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Utilitarianism: The Greatest Happiness Principle

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I personally strongly disagree with Utilitarianism in general, and especially with the Greatest Happiness principle. Personally I think many things are wrong with it, including the fact that people can’t see the future and determine the consequences of their actions, the fact that it allows immoral behavior in the name of increasing overall happiness, that it allows for government laws to be broken in order to increase overall happiness, and the way it disregards the motive behind an action. In theory it sounds like it would be a fair and moral ethical principle because it promotes the good of the majority, but when broken down I think the Greatest Happiness Principle has major flaws. The Greatest Happiness Principle is Mill's notion that any action that endorses happiness and/or the absence of pain is good or right. Actions …show more content…

I think the problem with this argument, however, is that there is no mention of motivation. So even if the intention behind the action is immoral, it would be considered moral if the majority preferred it. Even if a person is attempting to act according to Utilitarianism and an unforeseen event causes an action to fail, that person would still be considered immoral because their action caused pain even though it was unintentional. If this principle were actually enforced, no one in the world would be considered moral. The Greatest Happiness principle actually allows for the cause of pain so long as it is for the happiness of the majority. Additionally, The Greatest Happiness Principle disregards the importance of laws established by the government. Essentially, a murderer could still be considered a moral person if he/she just murdered all who disagreed with them. Murder is obviously illegal, but The Greatest Happiness Principle would disregard the importance of legality in this

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that focuses on outcomes and consequences. When one considers the theory of utilitarianism, it must be understood that the pleasure is a fundamental moral good and the aim is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. So, when a human is going through the decision making process it is of the utmost importance to look forward at the consequences of the decision and determine if the decision will maximize pleasure and minimize pain. John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth century philosopher focused on the theory of utilitarianism or the Greatest Happiness Principle and claimed that the maximization of happiness for the greatest quantity of people is the ultimate goal. One issue that we face in modern day America that

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Neither act or rule utilitarianism is broad enough to fit every moral decision into their theory. Consequently, utilitarianism in general is

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M. Hare’s argument, it can be seen that there exists some issues with utilitarianism. Or, simply apply utilitarianism to this world, and use utilitarianism code to make every decision is wrong since the code of utilitarianism loss consistency in real world. According to utilitarianism, the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility, or happiness. However, happiness is complex. It is generally acknowledged that people who have their physical and emotional needs satisfied and their human rights guaranteed are happy.

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Utilitarianism is the theory that we should always try to bring about as much happiness as possible. It is hard to argue against the value of being happy, but critics are quick to point out that we value many other things as well. (Sir Bernard Williams, Rachels, 2010, p. 40) For me, this subject can be quite a tough one, and I will be honest, it is seriously causing me to think. The best way I can think of is this.

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A number of problems surround the second question; the most obvious of which are limited time, the limited capacity of human foresight to calculate the maximum number of happiness, and the inability of the theory to advise on the time frame utilitarianism is to be applied to; how do you know the maximum number of happiness for the next 10 years doesn’t mean greater overall unhappiness in the next 50 years, so what time period should one keep in mind when considering an issue from a utilitarian stand point, 1 year, 5 years, 10, 20? This lack of clarity further adds to the impractical nature of the ideology. There are a myriad number of situations which seem very difficult to resolve without employing utilitarian principles and a very good example is the widespread use of utilitarian principles in bioethics. The best example here would obviously be the famous case of the conjoined twins Mary and Jodie. The facts in front of the court indicated that Mary was the parasitic twin who shared a heart with Jodie.

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One would have a hard time trying to argue that happiness is not desirable, and that human desires do not, in fact, stem from happiness. One objection I might have with Mill is the belief that intrinsic motivational factors outweigh extrinsic motivational factors. I think that the fear of displeasing God can, in some situations, outweigh the beliefs of one’s conscience. In this scenario, it could also be argued, however, that if one truly believes that God is pious, than their conscience should reflect the same values that God outlines, thus making this seemingly external motivational factor an internal motivational factor as well. Overall I would agree with Mill’s argument for Utilitarian morality.

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The fact that none of these are considered as factors that can influence one’s ability to conform to utilitarianism reveals a weakness in the logic and makes it impossible for any individual to obey and

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The main principle of utilitarianism is happiness. People who follow this theory strive to fulfill the “ultimate good”. The “ultimate good” is defined as ultimate pleasure with out any pain. It is said that the pleasure can be of any quantity and any quality, but pleasures that are weighted more important are put at a higher level than others that are below it. This ethical theory also states that if society would fully embrace utilitarianism then people would naturally realize their moral standing in the

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Throughout history many great philosophers have attempted to unravel the origins of virtues by developing moral theories of their own. This document is designed to provide the reader with an overview of some of the more popular theories concerning morals. Three of the most popular moral theories are… Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Aristotelianism. Though Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Aristotelianism differ in many ways, they also share similar fundamentals. Utilitarianism is a highly acclaimed theory that is morally based on consequentialism.

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Therefore, the consequence ultimately can outweigh the feeling of happiness. Also, what may be considered good to the individual may not be considered good for other people. If it is not good to other people, then everything that makes an individual happy is not a good thing to everyone.

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Altruism, is defined as ‘a philosophy and social movement which applies evidence and reason to working out the most effective ways to improve the world’ (Singer, 2015). Adopting happiness as a measure of well-being: like any other measure of well-being, happiness cannot be considered in isolation from concepts of justice, rights, and dignity. This is true at the level of individual choice as well as policy decisions; a moral person does not pursue his or her own happiness without at least minimal respect for other people, and an ethical government does not pursue the aggregate happiness of its citizenry with no thought to how it is generated or distributed (White,

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(Mill, utilitarianism, p.697) To put this into simpler terms, Mill is essentially saying events or experiences are desirable only when it is a source for pleasure, so actions are good when they lead to higher levels of general happiness and they are deemed as bad when it lowers your general level of happiness. However, it is important to note utilitarianism doesn’t say it is morally right for everyone to purse what make them alone happy but instead morality is dictated by what increases the total amount of utility in the world. Pursuing your own happiness at the expense of the majority of social happiness would be viewed as wrong by utilitarian’s. Mill then proceeded to say that morality requires impartial consideration of the interest of everyone involved, its not just about your own happiness.

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Suppose a conductor is driving his train and the breaks are defect. The rails lead directly into a cluster of five people who would all die if the train will go this direction. However, the conductor can change onto another track where only one person is standing hence only one person would die. How should the conductor react (Hare, 1964)? Is it possible to condense the problem to a rather simple maximization problem in example that the action is taken, which would kill the least people?

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