Utilitarianism Utilitarianism And Philosophical Ideas

Mill begins his book on Utilitarianism by laying out some basic ethical and philosophical ideas. From what I have read in his book I believe that Utilitarianism can be defined as the idea that humans should make decisions based on the ability to promote the most happiness to them. Another way to say it would be that Utilitarianism states that a good decision is what brings the most happiness to the most people. Mill based his utilitarian theory on the decisions that people make. He says the decisions people make should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should balance the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that is in the interest of the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human beings have the ability for conscious thought, and they are not satisfied with physical pleasures, but they will try to achieve pleasure of the mind as well. He claims that people seek pleasure and reject pain. I will point out some problems that Mill has with this theory and use examples to express my stance. There are several moral problems that Mill ran into with his theory. One of the first conflicts I noticed was that actions are right to create happiness, but wrong if they sometimes tend to produce unhappiness. A soldier moving a wounded comrade out of the line of fire could be seen as theShow MoreRelatedUtilitarianism, By John Stuart Mill1372 Words   |  6 PagesAct Utilitarianism is a long standing and well supported philosophical argument that when boiled down to its most basic elements, can be described as creating â€Å"the greatest good for the greatest number† (122). 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