The Ultimate Utilitarian
So last post I talked about the fundamental aspects of Utilitarianism, if you haven’t checked it out, I highly suggest you do. Go check out my post 1 on Utilitarianism. Today I’m going to talk about the pro’s and con’s of utilitarianism and my arguments as to why it is so clearly a great way to run your own personal moral compass.
Why Philosophy Snobs don’t like Utilitarianism
Many philosophy snobs see utilitarianism as an ethical dinosaur and lacking any clear ideology. Deontological ethics which does not see the consequences of an action as its moral determinant; and virtue ethics which focuses on the character of individuals to guide actions rather then looking at each action individually, pretty much think utilitarianism is bullshit. I have had heated discussions with many philosophers on the subject and here are the major critiques and my rebuttals.
The Qualitative Nature of Happiness
Utilitarianism sees people’s happiness as a single factor when in reality each person experiences pain and happiness individually and cannot therefore be aggregated into a single variable. It is impossible to quantitatively compare one person’s pain to another person, therefore choosing action that creates pain or happiness based on more than a single persons happiness cannot be aggregated and therefore should not be taken action upon.