Aristotle And Utilitarianism: The Greatest Happiness Principle

Aristotle and Utilitarians seem to voice different opinions when it comes to pleasure. Aristotle discusses pleasures to be a negative and is something not to indulge on frequently or often. He further explains how valuable it is that humans use the power of reason and critical thought to guide themselves throughout life towards happiness. Utilitarianism or The Greatest Happiness Principle speaks upon pleasure being the absence of pain. “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied…” was the simplest line throughout the whole text as it infers, in comparison to a pig, a morally good human who is unhappy is deemed better off than an immoral human satisfied by their own wrong doings. Utilitarianism understands that it is too much to ask of one to act in the greater good of society, but when making decisions they need to be either for the pleasure it provides or as a means of pleasure. All this
For instance, the bystander can either pull the lever to murder five or murder one. Either way, it is a negative duty versus a negative duty as the end is murder. However, no matter if the conditions may clearly seem morally right or wrong as long as the end is for the greater good to others Utilitarians will be seen giving a thumbs up in approval. As a result, if the bystander in the Trolley Problem was Utilitarian the only option would be to save as many as possible and murder the one. Now, to say I don’t agree would seem foolish and selfish. I would choose to murder the one as well as the end is less negative, however, my morals tend to not consider the greater good of every one. I may begin my moral rational by putting myself in others shoes to consider how to act in the greater good of everyone, but I do believe that some of actions throughout my life could be seen as