The Moral Philosophy Of The Mercedes Benz Executive Christoph Von Hugo Essay

153). In essence, utilitarianism is maximizing everyone’s happiness, which can almost be considered a universal acceptance (Boylan, 2009, p. 154). Jeremy Bentham is one of the proponents of modern utilitarianism and states, “nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” (Boylan, 2009, p. 154). In business utilitarianism shares the nonmoral views that the best decision that had no moral conflict would be to maximize profit, which would be the greatest good of the company and its employees (Boylan, 2009, p. 162). Utilitarianism does not always hold true in some minds. Utilitarianism does not take into account motives of the people (Boylan, 2009, p. 165). “If one acts in accord with the general principle and its corollaries, then one is moral” (Boylan, 2009, p. 165).

Bentham argues that humans only commit actions on the bases of utility, which is the desire to enjoy happiness and prevent pain. He is certain that utility alone governs human morality and that the principles of utilitarianism are morally correct for every situation. Bentham claims that the purpose of morality is to increase the happiness of society and every action should aim to benefit the greatest number. He argues that without attaining happiness for the greatest number, society becomes dysfunction. In Bentham’s perfect utilitarian society, individuals would put aside their personal desires which cause pain to society as a whole in order to promote universal happiness. Bentham, strongly suggests that utilitarianism has no uncertainties, period. After objective analysis under Utilitarianism, before committing any action an individual must first examine the happiness which can be extracted from the action and the potential harms that it can cause, if the action yields more pain to the greatest number it is immoral. Bentham concludes that pain can’t yield happiness and that for an action to be morally correct it must

Jeremy Bentham is widely regarded as the father of utilitarianism. He was born in 1748 into a family of lawyers and was himself, training to join the profession. During this process however, he became disillusioned by the state British law was in and set out to reform the system into a perfect one based on the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle,’ ‘the idea that pleasurable consequences are what qualify an action as being morally good’. Bentham observed that we are all governed by pain and pleasure; we all

3. Jeremy Bentham was the founder of utilitarianism as well as an English philosopher. His theory expressed that humans are rational beings with a free will to commit crime. Yet, prior to committing a crime they weigh the costs and benefits to maximize the overall happiness and minimize the overall pain and punishment (Sandel, 34). In order for a crime to occur, the overall pleasure should exceed the pain and punishments. Moreover, those who commit a crime have a low situation control and they are discouraged through punishments that are severe, certain, swift, and appropriate to the

Bentham’s theory in simplest terms deems behavior as moral should it result in a greater good for a greater number of people. For example, it is immoral to act in manners that makes oneself happy at the expense of a larger group. In Utilitarianism, motives are irrelevant, and the morality solely focuses on the result, which means good motives could end up being immoral, and, conversely, bad motives could end up being

Bentham’s framework is a theory of Utilitarianism which can be summed simply in the more commonly used phrasing: “the ends justifies the means”. Or basically, that if the outcome of an action is perceived to be more beneficial than failing to perform the action, then the action used to achieve this outcome is

Jeremy Bentham associates utilitarianism with ancient hedonism, where actions are resulting in the pursuit of happiness. It was him who established “act” utilitarian; where the decisions deal with each individual case analyzing the benefits and harm to promote to overall happiness, which would yield the best consequences. Every action and every decision would be weighted for

Jeremy Bentham was one of the first philosophers to present a fully developed system of utilitarianism. He thought that we, as humans, should evaluate the consequences of our actions, determine whether each action is morally right or wrong, and tally the pleasure and pain that comes as a result of our actions. Is it right for me to donate to charity? Is it right for me to cheat on my government test? These questions we ask ourselves fall under Bentham’s theory known as act-utilitarianism because it focuses on the consequences of every action we perform. Bentham argues that the “greatest happiness of the greatest number of people” (Bentham) is how we should determine right from wrong. He also believed “mankind is under the

Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher in 18th century London, England. Influenced by the works of John Locke and David Hume, he brought up a philosophical theory that derives from an empirical viewpoint, which means theorizes that all knowledge are obtained through our sense experience. Bentham was considered as the founder of utilitarianism which he defines as, “the ethical doctrine that virtue is based upon utility and that behavior should have as its goal the procurement of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of persons. “. In other words, Bentham believes that all our actions should be decided by comparing how much utility, or pleasure, it could be derived for society as a whole. For example, the utility result of you pulling an all-nighter to complete your philosophy paper would be the pleasure of getting a significantly good grade compared to the pain of having little sleep for one night.

Utilitarianism is one of the most commonly used ethical theories from the time it was formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill in the nineteenth century. In his work, Utilitarianism, Bentham “sought to dispel misconceptions that morality has nothing to do with usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 53). To simplify the utilitarian principle, which is one of utility, one can surmise that morality is equated with the greatest amount of utility or good for the greatest number of people (MacKinnon, 2012). Also, with its orientation to the “end or goal of actions” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 54), Utilitarianism thus, espouses the consequentialist principle, e.g., the evaluation of any human act lies not so much in the nature of the act or the drive behind the act but rather the result of the act (MacKinnon, 2012).

John Stuart Mill adds more arguments to Bentham’s view of Utilitarianism, which are important factors to consider when discussing this topic. Utilitarianism is the idea to promote the greatest happiness to the general society as opposed to oneself (Mill, 114). Each pleasure is said to have its own difference in quality, so people are able to make the choice between two pleasures (115). Mill believes mental pleasures reign more important than bodily pleasures seeing that bodily pleasures are seen as inferior to the greater good (115). It takes a higher grade of pleasures to make a human satisfied and pleased. “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied” (116). An important factor for choosing higher pleasures over inferior pleasures is that you only have time for one pleasure and if you chose the inferior pleasure it will be wasted (117). However the standards of what is right and wrong are not decided by the person’s own happiness but the happiness of everyone who is concerned in the decision (117). Being a Utilitarian forces you to stay an

Bentham’s concern was upon utilitarianism which assumes the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. He believes that individuals weigh the probabilities of present and future pleasures against those of present and future pain (Postema, 1998).

In the beginning of “An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” written by Bentham himself he first starts off by saying, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” This is the basis of what the principle of utility is all about. Pain and pleasure are what dictate or motivate us to do everything in life. Bentham believes that a decision can be made depending on how much pain and/or pleasure it will bring to the greatest amount of people. So if a decision brings more pain than pleasure to society as a whole it is deemed as wrong and if a decision brings more pleasure than pain it is deemed as a worthy thing to do. Bentham states, “to prevent mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that individual.” The way

Most people already use some form of utilitarianism when making moral decisions in their everyday life so it is quite easily to adapt and naturally follow the philosophy. Another reason is because it moves away from the idea of the will of God and is based on the what is pleasurable for us. With utilitarianism, it is not just our very own happiness that we have to consider, it is the happiness of all those who will be affected by the decision. The question that is asked in utilitarianism is "What should a person do?" The answer is that questions is, a person should act so as to produce the best consequences possible. When looking at the consequences of such actions, we have to determine whether they are good or bad, right or wrong. But what is good? According to Bentham's view called hedonism, "the only thing that is good in itself is pleasure (or happiness)". Many people object to hedonism because pleasure and pain are things that we feel. They see these things to be intrinsic goods that are not feelings. While others think that our desires and preferences determine how we value things which could cause conflict, if people strongly valued

According to Bentham, all human beings are governed by two sovereign aspects: Pleasure and pain while each individual accepts the fact that we desire pleasure and unwilling to encounter pain. Then, he came up with his Principle of utility where: