ipl-logo

Who Is John Stuart Mill Act Utilitarianism

1540 Words7 Pages

According to Bentham, the Nature has placed mankind under the governance of pleasure and pain. They point out what we ought to do and determine what we shall do. One hand there is the standard of right and wrong and on the other hand lies the chain of causes and effects. This is called the Principle of Utility(PoU). The more consistently the PoU is pursued, the better it is for the mankind. PoU approves or disapproves of any action according to its ability to boost or diminish the happiness. Bentham says that Utility is that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce pleasure or pain to those interested in it.
Utilitarianism deals with situations and decision ethics, generally believed to be the view that the morally right action …show more content…

Mill believed that for an action to be deemed right it must promote or result in happiness. In the same way, a wrong action would be one that brings about sadness. But, this could result in a false thought that we are talking about personal happiness. No. what matters is the happiness of a majority. It seems that utilitarianism achieves its goals by promoting moral values of honor so that all individuals work to serve the interests of others. In this sense it could be regarded as a standard for moral behavior. Deontological ethics provide a powerful contrast to utilitarianism, which does not place utmost importance on the consequence of an action when determining the moral validity of an …show more content…

In any given situation, one needs to choose the action that results in the greatest utility. But, finding out the act that will have the greatest benefit will be difficult. Our perceptions regarding the usefulness of things will definitely differ, as no one thinks similarly. Also, Utilitarianism does not care for the opinion of minority. There a lot of questions. Can we justify if an action has greatest utility for a greater amount of people but causes pain and suffering to a smaller group of people? Does the number or ratio of people pleased to dissatisfied have an effect? Can we make the value of a human life, rights, or opinion quantifiable? In quantifying them, are we killing the voice or the rights of the minorities? It is not always feasible to accurately judge who and how an action will affect people. Judging an action by the outcome is therefore hard to do before the consequences are clear; surely it seems better to judge an action by its intention, even though there are also problems with this. Furthermore the calculations required to adequately make an informed judgement based upon utilitarian ethics are tedious. In some instances, the people making decisions based upon utilitarian ethics may have no emotional interest. This gets us to a question that Is it really a humane thing to calculate issues pertaining to humans without emotion? Many individuals faced with decisions of importance may not have the ethical or moral

Show More
Related

  • Theory Of Utilitarianism And Drinking Age

    1533 Words  | 7 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Response To Utilitarianism

    1551 Words  | 7 Pages

    In this essay, I will explain the moral theory utilitarianism and outline its main claim; then I will present the most serious objection to utilitarianism: that it does not value justice; next, I will present utilitarianism’s refutation to the critique; lastly, I will evaluate utilitarianism’s reply and argue that utilitarianism can sufficiently answer this objection. While there are different schools within utilitarianism I will be focusing on its most common version: act utilitarianism (from this point on I will refer to it simply as “utilitarianism”). Utilitarianism is a moral theory that tells us what we should and should not do—more specifically, what is a virtuous or vicious action. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that

    Read More

  • Objection To Act Utilitarianism

    1217 Words  | 5 Pages

    Utilitarianism is the moral theory that the action that people should take it the one that provides the greatest utility. In this paper I intend to argue that utilitarianism is generally untenable because act and rule utilitarianism both have objections that prove they cannot fully provide the sure answer on how to make moral decisions and what will be the ultimate outcome. I intend to do this by defining the argument for act and rule utilitarianism, giving an example, presenting the objections to act and rule utilitarianism and proving that utilitarianism is untenable. Both act and rule utilitarianism attempt to argue that what is right or wrong can be proven by what morally increases the well being of people. Act utilitarianism argues that

    Read More

  • Essay On Divine Command Theory

    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

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of John Stuart Mill's 'Utilitarianism'

    1564 Words  | 7 Pages

    John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions 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 happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.

    Read More

  • Deontology Vs Utilitarianism Essay

    431 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is a results-based concept that gives no weight to the intentions that drive actions but, rather, places emphasis on the consequences of such actions. With specific reference to Bentham’s Utilitarianism and his incorporation of Hedonistic Calculus, this theory is simply derived from human being’s primal desires to seek pleasure and restrict pain, and suggests that morally good actions are those which would accomplish such. Furthermore, the idea of striving to achieve ‘the greatest amount of good for the greatest number’ fuels an objection to this theory when considering the minority,

    Read More

  • What Does It Mean To Say That An Action Is Deem Good

    254 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jeremy Bentham proposed in his writings of Utilitarianism that an action is deem good if it promotes the greatest good for the greatest amounts of morally significant beings. He believed that we should act in accordance to this principle--Act Utilitarianism. Bentham defines good as "pleasure" and "pain" as lack there of. Bentham goes further in his writings to establish a guideline for measuring pleasure and pain--the Hedonistic Calculus, an attempt to quantify the amount of pleasure and/or pain of the consequences of an action.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Utilitarianism

    768 Words  | 4 Pages

    Utilitarianists accept the policy in this way, so this is a fact that one good will not be esteemed to someone who if he or she has more of it, than to somebody who has a less amount of that good. For example, additional money means significantly less to person who has much money than person who has less money. In this way, it means that loosing of satisfaction for rich people means less than the increasing of satisfaction of beggars, when the goods are distributed in equal way. For this reason, a distribution of goods boosts the whole satisfaction and happiness in people. In despite of that, utilitarianism does not protect this kind of rigid equal society, therefore, there will be negatively impact for a motivation of the solid people, workers and the general happines of whole people.

    Read More

  • Utilitarian Theory And Ethical Theoretical Analysis

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    Utilitarian theory is a choice between two acts that can maximize utility for the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people (Mossier, 2013). Utilitarian takes the right proportion of utilities to promote happiness and prevent pain (Mossier, 2013). People are not happy working in an environment where people cannot read or write because it sometimes requires more work. Utilities are the expressed quality of happiness or satisfaction one gets from something (Mossier, 2013). Happiness comes in many levels of preference (Mossier, 2013).

    Read More

  • Utilitarianism In Business Ethics

    1685 Words  | 7 Pages

    Utilitarianism is a teleological ethical theory based on the idea that an action is moral if it causes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The theory is concerned with predicted consequences or outcomes of a situation rather than focusing on what is done to get to the outcome. There are many forms of utilitarianism, having been introduced by Jeremy Bentham (act utilitarianism), and later being updated by scholars such as J.S. Mill (rule utilitarianism) and Peter Singer (preference utilitarianism). When referring to issues of business ethics, utilitarianism can allow companies to decide what to do in a given situation based on a simple calculation. Many people would agree that this idea of promoting goodness

    Read More

  • John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism

    440 Words  | 2 Pages

    Utilitarianism according to John Stuart Mill is a theory that is based on humans and our principles, "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness." Mill talks about the principle of utility and how that ties into utilitarianism. The principle of utility basically states that human actions and behaviors are ok if they promote pleasure or happiness. Also, that anything that causes pain or unhappiness is wrong. An example of this is a child does good in school so they get ice cream.

    Read More

  • Difference Between Mill And John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism

    623 Words  | 3 Pages

    Word Count: Emily Schrock Dr. Liberman PHIL 201-02 7 October 2017 Utilitarianism Many have tried to explain the concept of morality and what makes certain actions right and others wrong. One of the best-known theories, presented by men such as Jeremy Benthamn and John Stuart Mill, is coined utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a theory about morality stating that an action is right if it promotes the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people, as happiness or utility is the only thing in the world that is purely good (Mill 229).

    Read More

  • What Is Utilitarianism?

    185 Words  | 1 Pages

    The main principle of utilitarianism is “the right action in any situation is the one that tends to produce the greatest possible balance of happiness over unhappiness for the greatest possible number.” (pg. 128). In other words, which course of action is going to produce the most happiness. For example, if a person does the right thing it will lead to their happiness, if the person chooses to do the wrong thing then it will cause them to be unhappy. The “Utility Principle which is also known as the Greatest Happiness Principle.”

    Read More

  • Philosophy Of Utilitarianism

    642 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, utilitarianism asks one to beg the question; Will the action lead to happiness, pleasure, or something horrible? Above all, will the action you choose do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people? Not only are consequences considered, one’s duty is considered as well, The school of thought that focuses on completing

    Read More

  • The Concepts Of Traditional Moralism And Traditional Utilitarianism

    1162 Words  | 5 Pages

    Traditional Utilitarianism was generally considered to be founded by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarian principles assumes that we can measure and add together the quantities of benefits made by a certain action and then measure and subtract from those benefits the quantities of harm the action will produce. Utilitarian principles states that the right act in a given situation is the one that produces the greatest utilities than another act. The act will only be right if it produces the most utility for all the persons affected by the action, including the person who performed the act. It also states, that not only direct and immediate consequences must be taken into consideration, but also all foreseeable future cost and benefits each alternative will have on each individual.

    Read More

More about Who Is John Stuart Mill Act Utilitarianism

Open Document