Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Utilitarianism - Essay Example The paper will also give some examples to illustrate the situation. As mentioned above, maximum happiness and minimum suffering are the two central concepts of the Utilitarian approach. In other words, the Utilitarian view supports any course of action that would maximize the over wellbeing of the society, or the greatest number of people. According this philosophical theory, happiness of people has to be sacrificed only if such an act would bring greater happiness to more number of people. Stuart Mill, one of the major contributors to the theory of Utilitarianism, gives a clear-cut definition of Utilitarianism. According to him, â€Å"actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness† (as cited in Bykvist, 2010, p.21). As per the Utilitarian view, an action that would give happiness to greatest number of people is supportable even if it may physically or mentally harm some other people but fewer in numbers. One of the major criticisms against the Utilitarianism is that t his philosophical theory fails to define what will maximize happiness. Opponents claim that the notion of happiness may vary from person to person in accordance with their moral beliefs. In the words of Taranovsky (2003), another central concept of this moral theory is that one person’s happiness should never be more important than that of others and there is no good reason to follow a rule of conduct which is detrimental to the happiness of the majority of people. Under this concept, many fundamental laws of conduct and practices of justice are not supportable as they are not likely to make greatest number of people happy. Often, the most criticized aspect of Utilitarianism is that this ethical philosophy supports homicide under certain circumstances. According to Utilitarian approach, even homicide is justifiable if it contributes to the happiness