Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Introduction

Utilitarianism is one of the theories of normative ethics. It began as an ethical movement in the late eighteenth century. This doctrine holds that an action is right if it is useful or beneficial for the majority of people. An action is also right if it promotes happiness. The principle of conduct should be the greatest happiness for the maximum number of people . A proper course of action, for people, who believe in utilitarianism, is the one that maximizes the overall happiness. An action will be declared evil if aimed at promoting pain. The resulting outcome of an action is the only way to measure the moral wealth of an action. The major contributors to this theory are John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. They not only regarded the result of an action important, but also considered the motive behind it. The other thing that they considered was that how much an act can be able to produce happiness not only for individual, but also for the members of the society at large.

Discussion

The philosophical theory which has come to be recognized as utilitarianism originally dates from the seventeenth century and is attributed to Thomas Hobbes, but the major body of thought can be seen back in classical times in the shape of Epicureanism. The work of Hobbes was revived by Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century, although John Stuart Mill is more commonly viewed as the father of utilitarianism with his Victorian version of the doctrine. The popularity which stemmed from Mill's expert formulation was responsible for the absorption of utilitarianism into the bloodstream of much modern thinking, and subsequently it has been hailed as “a rational alternative to Christianity”. Despite the seeming perfection' of this moral hypothesis, it is possible to find several faults within the theory, coupled with varying criticisms. However, such problems are not evident until the actual formulation of the doctrine of utilitarianism has been comprehended in its entirety as criticisms cannot legitimately be made unless one has sufficient knowledge of the content of the theory.

Utilitarianism as a moral philosophy does exhibits several forms, which are basically, variations on Mill's modification of the doctrine produced by Bentham, and so do not require particular consideration. Morality is viewed as the observance of particular rules relating to society, and reasons for doing this. Utilitarianism promotes the concept of the only motive for moral action, that being obeying the rules that are essential for social life, and the pleasure which can be found in the obedience or the pain which results from disobeying them. The standard' form of the theory is can actually be expressed as two principles which are combined. The first is the consequentialist principle, that an action can be determined right or wrong depending upon the goodness or badness that results from it. The second half is found in the hedonist principle that pleasure is the only thing that is inherently good, and that the only completely terrible thing is a ...