The Utilitarianism Concept

Utility can be referred to as the greatest happiness principle but many have misunderstood utility as an opposition to pleasure. A british philosopher by the name John Stuart Mill clears the confusion by expressing utility as an action that is right in proportion due to tendency, which promotes happiness and on the flip side wrong, if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness. According to Mill, happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain while unhappiness is pain and privation of pleasure. Actions are good when they lead to a higher level of general happiness, and bad when they decrease that level.  Pleasure and absence of pain are the only things that are desirable as ends in themselves and the only thing inherently good. 

When making a moral judgment on an action, utilitarianism thus takes into account not just the quantity, but also the quality of the pleasures resulting from it. Utilitarianism does not say that it is moral for people to simply pursue what makes them personally happy but rather morality is dictated by the greatest happiness principle; moral action is that which increases the total amount of utility in the world. All actions and experiences are not judged by one reductive standard, but rather according to a variety of different qualities of pleasure in correspondence with the type of experience.

Happiness can not be the rational aim of human life, because it is unattainable. It is perceived that people can exist without happiness, and all virtuous people have become virtuous by renouncing happiness. Mill states that it is an exaggeration to conclude that people cannot be happy because the major sources of unhappiness are selfishness and a lack of mental cultivation. Thus, it is fully within most people's capabilities to obtain happiness, if their education nurtures the appropriate values. Furthermore, most of the evils of the world, including poverty and disease, can be alleviated by a wise and energetic society devoted to their elimination. Martyrs sacrifice happiness for some greater end and what else could this be but the happiness of other people? The sacrifice is made so that others will not have to make similar sacrifices; imbedded in the sacrifice is the value of others' happiness. The willingness to sacrifice one's happiness for that of others is the highest virtue. A person must not value his own happiness over the happiness of others; and the law and education should help to instill this generosity in individuals.

When people desire things in order to obtain satisfaction, it is been done in order to obtain happiness. The issue behind martyrs gives a classic example of an act that in its own worth does not provide happiness but is done as a means to happiness of others, which eventually increases the general utility. Based on my understanding of John Stuart Mill and his arguments, I believe the utilitarian doctrine shows that happiness is desirable, and is the only thing desirable as an end; all other things only being desirable as a means to that end.

                                  ..::GIDI::..

Reference

• Stuart, J. (2001). Utilitarianism. Hackett Publishing.