What is utilitarianism? “Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that hold that actions are morally good in so far as they promote utility” (Restrepo, 09.05). In other words, utilitarianism produces optimistic or the greater good. Every day we all make personal moral decisions that make us utilitarian; hence it also allows us to promote the greatest happiness for our peers.
Another way to understand utilitarianism is to understand that “Utilitarian’s determine morally good actions by appealing to the principle of utility”, which is a principle of promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Restrepo, 09.05). According to the Hedonistic Calculus, there are six criteria that will enable one to decide whether his/her actions promote …show more content…
For example, one of the criteria that can be seen through my actions is intensity. Giving my seat to someone who needs it the most gave me a greater amount of pleasure because it would help the mother and her kids more than it would have helped me. Also, it minimized the pain of seeing a mother struggle to handle her young kids as well as travel on the crowded bus at the same time. Similarly, this pleasure started my day off awesome and lasted throughout the end of the day because inside of my heart, I felt good that I was able to help someone when no one else was ready to help out. Purity was definitely another criteria that was involved in my action. The pleasure I obtained would also result in another pleasure which is the mother and her kids. Even though I struggled to hold myself up without falling down when the bus makes its turn, I was able to help the mother and her kids to calmly relax their ride to the train station. In this process, she was able to peacefully feed her kids and provide attention towards them. This allowed the mother and her kids to be happy. In addition, the criteria that involves extent can also be seen through this action. For instance, as soon as people saw me give my seat to this mother and her kids, other people noticed it and slowly volunteered their seats to others as we picked up more people. Thus, just with one action of mine, it …show more content…
However, some actions can turn out to be a positive advantage while some can end up being negative. Analyzing one of my actions that happened during the day with the criteria of the Hedonistic Calculus, I am able to realize that I was being a utilitarian who aimed to result in positive benefits for everyone including myself. To sum up, moral decisions are made by everyone and it is up to themselves whether to admit if it produced the greater
Another way to understand utilitarianism is to understand that “Utilitarian’s determine morally good actions by appealing to the principle of utility”, which is a principle of promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Restrepo, 09.05). According to the Hedonistic Calculus, there are six criteria that will enable one to decide whether his/her actions promote …show more content…
For example, one of the criteria that can be seen through my actions is intensity. Giving my seat to someone who needs it the most gave me a greater amount of pleasure because it would help the mother and her kids more than it would have helped me. Also, it minimized the pain of seeing a mother struggle to handle her young kids as well as travel on the crowded bus at the same time. Similarly, this pleasure started my day off awesome and lasted throughout the end of the day because inside of my heart, I felt good that I was able to help someone when no one else was ready to help out. Purity was definitely another criteria that was involved in my action. The pleasure I obtained would also result in another pleasure which is the mother and her kids. Even though I struggled to hold myself up without falling down when the bus makes its turn, I was able to help the mother and her kids to calmly relax their ride to the train station. In this process, she was able to peacefully feed her kids and provide attention towards them. This allowed the mother and her kids to be happy. In addition, the criteria that involves extent can also be seen through this action. For instance, as soon as people saw me give my seat to this mother and her kids, other people noticed it and slowly volunteered their seats to others as we picked up more people. Thus, just with one action of mine, it …show more content…
However, some actions can turn out to be a positive advantage while some can end up being negative. Analyzing one of my actions that happened during the day with the criteria of the Hedonistic Calculus, I am able to realize that I was being a utilitarian who aimed to result in positive benefits for everyone including myself. To sum up, moral decisions are made by everyone and it is up to themselves whether to admit if it produced the greater