What is Utilitarianism?
Justin and I were discussing the concept of utilitarianism, when the question was raised: what exactly is a utilitarian? Some people would call utilitarianism a belief that “the ends justify the means”. But when it comes down to it, isn’t utilitarianism really just some set of values, and a belief in doing what is necessary in order to maximize the realization of those values? After all, both “ends” and “means” are in some sense an “event”, and you could say that a utilitarian is simply someone who has a theory as to what kinds of events are good, and what kinds of events are bad, and tries to cause good events to happen and bad events not to happen. The problem with this definition of a utilitarian is that it would be impossible to come up with a set of moral values which are not classified as utilitarian, since all moral theories are just a set of values — things one considers good and bad, and actions one considers right and wrong. So the word becomes meaningless. Yet, “utilitar
Utilitarianism is an ethical framework for effective moral action. Fundamentally, it is based quantifying good in terms of utility and attempting to maximize that quantity. Utility is often defined as happiness or pleasure, although there are other variants, such as the satisfaction of preferences, or preference utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is often defined as an effort to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. There are also numerous sub-strands of utilitarianism with various caveats and footnotes on the basic theme. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, where the ends justify the means: if an interim valley of negative utility must be traversed to reach a peak of greater utility, then utilitarianism advocates it. Utilitarianism has been used as a framework to argue for the value of different actions or political philosophies since it was first formulated. People have probably had utilitarian thoughts for a very long time, but in written records it originates wit
” Answer: The essence of Utilitarianism is in its concept of pleasure and pain. Utilitarian philosophy sees good as anything that increases pleasure and reduces pain. It is a philosophy of outcomes. If the outcome of an action serves to increase pleasure and reduce pain, then the action is considered good. At its heart, Utilitarianism is a hedonistic philosophy. The history of Utilitarianism can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, but as a school of thought, Utilitarianism is often credited to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham. What are some of the problems of Utilitarianism? First is the focus on outcomes. An action is not good just because its outcome is good. The Bible says that man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God is not as concerned with outcomes as He is with the intentions of our hearts. Good actions with bad intentions do not pass muster with God. Now, obviously, we cannot see the intentions
Utilitarianism is a theory of morality, which is teleological in nature. It is sometimes referred to as, The greatest happiness principle, but most often, in a debate context, simply as utilitarianism. It’s two most famous theorist and philosophers were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The theory can be simply summed up as: What it is that is moral to do, is what gives you the most pleasure, and avoids the most pain. The theory, in a context of soceity and government, is summed up as: The greatest good for the greatest number. Worth noting for this, is Rawls’ system of justice, in which he directly opposes and criticizes utilitarianism– at least in context of a social and political system of justice and morality.
