Utilitarianism

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Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism (from Latin utilitas - utility ) is a direction in the philosophy of ethics , which considers social utility to be the main criteria of morality , as well as the principal criteria for evaluation of human behavior and actions . In other words , utilitarianism is the philosophic theory , according to which all social processes and phenomena must be determined from the point of their social utility , or their contribution to common use , the idea of utilitarianism can also be

interpreted as every type of activities based on personal interests and pragmatism

It is possible to say that utilitarianism offers to define morality with the help of the concept of social benefits , which are necessary for satisfying material and spiritual needs of individuals . Therefore morality is considered to be a tool to achieve happiness . However , in contrast to other theories , which also use this principle (for example usual hedonistic theories , utilitarianism stipulates the differentiation between social and individual morality . That is why the core idea of utilitarianism is the necessity to maximize social benefits , without going into details about how individuals must use these benefits , etc

It is erroneous to consider that the theory of utilitarianism expresses exceptionally egoistic pretensions of every individual . The idea of utilitarianism is based on the concept about meaning that individual happiness of every member of the society is not in contradiction with the happiness of other individuals . Everyone has to work for achieving own happiness and satisfying own needs by producing something useful for himself and for other individuals . That is how will be more and more opportunities to achieve individual happiness for more and more members of the society , contributing to maximization of

The early ideas of utilitarianism can be found in philosophic thoughts of Epicure . But modern utilitarian concept was formalized by a known British intellectual and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832 ) in his work Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780 According to classical ideas of Bentham , everything which could bring pleasure and happiness to maximum amount of people must be considered moral . By the beginning of the nineteenth century , the concept of utilitarianism had become very popular in the Great Britain , because it could reflect the ideology of liberal British capitalistic elites and their aspiration to maximize material comforts

From naturalistic and ahistoric understanding of human nature , Bentham saw the most important function of morality in stimulating people 's aspiration to seek pleasure and avoid pain and misery . That is why , from his point of view , maximization of happiness for society and minimization of misery was the main idea of ethical norms and morality In terms of his utilitarian concept , he also proposed a known model which helps to evaluate the results of people 's behavior and actions . He offered to sum up the values of all individual pleasures and subtract the values of all individual miseries . If the balance is positive , it proves that every individual 's behavior and...