The Three Attacks Of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism says that the right action is the one that brings about the most overall happiness. No other moral rule has universal validity. According to Rachels, Utilitarianism is known as “we should always do whatever will produce the greatest possible balance of happiness over unhappiness for everyone who will be affected by our action” (Rachels). Utilitarianism has three main principles. Consequentialism says that the actions are to be judged right or wrong solely by virtue of their consequences. Hedonism states that in assessing consequences, the only thing that matters are the amount of happiness/unhappiness that is caused. The Equality Principle states that each person’s happiness counts the same. The two most important objections

One example of Consequentialism is the Rights. One of the three chosen are the rights. An example for the rights is when a Peeping Tom is spying on a woman through her bedroom window and is taking pictures of her secretly of her undressing. If the Peeping Tom is never caught and if he doesn’t show anyone the pictures, then no one is being affected in this case. For this action, the only consequence of this situation is that it gains his own happiness. Even the woman in this situation is not caused any unhappiness. Therefore, Utilitarianism is unacceptable in this case due to not being able to tell if the Peeping Tom’s actions are morally right or morally wrong. The actions of the Peeping Tom violate the rights of a woman’s

Utilitarianism and Moral common sense both conflicts against each other but when they do, Utilitarianism wins out. All values have a Utilitarian basis, we should focus on all the consequences towards the action, and our gut reactions can not be trusted in exceptional cases like the example, Peeping Tom who isn’t caught. The first response to this reply, all values have a Utilitarian basis, goes against the rights of a woman’s privacy. If you don’t respect other’s privacy, then you are intruding their personal life. If the woman’s privacy is violated, then she may want to stay away from others. This would lead to unhappiness. We should focus on all the consequences towards the action because a utilitarian would only focus on the pleasure that the Peeping Tom gets from spying on the woman. A Utilitarian would say that if he doesn’t get caught, then there is no harm to it and it would question why his behavior would be blamed for. In reality, his behavior should be blamed because he is violating a someone’s privacy. Our gut reactions can not be trusted in exceptional cases because violating someone’s privacy leads to unhappiness. This does not lead to any happiness because if the Peeping Tom is caught, then the woman whose rights are being violated would feel embarrassed and the Peeping Tom would have to pay the price which would lead to unhappiness, not