Within the story Brave New World, author Aldous Huxley depicts a seemingly utopian society dependent on a Utilitarian foundation, where pleasure and stability are of the greatest priority. Despite the appearance of a perfect society, a closer examination reveals the profound flaws in the Utilitarian ideology. Through societal conditioning, artificial mood alteration, and a corrupt power dynamic, Brave New World reveals several moral and ethical contradictions. Given these criteria, Utilitarianism is inherently a flawed ideology. Utilitarianism believes that: “A morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences for everyone than any other action” (Velasquez, 441). Or in other words, morally wrong actions can be justified …show more content…
Working in tandem with conditioning, society has also been ingrained in several idioms often repeated throughout the story by Lenina such as: “A grammar is always better than a damn” (Huxley, 77). In order to prevent any revolution or acts of rebellion, the government conditions people like Lenina to take Soma to create a continuous loop of emotional alteration, paving the way for external manipulation to ensure society remains content enough to avoid the need to rebel or form an uprising of any kind. The emotional alteration further restricts free will and individuality as well as the experience of authentic emotions. Bernard Marx demonstrates this moral violation by reflecting on his own thoughts: “Often in the past he had wondered what it would be like to be subjected (soma-less and with nothing but his own inward resources to rely on) to some great trial, some pain, some persecution; he had even longed for …show more content…
The Director’s threats had actually elated him, made him feel larger than life” (Huxley, 89). In gaining insight into Bernard’s contemplation of what life would be like following his “own inward resources”, symbolizes his desire to be free and independent from the unethical Utilitarian control. Bernard longs to feel “some great trial, some pain, some persecution” and even goes as far as fantasizing about standing up to the Director, further conveying the fact he has grown discontent with the constant state of externally imposed happiness. Speaking morally, the experience of pain is crucial to life and Bernard and all the characters of Brave New World have the right to experience it. Pain fosters greater appreciation, respect, and care for the reward of authentic happiness. Without pain, happiness means nothing. Following this logic, the artificial happiness generated through Soma, bypasses all the crucial steps that add value and appreciation for happiness. This translates to a society completely deprived of free will, as well as authentic and original emotions, thereby depicting the unethical Utilitarian control and exploitation through the use of
The future of the world is a place of thriving commerce and stability. Safety and happiness are at an all-time high, and no one suffers from depression or any other mental disorders. There are no more wars, as peace and harmony spread to almost every corner of the world. There is no sickness, and people are predestined to be happy and content in their social class. But if anything wrong accidentally occurs, there is a simple solution to the problem, which is soma. The use of soma totally shapes and controls the utopian society described in Huxley's novel Brave New World as well as symbolize Huxley's society as a whole. This pleasure drug is the answer to all of life's little mishaps and also serves as an escape as well as entertainment. The people of this futuristic society use it in every aspect of their lives and depend on it for very many reasons. Although this drug appears to be an escape on the surface, soma is truly a control device used by the government to keep everyone enslaved in set positions.
Utilitarianism concerns itself with promoting the best outcomes for the greatest numbers in order to be ethically acceptable, utilitarianism is a consequentialist approach which aims at results of actions regardless of how they are carried out. Utilitarian monsters, a term coined by R. Nozick, are those who “get enormously greater gains in utility from any sacrifice of others than these others lose. For, unacceptably, the theory seems to require that we all be sacrificed in the monster’s maw, in order to increase total utility”.(The Utility Monster, 2011)
Technology, conditioning and manufactured happiness are tools for control which is the foundation of the Brave New World. The Director says “It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted” (148). The Director explains the motivation for controlling the people and everyone seems to be okay with his deceitfulness. In the book, John lashes out because he is against the consume of soma, he tries to convince the citizens that without the fake happiness they will face reality and break out of being controlled.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World illustrates a colorful, fantastic universe of sex and emotion, programming and fascism that has a powerful draw in a happy handicap. This reality pause button is called “Soma”. “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.” ( Huxley 54 ).
Utilitarianism: Explanation And Study of Criticisms The dictionary definition of Utilitarianism is: 'The doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principal of conduct.' When making a moral decision, we should look at the outcome of an action. Whatever brings the greatest happiness to the most people is the morally 'right' decision. It is a consequentialist principal where the majority rules.
