Advantages And Disadvantages Of Utilitarianism

Throughout this essay, when describing defensible utilitarianism, it will refer to the term defensible as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (2011), because this version is typically understood by all academics studying under the British English language. The term utilitarianism is supported on the basis of morals and acts which can be deemed either right or wrong (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2011). The purpose of this essay will be to identify the advantages and disadvantages of utilitarianism, with consideration of morally right acts and morally wrong acts. Either side of the argument will give a clear interpretation in to utilitarian philosophy. The essay will follow a two-sided layout which will give two reasons towards the

The answer to that question is that the man should act in a way that produces the best consequences possible. Under the utilitarianism discussion, an act is right if it promotes happiness and wrong if it produces the reverse of happiness – this not only includes the performer of the action, but also everyone that can be affected by it. The connection of utilitarianism between one another is the following of morals, whether they be right or wrong. A utilitarian will state that it is possible for the right thing to be done from a bad motive. This theory is the opposite of egoism which, like the name suggests, is supported by the view that the performer of an act should simply pursue his own interest, even at the expense of others (Encyclopædia Britannica,

The first being impracticality in utilitarianism which looks directly at the criticism throughout the theory stating it is too difficult to apply. It is mentioned often throughout various texts that it is near enough impossible to calculate all the effects from all the individuals that have been a part of utilitarianism because of the volume of individuals and/or due to uncertainty. In order for utilitarianism to fail, there must be an example of something which is obviously wrong but still useful. The principle of impracticality does not imply that we can calculate what is wrong or right, but merely comment that it is difficult to work out what is right. The idea of practicality is used to suggest a problem exists in the theory, but this is untrue. When looking at the benefits that utilitarianism has upon others, it is often questioned how far would a study have to go? Simply though, it would only need to be researched as far as it would be useful so that the optimal compromise between preparation results in the maximised effectiveness as mediators. If the problem is one that we have faced many times before and always reached the same conclusion, or if the case presents itself as an emergency and isn 't open to extended consideration then we can forego the calculus and act immediately. Furthermore it is unnatural and inaccurate to assign a