Examples Of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a moral theory in which a “good action” takes into account the greatest overall happiness for the greatest number of people. The most essential feature of utilitarianism is that it is “a goal-oriented moral theory because it places all of its emphasis on the actual consequences of moral rules and principles, and insists that they be justified only by appeal to how happy they make us”. To further explain, utilitarianism justifies the actions and decisions made by focusing on the overall utility of the majority of people. John Staurt Mill and Jeremy Bentham both formatted this theory in slightly different ways but both have the same concept. Bentham creates a happiness calculus were the beneficial results of the action are subtracted by …show more content…
It seemed unfair to everyone but there was no other way around it. As utilitarians it was the right thing to do, even though the boy was sacrificing his happiness so that everyone else can go on with their lives. Despite the weakness of utilitarianism, I am on Team Utilitarianism. Like I said sometimes we must sacrifice our happiness just to make everyone else happy but we know that at the end everyone else will benefit so it’s worth the sacrifice. I think that’s something we all do without even thinking about it. I believe we are all utilitarians when it comes to making decisions from the most simple just as choosing a place to eat when with friends or to something more complex like staying in a bad marriage just so the kids will be happy. At the end of whatever decision we’re making, we maximize the greatest amount for everyone not just ourselves which restricts us from being egotist and making bad decisions just for our best interest. As utilitarians we make everyone happy, or at least try to maximize the amount of happiness in the given situation, keeping in mind that it’ll vary with each