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What Are The Arguments Against Utilitarianism

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Objection against utilitarianism and the theory of invisible hand

The “invisible hand” was first introduced by Adam Smith in “The Wealth of Nations” as a metaphor to describe the unseen price mechanism which generates positive externalities due to individual self-interest to maximize their well-being in allocating resources in the free market. (Thornton, 2009) Smith anticipated that the “invisible hand” will be the most efficient without government intervention.
Utilitarianism, founded by Jeremy Bentham, is a single principle which minimised pain and maximized pleasure and happiness. John Stuart Mill expanded this concept of utility to include not only the quantity, but quality of pleasure, while focusing on rules, instead of individual moral actions. (Utilitarianism, 2015)
Some may argue that “invisible …show more content…

Suppose your live is at risk for the sake of the many lives. For example, being one person with all the healthy organs, you could donate them and save the lives of five. According to the utilitarianism it will be the best and ideal choice to sacrifice yourself so as to save the lives of the other five. This obviously be unlikely to happen as one put the happiness of one above all others due to self-ownership.
Furthermore, Utilitarianism violates the basic of human rights. It technically impossible to measure the value of a person’s life relative to another. Some may argue that a person’s life is measured by the contribution he has or could made to the society but others may argue that they are equal. In order to calculate the exact value of one’s life is thus subjected to each individual perspective and hence impractical. Another point is that happiness cannot be accurately measured. Thus, the concept is flawed from the start. Who says that the unhappiness caused by the death of one person is equal to the happiness gained by the one

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Based on chapter 5 in the book Beyond Bumper Stickers Ethics, utilitarianism is the idea of utility or usefulness. “Utilitarianism says that acts are morally right when they succeed in (or are useful for) bringing about a desired result. The result that should be desired is happiness, because it alone is intrinsically good” (Wilkens, S, 1995, pp. 84). This can be interpreted that the death of one can bring happiness to multiple individuals. One organ donor can save up to 8 lives and also save or improve the lives of up to 50 people by donating tissues and eyes (New York Organ Donor Network, 2015).

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In any discourse community, leadership is a crucial factor and on a sports team, this should be a responsibility dedicated to the player that shows the qualities and can bring satisfaction. This feeling can be gained by working hard at practices and showing the results at the soccer games. The feeling calls you to set personal and team goals. Physical and soccer skills are not the only qualities needed to be part of the soccer discourse community. There are other skills that can help the players develop such as relationship skills.

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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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1772 Words | 8 Pages

For utilitarians, happiness of many is more important than happiness of an individual. Such as, laws should benefit as many people as possible, even if some individuals rights and happiness is

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1550 Words | 7 Pages

Utilitarianism holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong in proportion that they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Happiness is defined by pleasure and the absence of pain, and unhappiness is defined by pain and the lack of pleasure (Mill, 5). Pleasure and the lack of unhappiness are the only two aspects that are desirable as ends and inherently good. A significance in Mill’s definition of utilitarianism is what it is not. It is not psychologically measurable on a same scale but has different qualities and that those with more experience can determine what pleasures are higher than others.

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1365 Words | 6 Pages

Therefore, this form of utilitarianism highlights that the most important is the happiness of everyone and not the happiness of any particular person. In order to explain this assertion, for example, take Hitler, if he has had conquered the Europe it would be a very good place to live for those who are Aryans, yet it would be terrifying for other people. It is make some suffer to make others prosper. I think correctly, that principles of this sort can have some pretty awful results because sometimes the greatest happiness of the greatest number involved disregarding the interests of a minority, even to the point of enslaving them or killing them This isn't the only objection to utilitarianism, but it’s an important and I believe a fatal

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190 Words | 1 Pages

According to our textbook, “Utilitarianism is an ethical doctrine that merits based on utility where behavior should be aspired at bringing happiness to the utmost number of individuals” (Mosser, 2013). For instance, the military men and women that sacrifice so much to defend their country for their family, friends and so on. By all means, they disregard their own set of desires, ends, and their own happiness, as just for their country to keep their freedoms and happiness without issue. Lastly, the men and women of the military sacrifice one of many birthdays, holidays, body limbs and so on to impact many others who want to serve too. For this reason, a utilitarian would say to most individuals that want to find utilitarianism a simple and

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Utilitarians, however, provide an alternative ethical principle. The essential debate between the utilitarianism and deontology is about whether human beings should “define the right as maximizing the good” (Rawls 1988, 15). Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, the classical utilitarians, “identified the good with pleasure”, ergo “the hedonism is the highest value” (Driver, 2014). According to this believe, utilitarians thought that maximizing happiness is the judgmental principle of morality. In this content, Bentham developed the basic principle of utilitarianism, which he described as “the greatest good for the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong” (Anderson, 2004; Burns 2005, 46).

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The major concept that utilitarianism represents is that the larger the group of people happy there is a greater possibility that the action or act committed is morally correct. Since utilitarianism is founded upon the principle that an action is morally right if it produces a greater quantity of good or happiness than any other possible action. Also that even though it is not prominent in today’s society utilitarianism does play a big role we see it in our justice system along with how our politics are run and how officials in high positions are elected. And not even that when we are making big decisions we take into account the thought and opinions of other

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853 Words | 4 Pages

In this paper, I will define what pure utilitarianism is, as presented in Jeremy Bentham’s “Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” and argue that there is a problem with utilitarianism. I will provide a counterexample to Bentham’s utilitarianism to highlight the flaws with Bentham’s reasoning. I will present an alternative to utilitarianism that avoids the counterexample by slightly revising aggregation. Lastly, I will claim that my revised alternative is still flawed and another counterexample can still be provided.

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

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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141 Words | 1 Pages

Unlike Kant’s view on the morality, Utilitarianism suggests very different idea. Contrast to Kant, utilitarianism is result-based ethic that suggests “an ethically right choice in a given situation is the one that produces the most happiness and the least unhappiness for the largest number of people” (Farias, p.12). Base on utilitarianism, if killing or hurting other people can provide greater happiness to large number of people, it is moral action to do so. Yet, according to Kant, it cannot be a moral thing to do since it does not pass the universalizability test. If everyone supports to kill or hurt other people for the greater happiness, then there will be no one left in this earth because everyone will kill each other to gain the most happiness.

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1390 Words | 6 Pages

Utilitarianism is a concept that came from philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1781. Original utilitarianism dictates that people should make decisions by weighing the outcomes of different choices, and then choose the one that provides the greatest amount of “happiness” for all. John Stuart Mill, a philosopher with his own version of utilitarianism, explains that happiness can be defined as pleasure, but unlike traditional utilitarianism there is a system of hierarchy, insisting, “Some pleasures are higher than others”. For example, the pleasure of knowledge is higher than pure sensual pleasures. (Munson 864)

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494 Words | 2 Pages

Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy that is credited to being created by Jeremey Bentham. Bentham believed that all humans make choices based on two feelings, pain and pleasure. Because of this, Bentham believed that motives are not good or bad in nature but instead on what feeling a human might feel more.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

And finally, some people believes that common sense is wrong. They have three responses to go against the anti-utilitarian arguments; all values have a utilitarian basis, our gut reactions can’t be trusted sometimes, and that we should focus all the

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