Use Of Utilitarianism

Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill wrote of Utilitarianism in both the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. Utilitarianism at its very core is the idea of doing the greatest good that would affect the greatest number of people. The rules of utilitarianism is to look at each potential out come of our decisions and then decide which outcomes would do the least damage to the least amount of people. If an action tends to have a mostly good outcome then that action is good. If the outcome is bad then that action is morally

Utilitarianism defined, is the contention that a man should judge everything based on the ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. In other words Utilitarianism states that good is what brings the most happiness to the most people. John Stuart Mill based his utilitarian principle on the decisions that we make. He says the decisions should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should weigh the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that benefits the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human

For utilitarian philosophers, happiness is the supreme value of life. John Stuart Mill defines Utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and privation of pleasure” (Mill, Utilitarianism). This meaning that utilitarianism is determined by the calculation of happiness, in which actions are deemed to be good if they tend to produce pleasure, a form of happiness. On the contrary, they are evil if they tend to promote pain. Not only does Mill regard to the end product of happiness in actions, but also considers the motives of such actions. In his argument, Mill defends the idea that happiness as the underlying basis of morality, and that people desire nothing but happiness.

Utilitarianism is a theory which states that an action that brings the most good to the majority of people is the only action that is morally just (114). Utilitarianism is an old theory which has developed over the years (Driver, 2014). The two most important philosophers that gave birth to this theory were Jeremy Bentham and John Mill (Ibid). These two philosophers, who lived in the 18th and the 19th century, believed that human beings should always try to do something that would be the most beneficial not to just yourself, but to as many people as you can (Ibid). The utilitarianism that these Bentham and Mill worked on is currently

John Stuart Mill’s defends utilitarianism, an ethical theory according to which, as he puts it, “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (155 Ethics). In other words, actions are morally right if they make us happy and actions are morally wrong if they make us unhappy. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory in which an action is morally right if it increases the amount of pleasure and morally wrong if it decreases the amount of pleasure in the world.

Utilitarianism is one of the most influential moral theories which holds that the morality of an action is determined by whether it contributes to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people or not. John Stuart Mill, a famous philosopher of the 1800s, is widely known as one of the founders of utilitarianism. He states that the foundation of utilitarianism is that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”(Mill 10). Also, he raised the concept that pleasures that are generated by higher faculties values more than the one brought by baser faculties. Further, he distinguished between the quality and quantity of utility yields by an action. As a branch

Mill’s Utilitarianism varies from the most general form of utilitarianism, which claims that one should assess persons, actions, and institutions by how well they promote humans’ happiness. Mill branches off of this basic explanation by interpreting the misconceptions of utilitarianism into utility. This utility is something in opposition to pleasure. In order words, mill utilitarianism utility is the greatest happiness principle.

Utilitarianism is the concept that the best action in any given instance is the one that optimizes wellbeing usually in terms of conscious entities. Jeremy Bentham explained utility as being the acquisition of pleasure with a disregard for any pain or difficulty experienced by an individual as a result of that action. Utilitarianism is a version of consequentialism, which proposes that the consequences of any action is the only measure of whether that action was right or wrong. Utilitarianism is different from other forms of consequentialism because it considers all interests equally. John Stuart Mill was a proponent of utilitarianism and put forth arguments in its support. There are however some flaws in the arguments he provided. Mill argues in support of the Utilitarianism by seeking to counter certain arguments against utilitarianism especially the argument that it reduces humanity to the pursuit of easy pleasures and forsaking the more difficult and often delayed pleasures of intellectual pursuits.

Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, utilitarianism is “a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences; specifically: a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number” (Webster). The idea of utilitarianism is founded from the Principle of Utility which has three simple ideas. The first idea is the belief that our actions should have the best possible outcomes. The second idea is the belief that our actions will bring the most amount of benefit and cause the least amount of harm to people. The last idea is the belief that everyone’s happiness is just as

Utilitarianism states, “The morally right action is determined by the consequences of the action, not the motives of the agent”. Utilitarianisms consider happiness to be the foundation of morality. The famous version, “act utilitarianism,” says the morally right action is the one that brings about the greatest consequence of the greatest number of people. Mill thought it was obvious that everyone ultimately wants to be happy, so he made this the foundation of his moral philosophy. Mill notice that people were literally defining utility as the opposite of pleasure and not understanding the complete purpose of utilitarianism. Whereas, utility is defined, “As pleasure itself together with freedom from

I found that the idea of utilitarianism was quite interesting. I did not agree with Mills when he stated that actions that are right promote happiness, while actions that are wrong result in the reverse of happiness. I did agree with is that ones goal in life is to pursue happiness. While Mill brought up God in his agree it also made sense that the idea of utilitarianism is a religious and non-religious thing. Mills also brought up when people do actions that benefit others and the greater good instead of themselves. However, I did not agree to them idea that people are too prideful and are not willing to compromise happiness in order for the greater good. An example of this was when the Government wanted Apple to unlock an Iphone for a terrorist

The founder of modern utIlitarianism is Jeremy Bentham. Mill had based his ideas and theories of utilitarianism off of Bentham’s to help him fully gather all of his thoughts on utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the theory that actions are moral if they aim at the general good or the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The aim that humans reach to get at is happiness or or pleasure there for utilitarianism is a category of hedonism. Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure, the theory believed that pleasure is the highest good and the aim.

In the world we are today utilitarianism is something that the world tends to do. We believe that in time of crises we must pursue “the greatest good for the greatest number” for the benefit of us and others. The result of this action have saved many people and it continues to help. I support utilitarianism for the good moral actions people take.

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, as explained by the philosopher Mill. Given several choices, a utilitarian would pick the morally correct choice by using the Greatest Happiness Principle (487). By looking at whether the consequences of an action will produce the greater happiness for the greater number of people than another action would, one can

The idea of Utilitarianism, and the greatest happiness principle were developed by philosophers John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham in the 19th century, and even has lineage back to Epictetus, utilitarianism coincides with the greatest happiness principle. The idea is that you should act in a way that would generate the majority of overall happiness, and focus on the consequences of your actions rather than the action itself (Driver, 2009), this goes along perfectly with the definition to be wise of maximizing benefit, because being wise means maximizing benefit. Furthermore, this means that good actions have good consequences, regardless of the intention of the action. This way, we can ensure that we ensure that we, as a society and individuals, make as many people as happy as possible, and through knowing that you are promoting happiness for others, you yourself can find happiness through that. Therefore, because we as sentient beings, do what we do as we think it will promote our happiness, thinking and acting like a utilitarian will ensure that our actions