitarianism

1033 Words5 Pages

Michael K Williams
Professor Gibberman
Into to Philosophy
5 Oct 2017

Philosophy Paper 1 - Prompt 1 Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism can be described as an ethical philosophy to which its purpose is to maximize the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people, while also attempting to limit the amount of pain or suffering, this is known as the Utility Principal, seeing pleasure and freedom from pain as the only intrinsic goods. Secondly, this ethical theory focuses on the consequences, or results, of the actions in question, while viewing the individual’s intentions as immaterial. “Actions are right as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill) This is referred to as the …show more content…

This critique has its roots in the first systematic account of Utilitarianism, as it was proposed by Jeremy Bentham. Bentham’s Utilitarianism was based on the use of his self derived ethical equations. These equations could then be used for calculating the degree of pleasure or pain a specific action is likely to cause. This was a logical approach from Bentham to create a scientific equation for calculating morality, to be used thereby to determine the actions likely to produce the most utility. Critics of this method see these equations as cold logic and reason stepping into ethics, potentially being used to justify the ends of hedonism or pure sensory pleasure, not unlike the swine. Likened to Epicureanism, Mill utilizes this critique not only in an attempt to refute claims of swinishness, but to also differentiate his interpretation from, or further clarification of, Bentham’s Utilitarianism. While Bentham went only so far as to differentiate between pleasure and pain, Mill further clarified the manner of pleasure by breaking it into two separate categories. He also begins to refer to pleasure as happiness, in an attempt to elevate the ideal concept away from the base physical to the sublime …show more content…

He has accomplished this by simultaneously clarifying levels of accessible pleasure, differentiating in the quality and quantity of those pleasures, and by further clarifying the terminology of pleasure, not as only sensual pleasure, but as a feeling of happiness. With these points, Mill elevates the standards of those in his time who would be guided with Utilitarianism as their ethical

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