UTILATARIANISM IN ETHICS

Utilatarianism is an ethical philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of

people in the society is considered the greatest good. According to this philosophy, an
action is morally right if its consequences lead to happiness (absence of pain), and wrong
if it ends in unhappiness (pain). Since the link between actions and their happy or
unhappy outcomes depends on the circumstances, no moral principle is absolute or
necessary in itself under utilitarianism.
Utilatarianism Proposed by the English philosopher-reformer Jeremy Bentham (17481832) in his 1789 book Principles Of Morals And Legislation it was developed by the
English
philosopher-economist
John
Stuart Mill (1806-73)
in
his
1863
book Utilitarianism. Benthams Formulation of Utilitarianism are firstly, man is under
two great masters which is pain and pleasure. Secondly, the great good that we should
seek is happiness (a hedonistic perspective). Those actions whose results increase
happiness or diminish pain are good. So that, they have utility.
There are four theses of Utilitarianism which are the rightness of actions is determined
solely by their consequences (Consequentialism), utility is the degree to which an act
produces pleasure. Hedonism is the thesis that pleasure or happiness is the good that we
seek and that we should seek (Hedonism), a right action produces the greatest good
consequences and the least bad (Maximalism) and the consequences to be considered are
those of everyone affected, and everyone equally (Universalism)
There are two types of Utilitarianism which are act and rule. Act according to Jeremy
Bentham is an action is right if and only if it produces the greatest balance of pleasure
over pain for the greatest number. While rule according to John Stuart Mill is an action is
right if and only if it conforms to a set of rules the general acceptance of which would
produce the greatest balance of pleasure over pain for the greatest number.
There are some examples about the application of utilitarian theory:
Situation A: A student attempt to help an elderly man across the street. He gets across
safely.
Conclusion: the Act was a good act.
Situation B: You attempt to help an elderly man across the street. You stumble as you go,
he is knocked into the path of a car, and is hurt.
Conclusion: The Act was a bad act.
Situation C: If lying or stealing will actually bring about more happiness and/or reduce
pain, Act Utilitarianism says we should lie and steal in those cases.
Situation D: If you can use eighty soldiers as a decoy in war, and thereby attack an enemy
force and kill several hundred enemy soldiers, that is a morally good choice even though
the eighty might be lost.

REFERENCES
Bibliography: BusinessDictionary.com,. (2015). What is utilitarianism? definition and
meaning. Retrieved 10 October 2015, from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/utilitarianism.html
Wikipedia,. (2015). Utilitarianism. Retrieved 10 October 2015, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism
Sarkar, S. (2010). Utilitarianism. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 10 October 2015, from
http://www.slideshare.net/sayansarkar2010/utilitarianism