Strength Of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism: For and Against Many people have heard of the word utilitarianism, but don’t exactly know what utilitarianism means or what it is. After reading about utilitarianism in this paper, you will have a perfect understanding of utilitarianism and be able to teach others about it. To start off, I will give a detailed description of utilitarianism as a whole and will then move into explaining the development of utilitarianism from Jeremy Bentham to John Stuart Mill. I will also be stating and describing some common objections of utilitarianism. Obviously, there are some possible objections that could cause someone to reject utilitarianism, but that does not mean we should reject the theory as a whole. Utilitarianism offers some ideas
The first strength is that it is a single principle, that could potentially hold an answer for every situation. Following that, the second strength of utilitarianism is that there is a substance of morality to it. The third strength of utilitarianism is that it addresses the problem of posterity. Going back to the first strength of utilitarianism, the theory of utilitarianism could provide an answer to any situation that is given. “Do what will promote the most utility” (Fieser and Pojman, 107). This means that in any situation based on the theory of utilitarianism, the choice that is made should provide the most usefulness, profitability, or be the most beneficial. Whenever someone is faced with a difficult decision and cannot decide on what to do, they can use the theory of utilitarianism to make the choice for them. It is very beneficial to have such a simple principle that could be used in any situation at any time. Onto the second strength of utilitarianism, the substance of morality utilitarianism brings. Utilitarianism promotes the flourishing of humans and the reducing of suffering. This means that the theory of utilitarianism wants humans to have the greatest amount of happiness from each decision that is made and decisions that are made should not cause the suffering of humans. The third and final strength of utilitarianism I’m going to discuss is how utilitarianism addressed the problem of posterity. “Utilitarian’s have on overriding duty: to maximize general happiness” (Fieser and Pojman, 108). Utilitarian’s make their decisions on what’s best for future generations on Earth. One example of this would be recycling, recycling is believed to protect the environment. Since recycling is going to have the most positive affect on future generations, utilitarian’s will without a question do all the recycling they can do. Utilitarian’s also believe that if the quality of life in the future is going to be