Louis Pojman's Utilitarianism

Improved Essays
Growing up, we have all experienced the pressures of utility. According to Jeremy Benthem, utility is defined as, “the property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefits, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness, to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interests is considered.” Today in more modern terms, we could call it people pleasing. It is from this principle where we get utilitarianism, a property that is characterized by the principle of utility and can be defined by the elements happiness and consequentialism. In which Bentham believes, the measure of good and evil is balanced between ones individual happiness and the happiness of the community around them. While consequentialism …show more content…
In definition you could be thinking that the principle of utilitarianism sounds rational and reasonable, but Louis Pojman, presents moral objectivism to counter Benthem’s utilitarianism. Pojman defines moral objectivism as, “the view that there are universal and objective moral principles valid for all people and social environments.” (Pojman, Louis P., and James Fieser. "Chapter 2." Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong pg.15.) One of the objections he has to utilitarianism that I agree with is ethical objectivism; the belief or principle that there are ethical principles true for all people in all societies, and what your ethics and morals are can depend on one’s culture. To understand more clearly Pojman’s example, I will give a modern day example that can explain Pojman’s argument of cultural diversity more clearly. Through out the world there are various religions, such as: …show more content…
Conventionalism he defines as, “ the view that all moral principles are justified by virtue of their cultural acceptance,” meaning, “ There are no universally valid moral principles, but rather all such principles are valid relative to culture or individual choice.” (Pojman, Louis P., and James Fieser. "Chapter 2." Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. Pg.18). Everyone is different and there are no two people exactly alike, so why should we treat all cultures the same? I believe through Pojman’s principles that everyone has the right to their own beliefs and cultures but it is up to us to learn to be accepting of things we do not understand and not condemn others for being different. I believe for the sake of one’s happiness and the communities’ happiness we must learn to live with each other’s differences and accept our cultural

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In efforts to find summum bonum or the ultimate good, philosophers during the 20th century began to investigate ethical issues, and tried to create their own versions of an ideal moral code. During this time, John Stuart Mill and Peter Singer base their ethical beliefs in the philosophy of utilitarianism. Both Mill’s essay Utilitarianism and Singer’s work Famine, Affluence and Morality explore the pursuit of happiness and its relation to moral philosophy. The doctrine of utilitarianism emphasizes the consequences of one’s actions as they add to the sum total of happiness.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since one cannot unbiasedly judge the morality of another culture, they should be tolerant of the morals another culture chooses to accept as the culture they belong to also has morals they may choose from. Pojman, however, disagrees with Herskovits, explaining that tolerance of each culture is not something that ought to happen without reason. Relativists often do not have a reason for tolerance but are not accepting of intolerance according to Pojman. The actions of a French citizen who detonates a bomb in a crowded tourist attraction, say the Louvre, would have to be accepted as morally correct should that be a commonly accepted principle in France This is an example of Pojman’s connection between cultural relativism and tolerance.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pojman disagrees that people need role models of the same race in arguing that role models should be pick based on merit and virtue. He even goes as to say even if people benefit from having…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Utilitarianism is one of the persuasive approaches to ethics in the history of philosophy. It is widely used by everyone on a daily basis but has barely gotten recognition it deserves. Utilitarianism was founded in Ancient Greece but was not popularly used until the 19th century when it was re-introduced by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. While both men are credited as two of the most influential people in the foundation of, what we now consider, ethical theory. The approach in which we utilize the theory to make decisions is different from each other.…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Utilitarianism is a branch of metaethics that focuses on the ideas of consequences, self interest, and unbiasedness. Instead of determining if an action is moral through the immediate effects, Utilitarianism skimps over the short term and instead focuses on the long term effects of actions. Actions are no longer based on intention but, rather the overall effects from those actions determines if the parent event was morally good or bad. Utilitarianism also emphasizes the idea that an individual’s well being trumps all moral responsibilities, if a person has to steal food to eat then by utilitarianist standards this person is being morally correct despite his obvious theft. This is advantage to the ideology as it allows for a greater sense of…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1a. Cultural relativism is the view that no culture is superior to any other culture when comparing systems of morality, law, politics, etc. (AllAboutPhilosophy.org, n.d.) It does not offer a universal right and wrong, but rather offers the notion of morals based on the cultural environment. This diverges from the traditional ethical theories of doing what is right and adopts the ethical theories that are the “lay of the land” as they relate to the local culture in which the dilemma takes place.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this section, I will review flawed points in the ideas of conventionalism and subjectivism as Pojman partially disagrees with what these ideas are saying. Subjectivism is defined by “all moral principles are justified by virtue of their…

    • 1020 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is Utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is a philosophical concept that holds an action to be held right if it tends to promote happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarian’s define the morally right actions as those actions that maximize happiness and minimize misery. Many believe that utilitarianism is an unrealistic theory. Arguments and responses to utilitarianism being too demanding have been made John Stuart Mill and Peter Singer.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Mill “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (John Stuart Mill). In its simplest form utilitarianism can be defined as actions morally permissible if and only if they produce at least as much net happiness as any other available action. Its core idea is that whether actions are morally right or wrong depends on their effects. When making a decision for one’s self he/she must consider what will bring themselves the most happiness. When making a decision that will affects other…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Utilitarianism is an ethical theory based on the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The moral philosopher Bentham wanted decisions to be made that would result in the most pleasure. It is also based on the final outcome, so for something to be considered right or wrong, it is determined by the consequences. This theory does not…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The world of Pojman On behalf of Pojman and his interpretation of universal moral principles “The individual realizes his personality through his culture, hence respect for individual differences entails a respect for cultural differences” The executive board of the American Anthropological Association (69) The executive board of the American Anthropological Association proposal was meant to acknowledge moral diversity in different cultures around the world. This fragment was part of an introductory reading to the essay, “ The Case Against Ethical Relativism” by Louis Pojman. In this essay, he elaborates different arguments against ethical relativism, explains his own interpretation of universal moral principles and reconciles cultural…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Utilitarianism is an “act as to maximize or further pleasure for everyone.” Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher and creator of the Hedonic Calculus argues that there are only two masters when it comes to maximizing happiness, pleasure v.s. pain. However, according to his calculus whoever is receiving more pleasure than pain, by all means should continue the act, even if it is immoral. For example, if a sadist is torturing an innocent person and is receiving more pleasure than the innocent person is receiving pain then, according to Bentham it is okay for the sadist to continue because that would mean maximum happiness has been achieved. And the sole goal of Utilitarianism is to maximize pleasure for everyone.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The classical utilitarian, Jeremy Bentham, argued that the main principle of utility is that we must generate the most happiness and the least unhappiness…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Utilitarianism is interesting because it takes primarily a consequentialist approach to ethic looking at the ends to something and looks at the pros or cons of an action, or what causes the most happiness versus the amount of generating pain from an action. Even though it sounds simple to compare the amount of happiness versus pain the equation that we have to use for utilitarianism does not always work the that it should and other flaws that we will go over in this essay taking an unusual stance on the matter, questioning the utility monster but also criticizes utilitarianism later but also saying that it is the best that we have currently have. The idea of a utility monster is not a valid objection against utilitarianism and can be worked…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cultural relativism may be defined as a theory that advocates the idea of subjective morality. To extrapolate, this theory entails that “different cultures have differing moral codes” and these variances are merely arbitrary. Although this is a seemingly sufficient theory, there are key issues with this school of thought. James Rachels suggests several issues with accepting cultural relativism. He criticizes cultural relativism by stating that the theory is absurd as it entails severe consequences if practiced.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays