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  • Essay / Utilitarianism - 765

    Utilitarianism is known to be the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utility is defined as the absence of pain and pleasure itself, which is why it is also called the greatest happiness principle. According to utility, an action is considered to have moral value if it promotes happiness; and it is considered bad if the action increases pain. Unhappiness means lack of pleasure and pain; and happiness is desired pleasure and the absence of pain. According to utilitarianism, the only desirable ends are pleasure and the absence of pain and are considered intrinsically good. With all these definitions the question arises: is life all about pleasure and pain? And if that is the case, can a person who just watches TV and eats junk food all day be considered a man of moral actions? Even if he never tries to carry out noble deeds and productive activities. The answer is no. According to utilitarianism, some pleasures are more desirable and valuable than others and a person should always choose the highest pleasure over others. Utility is not simply a quantitative analysis of pleasure, rather there are various qualities of pleasure and only people with a wide range of experiences can dictate which pleasure is of higher quality. A pleasure is considered of higher quality if people choose it over other pleasures, even if it is accompanied by some discomfort and even if the other pleasure is given in large quantities. For example, if a person finds pleasure in exercising, they will not trade that pleasure for something else (like watching TV), no matter how tired the workout makes them. Another example is that a child would not trade his dessert cake for a thousand...... middle of paper...... which is the least useful and produces the least happiness. There are also situations where it is not clear what a utility action would be. For example, what happens if there is a conflict between moral situations? Suppose a person promised someone to be somewhere at a certain time, but along the way he finds someone who needs his help. So should he keep his promise or help the person in need? In this case, the utilitarian rule does not say what to do. Therefore, a person can choose the action that he or she believes will bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people and must carefully analyze the results of each action. Utilitarian theories suffer from the problem of morally justifying the imprisonment, murder, deception, or torture of even innocent individuals. In order to achieve a greater good, only the total human good counts in utilitarian theories..