Explaining UtilitarianismUtilitarianism, in its most basic form is ‘ the greatest happiness forthe greatest number’. Coming from the Latin word, ‘utilis’, whichmeans useful. Jeremy Bentham wrote, in one of his books in 1789, thatutility is,
‘a property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit,advantage, pleasure, good, or happinessaˆ¦oraˆ¦ to prevent the happeningsof mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness’.
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It is easy to assume that utilitarianism is based on the fact that ifsomething is useful, then it is moral. However, this is very wrong,the theory is much more complex than this, being involved indecisions, actions and consequences.
The theory of Utilitarianism was developed by Jeremy Bentham, in hiswork, ‘The principles of morals and legislation’, which was a mix ofethics and politics, both of which he was very interested in. Benthamwas hedonist, and felt that happiness and pleasure was the mainethical measure. He believed that if an action is pleasant, bringingabout happiness for the individual and others, then it is morallyright. Bentham attempted to better the ‘Golden rule’ taught by Jesus,which was to love out neighbour as ourselves. He wanted to better thisas he felt that in loving our neighbour, and in a moral situation,resolving a problem by loving a neighbour could leave to harm to aminority. He attempted to solve this dilemma with the ‘HedonicCalculus’ This would be useful in deciding upon the most correct formof action by calculating how much happiness and pleasure would comeout of the options, and at the same time reduce the amount ofunhappiness. Seven factors were to be co…
…y were going to achieve happiness from theiractions, and therefore were right. This could be simply an excuse.Utilitarianism presents a difficulty when defining pleasure. Pleasureand happiness for one person could be very different to that ofanother person. This could lead to conflict, where a certainindividual or group could be enjoying their happiness or pleasure, buton the other hand, a certain individual or group could be enduringpain or displeasure as a result of the same actions. Most importantly,and bizarrely, a weakness is that we can claim to be able to’calculate’ the quantity and quality of happiness and pleasure.
With the Hedonic Calculus, it could be said that it makes the use ofUtilitarianism simple and easy to use. One is able to gauge theactions and decisions against it and make a judgement.
