is it better to be Utilitarianism or Kantianism?
Utilitarianism has many pitfulls, and has been shown to be potentially quite dangerous. If you are studying it I highly recommend reading “the survival lottery” by John Harris (it’s mentioned on Wikipedia). The problem is how to decide what is the greater good, and also when this greater good may override the good of others. For example, if by massacring 2,000 people 10,000 people would be happier then does that mean it should be done? What if 200,000 people benefit? Where do we draw the line? Kant wished to arrive at a rational moral code which would apply to all people, at all times. Problem is, mankind is by nature irrational and this cannot be bypassed so we can neither hope to arrive at a ‘true’ morality, nor can we expect it to work in real life, with real people. Personally both these ideas are fatally flawed, elements of them can be employed, but to dogmatically stick to either is a mistake and could be very misleading. It is always best to maintain a critical mind-set. I would
