UTILITARIANISM

What is the meaning of UTILITARIANISM? What the varieties of UTILITARIANISM?

The meaning of UTILITARIANISM is an ethical philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the society is considered the greatest good. This philosophy means an action is morally right if its consequences lead to happiness and wrong if it ends in unhappiness.

HAPPINESS     =   PLEASURE AND THE ABSENCE OF PAIN

UNHAPPINESS    =   PAIN AND THE ABSENCE OF PLEASURE

There are two varieties of UTILITARIANISM which are NEGATIVE UTILITARIANISM and MOTIVE UTILITARIANISM.

Negative Utilitarianism is the principle would entail seeking the quickest and least painful method of killing the entirety of humanity. It would seem to call for the destruction of the world even if only to avoid the pain. The negative utilitarianism avoids the problem of moral killing, but still demand a justification for the creation of new lives.

While Motive Utilitarianism means whereas act utilitarianism requires us to choose our actions by calculating which action will maximize utility and rule utilitarianism requires to implement rules which will, on the whole, maximize utility. The argument for moving to some form of motive utilitarianism at the personal level can be seen as mirroring the arguments for moving to some form of rule utilitarianism at the social level.