John Dewey's Utilitarianism

John Dewey was more than just a man who taught and wrote about psychology. He was also a big time philosopher who played a role in many philosophies. He says that good is never the same, without good consciousness does not exist, and associates moral good with utilitarianism.
To John Dewey, good can never happen twice to anyone. The word good has many definitions and the one to be associated with it in philosophy would be the second most used one for good; which is this, that which is righteous or morally right. People try to live by what society says is morally right. They quality of good is never the same, and it starts off fresh and new for you each morning. Good is unique to in its presentation to people because people in the society see
it different. Dewey gives one exception to the statement of good never happening more than once by saying, “Only with a habit rigid to the point of immobility could exactly the same good recur twice” ( Dewey 211). With an absolute rigid routine as he stated good would not recur no matter how hard any person tried. The term good would even cease to exact with the exact same routine every day because it could not occur. With that he goes into another statement of which philosophers have had controversy with over the years.
If good does not exist, then the conscious does not either. The world would have no standard of what should be right or wrong. This happens because such strict hardcore habits sink below the level of any many at all. With there not being in meaning in the world what is the point of doing good anyway. To Dewey, the world is a constant moving object. The world without a sense of good could terminate itself into disaster. That is because the society today keeps the world moving whether it is forwards or backwards.
Another philosophy that Dewey uses with good is his utilitarianism.
He tries to explain that utilitarianism forces people to do good by saying, “To utilitarianism with all its defects belongs the distinction of enforcing in an unforgettable way the fact that moral good, like every good, consists in a satisfaction of the forces of human nature, in welfare, happiness” ( 211). That the fact of moral good always has to come with some sort of satisfaction. That humans have to get a happiness out of every good deed that they do just to be satisfied. With that, since there is good it also means there is a consciousness. When there is that satisfaction the conscious relieves that person of any misery, therefore giving the ecstatic feeling of happiness. Yet, Dewey almost comes to completely contradict what he believes. Making the claim that when utilitarianism is examined it comes out to be nothing but a catastrophe. Where this questioning comes from is trying to separate the conceptions of good and intelligence. The intelligence side of the conception wants to go with many others. That everything can be solved by algebraic calculus. On the other side of his situation is what he also believes that good can be powered by. That the good people do is powered by many things. One of them being the daily activity of life. That people do good because they need to have a purpose throughout daily life. He does not just stop their either. Dewey goes even more in depth on how good is factored into the daily lifestyle. He says, “depending upon the proportion, order and freedom introduced into it by thought as it discovers objects which release and unify otherwise contending elements” (212). Not only does daily activity life add into good but also freedom is added. With the freedom the and proportion it adds to release and unify the contending elements. So, that also helps with people wanting to do good in the daily
life.
Dewey’s seems to contradict his own philosophy, as if he is not sure in some of what he wrote himself. In today's society the view of good and utilitarianism together seems the most sound and correct. It was a writing that would almost envision the future on how it truly is. People seem to have a utilitaristic view without realizing it at all. Just by taking a day to walk through a city someone can watch this happen right in front of them. In daily life people do not do any good without considering if there is anything in it for themselves. Just like the only reason that most people work is because they get paid, and when people get paid they become happy. The society in the world today and even the past times is the reason a lot of people are this way. They think to do something good, surely there must be something coming in return for the good that the person did. Society seems to live off that happiness or satisfaction. The mind relieves misery or any other disgust and gives the person happiness. That is why people only consider what is good for them.
I do agree with Dewey's utilitarian view that he associates with good. It seems as if it is all getting something satisfactory in return for doing some type of good. Now, good can happen more than once. If repeated it does not disappear, now the satisfaction or happiness it gives a person might diminish. Just like anything else, when it is the same routine everyday it does get old and boring. Even though it does get that way, does not mean the reward is not there, it just is not as noticeable. So, that adds to another one of his philosophies. Good always exist, even though sometimes it may not be noticeable. With that, it means that the conscious does exist, and that is what helps people get through the day.
In conclusion, even though John Dewey was a psychologist and even taught psychology at one point, he was also a philosopher. Dewey said that good is never the same, that utilitarianism is associated with good, and that without any good there is no consciousness. Do you think any of these philosophies are feasible?