Loreilane Cristianne Cases January 12, 2020

10 – Excellence ESP 10

“ Utilitarianism ”

If one’s action benefitted others or made others happy then it’s permittable when it
comes to utilitarianism, because the happiness points is the only thing that matters in this kind
of moral philosophy. But first, what are utilitarianism and happiness points?

Utilitarianism, one of the best known and most influential in moral theories, refers
to an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes like it’s result
or it’s consequence. It is a form of consequentialism. It’s not about virtue ,because, it’s all about
the result of something. Utilitarianism also holds that the most ethical choice is the one that
will produce the greatest good for the greatest number or in other words for the common
good. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. It is also
the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business because of the way in which it
accounts for costs and benefits. While happiness points is the score of someone’s happiness
like it’s ratings.

One could compute their happiness points by following the Utilitarian Calculus, (1) first
one needs to determine a happiness point and compute for the right action, for example is one
point is equals to eating one’s favorite food, (2) second is assign the happiness points to a
foreseeable action, (3) third step is to compute and the (4) fourth or last step is to choose the
action with the highest happiness point or HP. Here are a few examples.

First example, one is torn between buying a bag that’s worth 50 pesos from a big
company and buying a bag that’s worth 100 pesos from a company that donates it’s income to
a charity. The two bags looks exactly a like but the prices are different if one doesn’t have a
utilitarian mind set then he will just go and buy the bag that is worth 50 pesos because it will
benefit him only, but if one has a utilitarian mind set then he will go and buy the bag that is
worth 100 pesos because by buying that bag he did not satisfy himself only but he also donated
to a charity that will cause more happiness points to other people. Unlike when you buy the
bag that is worth 50 pesos only then it will only cause low happiness points because the
happiness points is only from a one person and not from the other people.

Second example, the trolley train scenario, there is a train coming toward a group of
people tied to the tracks and a man is standing by the lever to make the traingo onto a different
path that is heading to the man. The man chose to pull the lever so that the train would just go
to his direction instead of the other direction where many people will be affected. As a
utilitarian one would just prefer to die than to kill more people as one can see in this scenario.
The other people being alive would cause more happiness points than just a one person being
alive.

Third example, a man is eating in an expensive restaurant and there are three hungry
beggars outside the window that’s asking for the food that the man has, the man has already
eaten half of the main dish he would like to take out the rest of the food so that he could eat it
when he get home, but when he saw the beggars outside he decided to give them the food
instead because three people’s happiness matters more than just his own happiness. That is
what a utilitarian man would do.

Final example, in a store there is a limited edition item that the man really wanted to
buy but then the man saw a mother with her two kids that is planning to buy that certain item
too. It’s the last stock of that item so after that it would be out of stock already the man waited
for that item to be released ever since he saw it, but he could also see the children’s face that
keeps telling their mother to buy that item for them. So instead of buying the item the man
gave the item to the children because with a utilitarian mind set he would prefer to see other
people happy. He would mind other people’s happiness than his.

In conclusion, I chose Utilitarianism between the three moral philosophies because in

utilitarianism you are not being selfish and you are willing to sacrifice things that you want just
to see other people happy, their happiness matter more than yours. You want something that
won’t only benefit you but would benefit others too. You want to do things that would make
everyone happy. Unlike in the two other moral philosophies.
 In church there are rules that you need to follow, like the ten commandments. You’re
actions are limited because like what I said earlier you need to follow some rules. Like for
example you can’t lie to others just to make them happy because it’s against the ten
commandments, but sometimes lying to others can cause more happiness points. That’s why
utilitarianism is more preferable than the church type of moral philosophy because you can do
anything you want to help others and not violate rules, basically your actions to make someone
happy is not limited.

While in Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy you only care about the present. The rest is
just an illusion for you. Everything is just a once in a lifetime opportunity so there are no really
rules here too, but in this kind of moral philosophy you can only think to do the right thing. Like
the example where you time traveled to past where you are stuck with a baby serial killer with
the mind set of Kant you won’t kill the baby because he’s just a baby, he’s still innocent and
clueless that’s why you won’t even touch the baby. You don’t even care if that baby would grow
up and kill people because where you are right now is the present where that serial killer is still
a baby the future for you is just an illusion, but if you have a utilitarian mind set you will kill that
baby because you know that in the future he will kill a lot of people. If you killed the baby
immediately than many people won’t die and it would cause more happiness points. That is
why utilitarianism is more preferable than Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy.