1. What is Utilitarianism?

2. Do you favor for Utilitarianism? Why or Why not?

1.

• Based on the principle that an action is morally right if it produces a

greater quantity of good or happiness than any other possible action

• It requires us to look at the consequences to determine the morality of

an action and claim that the morality of the action depends on the
amount of “goodness” that the action produces.

2.

In my opinion, I think utilitarianism should not be followed because:

Firstly, it will ease the decision that you are making. If you depend too
much on utilitarianism, you will not be able to clearly think about the
decision any more before doing it.

Secondly, it is about the negative responsibility. Negative responsibility

holds that people are just as culpable for what they fail to prevent as they
are for what they actively do.

Utilitarianism requires absolute negative responsibility, then

Utilitarianism is unreasonable.

The other problem is the Remote Effects (psychological)

Assume Jim kills one of the protestors to save 19 and despite the
gratitude of the 19, feels terrible about killing the one.

This introduces a fork:

– If the utilitarian can consider this feeling as legitimate, then our

arbitrary prejudices and squeamishness have a strong influence on our
moral decision-making, and this seems wrong.

– If the utilitarian dismisses these reactions as irrational or non -

utilitarian, then we are faced with the unpleasant consequence that the
utilitarian ought to like killing (for example) when the conditions favor
it. This seems wrong too.

Finally, Integrity is the biggest factor. If integrity is a genuinely

important part of moral life, and if utilitarianism is incompatible with

integrity, then utilitarianism is incompatible with moral life.