Philosophy Paper

Philosophy Paper

Introduction

In the early utilitarian like Jeremy Bentham (1749-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the evaluation morality of an act is attributed to its ability to produce happiness or pleasure, without any reference to divine laws or metaphysical presuppositions which it would have to comply. Indeed, both authors, albeit in different ways, say that the search of the most useful can be the subject of a true mathematical calculation, since the utility is an objective and measurable magnitude (Bentham, 2009). Moreover, according to these authors because of its easy application, utilitarianism becomes a guiding principle of conduct for the economy, law and politics. It his paper we will discuss the practical life application of utilitarianism and we will discuss whether it works or not.

Discussion

The guiding principle of utilitarianism century, which is called classic, is the ' psychological hedonism, i.e. the idea that what needs to be maximized is the pleasure of individuals, since it governs the conduct, which is the production of inner states pleasant (Bentham, 2009).

On one hand, according to Bentham, nature has placed mankind under the dominion of two supreme masters, pain and pleasure. It is up to them what they should do as well as it is their choice to determine what is fair or unfair (Gilmore, 2001). On the other hand, it should be added that Mill, compared to Bentham, makes three significant changes:

He replaces the notion of "pleasure" to "happiness", as the pleasure it would be a reductive notion and not able to return the breadth and variety of individual behaviors);

He supports the qualitative distinction of pleasures;

He places the principle of utility based on the feeling of justice.

Regarding the support of qualitative distinction of pleasures, it must be said that for the pleasures Bentham distinguished based on the intensity, duration, but there was no a priori a pleasure better than another; Mill instead recognize that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and have greater value than others, it is perfectly compatible with the principle of utility. It would be absurd to suppose that the evaluation of pleasures should depend only on the quantity.

As a result, those who are accustomed to experience the higher pleasures are the individuals best qualified to determine what pleasures can best contribute to the promotion of general happiness and education of other individuals. Finally for the principle of utility based on justice unlike Bentham, Millar optimistically believes that ...