1

Utilitarianism

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Code: Course Name

Instructor’s Name

Date of Submission

 
 2

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is one of the most important morality theories. It champions all actions that

foster pleasure or happiness in an individual’s life while opposing those that culminate in harm

or unhappiness. (Smart, 2020) It is noteworthy that in the context of political, economic, or

social decision-making, utilitarianism aims to better the entire society. Overall, utilitarianism

term an action right if it culminates in the greatest number of people in a society being happy.

Three main premises underlie utilitarianism’s assertions of being a rational moral theory. The

theory asserts to provide an objective morality standard – which is decision-making mechanism

for assessing moral value – based on publicly verifiable premises and not on individuals dislike

or like preferences (Smart, 2020). The second premise is the claim to offer a single morality

criterion, assuring consistence. This implies that accepting a moral system invokes at least two

independent doctrines raises the prospects for insoluble conflicts. For instance, taking a stand on

the doctrine of the scriptural Ten Commandments will implying drawing from divine revelation

to ascertain that we will maintain our stand and not find ourselves that will lead us to

compromise it.

In recent weeks, ethics has play an important in my life. I am an ardent lover of the

environment and I believe in initiatives that promote the welfare of the environment. I cannot

overstate the importance of the environment to our survival and ethics plays a big part in our

safeguarding it. Protecting the environment or being kinder to it demands everyone to be ethical

by interacting with the environment in a particular way. Few weeks ago, I participated in a tree

planting drive in my area to advocate for the importance of safeguarding our environment from

destruction, which can have ripple effects in the end. During that week, our activism revolved

around discouraging the sowing down of our trees without proper measures to replace them. We
 3

championed planting three trees for every tree sawed down. This exemplifies utilitarian ethics

because our actions culminated in bettering society as a whole.

 4

References

Smart, J. J. C. (2020). Utilitarianism and its applications. In New directions in Ethics (pp. 24–

41). Routledge.