Louis Pojman's Utilitarianism

Growing up, we have all experienced the pressures of utility. According to Jeremy Benthem, utility is defined as, “the property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefits, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness, to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interests is considered.” Today in more modern terms, we could call it people pleasing. It is from this principle where we get utilitarianism, a property that is characterized by the principle of utility and can be defined by the elements happiness and consequentialism. In which Bentham believes, the measure of good and evil is balanced between ones individual happiness and the happiness of the community around them. While consequentialism …show more content…
In definition you could be thinking that the principle of utilitarianism sounds rational and reasonable, but Louis Pojman, presents moral objectivism to counter Benthem’s utilitarianism. Pojman defines moral objectivism as, “the view that there are universal and objective moral principles valid for all people and social environments.” (Pojman, Louis P., and James Fieser. "Chapter 2." Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong pg.15.) One of the objections he has to utilitarianism that I agree with is ethical objectivism; the belief or principle that there are ethical principles true for all people in all societies, and what your ethics and morals are can depend on one’s culture. To understand more clearly Pojman’s example, I will give a modern day example that can explain Pojman’s argument of cultural diversity more clearly. Through out the world there are various religions, such as: …show more content…
Conventionalism he defines as, “ the view that all moral principles are justified by virtue of their cultural acceptance,” meaning, “ There are no universally valid moral principles, but rather all such principles are valid relative to culture or individual choice.” (Pojman, Louis P., and James Fieser. "Chapter 2." Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. Pg.18). Everyone is different and there are no two people exactly alike, so why should we treat all cultures the same? I believe through Pojman’s principles that everyone has the right to their own beliefs and cultures but it is up to us to learn to be accepting of things we do not understand and not condemn others for being different. I believe for the sake of one’s happiness and the communities’ happiness we must learn to live with each other’s differences and accept our cultural