Utilitarianism

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The most recent Presidential election in the United States recently came to a wrap, widely being considered one of the most ridiculous elections of all time. When it was announced that the two Presidential finalists were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, people all around the world were shocked. With Donald Trump having no experience in politics, and Hillary Clinton previously having been in a political position, but landing herself in hot water for deleting thousands of emails, it seemed that America was almost certainly doomed. With the controversial nature of the candidates, many America citizens decided to remove themselves from the equation completely by not voting at all. If I was an American citizen, I would have done the same thing. …show more content…
For starters, let’s talk about Utilitarianism. From what I understand, Utilitarianism is the idea to act in ways that promote the most happiness, and the least unhappiness. Utilitarian’s believe that we are allowed, if not required, to take all steps necessary to promote overall happiness. With that being said, no one person is more important than the next. The happiness of every person is weighed equally. A utilitarian has a complex breakdown on what and how actions are considered “right”. A “right” action is one that produces good. An action that produces good is one that produces happiness, which ultimately produces pleasure. If an action produces more happiness than unhappiness, then it is defensible by Utilitarianism. So with all that being said, how would Utilitarianism view the morality of voting? For starters, the crux of Utilitarianisms argument is to act in ways that promote the most happiness. Many people may have felt that they would be losing, regardless of who they voted for in the election. Voting for the lesser of two evils wasn’t something that that millions of Americans didn’t do this election. It wouldn’t make someone happy knowing that they contributed to the election of an undesirable president, that’s for sure. So by voting regardless of the

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