As the Director is giving students a tour of the facility, they watch as children are electrocuted while playing with books and flowers. He explains it is so that they are more happy when they are not around nature or books, “‘And that,’ put in the Director sententiously, ‘that is the secret of happiness and true virtue - Liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny” (Huxley 16). This passage reveals how little freedom the people of the World State truly have. This passage describes the reasoning behind the conditioning process, and how it is supposed to make people truly happy. This relates to the theme because it forces the reader to face the question of whether it is better to be happy with little freedom, or to have the freedom to choose without the promise of happiness. The children of different social castes are conditioned into believing they are happy in their social status, but they do not get to choose for themselves if they like to read, write, or draw. The people of the World State do not get to choose what they want to do with their lives, and they do not get to experience passion of loving a job that they choose. Also, they do not get to choose who they are in the world, because someone else decides their place
In Utilitarianism, J.S. Mill gives an account for the reasons one must abide by the principles of Utilitarianism. Also referred to as the Greatest-happiness Principle, this doctrine promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. More specifically, Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, holding that the right act is that which yields the greatest net utility, or "the total amount of pleasure minus the total amount of pain", for all individuals affected by said act (Joyce, lecture notes from 03/30).
The problem with Utilitarianism is not that it seeks to maximize happiness. Rather, it is that Utilitarianism is so fixated on generating the most happiness that the need to take into account the morality of the individual actions that constitute the result is essentially eradicated. In so doing, the possibility of committing unethical actions in the name of promoting the general welfare is brought about, which in turn, renders Utilitarianism an inadequate ethical
Imagine living in a society where there is no sense of independence, individual thought, or freedom. A society where the government uses disturbing methods that dehumanize people in order to force conformity upon them. Taking away any sense of emotion, it would be very undesirable to live in a society with such oppression. Such society is portrayed in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. The World State uses social restrictions to create permanent artificial personalities for people within the society.
This essay seeks to apply the ideas of Punishment and Utilitarianism to the speech made by John Kerry to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations on behalf of the Vietnam War veterans. The normative idea of utilitarianism purports that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”, thus it is submitted that firstly utilitarianism focuses on the subjective pleasures, satisfactions, or preferences of the actor and secondly, it requires the aggregation of all of the subjective goods of individuals and it considers as best the outcome in which the total of individual satisfactions is maximized. The speech delivered by John Kerry brings to the fore issues regarding the various moral implications and the utility of the actions of the American soldiers during the war. This essay examines whether the a utilitarian view of the defence of torture and punishment inflicted by the American soldiers in the Vietnam War provides a viable argument for justifying torture on those grounds. The speech by Kerry raises important issues which criticise a utilitarian view of the war by claiming that it ignores the core value of justice and retribution. The essay shall first detail the concept of Utilitarianism and shall then proceed to describe the role it plays in assigning penal sanctions, concluding with an analysis of both these concepts within the context of Kerry’s speech.
There are many essays, papers and books written on the concept of right and wrong. Philosophers have theorized about moral actions for eons, one such philosopher is John Stuart Mill. In his book Utilitarianism he tries to improve on the theories of utilitarianism from previous philosophers, as he is a strong believer himself in the theory. In Mill's book he presents the ideology that there is another branch on the utilitarian tree. This branch being called rule-utilitarianism. Mill makes a distinction between two different types of utilitarianism; act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism. Rule-utilitarianism seems like a major advance over the simple theory of act-utilitarianism. But for all its added complexity, it may not actually be a significant improvement. This is proven when looking at the flaws in act-utilitarianism and relating them to the ways in which rule-utilitarianism tries to overcome them. As well one must look at the obstacles that rule-utilitarianism has on it's own as a theory. The problems of both act and rule utilitarianism consist of being too permissive and being able to justify any crime, not being able to predict the outcomes of one's actions, non-universality and the lose of freewill.
The most important question of all is what should one do since the ultimate purpose of answering questions is either to satisfy curiosity or to decide which action to take. Complicated analysis is often required to answer that question. Beyond ordinary analysis, one must also have a system of values, and the correct system of values is utilitarianism.
I am not sure if Christine de Pizan can be defined as a feminist but I also think that she doesn’t belong in the category of feminist that we now adhere to. While yes, her works were focused on the equality of the sexes and proving that women are capable of reason and knowledge as men her methods of refuting those who believed otherwise isn’t necessarily feminist. My definition of feminism can be summed up by looking at intersectional feminism. Intersectional feminism is defined as understanding the multiplicity of women's identities such as race, class, sex, and gender, and how such identities have an affect on the oppression of women.
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, truth and happiness are falsely engineered to create a perfect society; the belief of the World Controllers that stability is the the key to a utopian society actually led to the creation of an anti-utopian society in which loose morals and artificial happiness exist. Huxley uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to satirize the possibiliy of an artificial society in the future as well as the “brave new world” itself.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and defended by James Mill. The theory says, that all the activities should be directed towards the accomplishment of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism is impractical and very unrealistic because, it refuses to focus on the individuals values, morals, and happiness. Utilitarianism endorse risking ones life for the sake of other is not and in fact it rewards such behavior. Utilitarianism mentions that if the outcome of the one persons death saves many lives then therefore it is obligated to do so.