Utilitarianism and Happiness

The philosophical mathematical action that I choose to do is called utilitarianism. In a brief sentence, utilitarianism means the great favor adequate to(p) for the greatest act of mountain. Basically what this means is, doing the right thing is based on how some(prenominal) an(prenominal) race your action eudaemonias rather than how much it benefits you. According to the Oxford American vocabulary utility means the state of being useful, productive, or beneficial(oxford dictionary,2013). The hearty guess is all somewhat how much it benefits and how useful or profitable an action or an mind is.For example if killing iodin reprehensible brings forth delight to a 100 deal, then killing that one criminal is not a bad idea. Simply because it makes one hundred people happy. According to utilitarians the ultimate goal or the most important part of life is to seek joy. But the pleasure that you seek essential not only benefit you, but it has to benefit a large sum of the people. This is called the greatest happiness principle(Wikipedia, Feb, 11,2013). right away this is the main idea of utilitarianism, but it does branch bulge out in the several(predicate) direction due to many philosophers that thought of this theory.Utilitarianism is not discovered by just one person, its made up of many ideas from many different philosophers. Although many people believe that utilitarianism started with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart factory, there were philosophers that came up with similar ideas as utilitarianism. Before we talk about the authors of this theory, we must truly understand the invoice of utilitarianism and how it came to be. Way back in history when gentleman invented writing in the Sumerian Civilization of the Old Babylon, the ancient Mesopotamian people wrote a poem/story called the Epic of Gilgamesh about a association between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.In this story theres a theatrical role by the name of Siduri that tells Gilgamesh Fi ll your belly. Day and night make merry. allow twenty-four hour periods be full of joy. Dance and make music day and night(Wikipedia, Feb, 3, 2013). This quote dates back to the very first advocacy of indulgent philosophy in the human civilization. It is believed to be written during 2500 2000 B. C. A shrimpy forward in time and we come to meet Aristippus of Cyrene (435 356 BC). Aristippus is a savant of one of the greatest philosophers to ever oam the planet, the father of philosophy, Socrates. Though Aristippus didnt come in in the footsteps of his teacher, he had his own ideas and own theories of philosophy, one of them being he simulateism. Aristippus idea of hedonism is that all people dupe the right to do anything to gain the greatest amount of sport. For example if drinking and doing drugs bring you the greatest amount of pleasure and happiness, then there is nothing wrong in doing so. You may be asking yourself, why I am telling you about the history of hedonism.S o let me explain, in the 18th 19th century. The British philosophers by the name of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill came up with the theory of utilitarianism by taking hedonism of Aristippus and adding the greatest happiness principle (Kerby Anderson, 2012). The hedonistic theory of doing anything to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure turned into doing anything to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people which is now called utilitarianism, this philosophical theory is basically an innovation of hedonism.Though many philosophers had part in its discovery, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill brought utilitarianism to its true glory, if they didnt explain their philosophy in the way they did. perchance I wouldnt be writing this essay right now. So the ones to be credited for utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. But its not to say that this theory doesnt have its gains and disadvantages. Like all things in life, there argon benefits and there are hindrances. The Advantage of utilitarianism is simply the happiness that you gain from doing something, whether the happiness is for you or someone you care about.In the end, someone is happy. If youre in confusion on a certain finis and dont know what to do, you can simply apply the greatest happiness theory and make your stopping point based on that. That way, you dont appear selfish only thinking about your happiness and people testament respect that choice and someday repay your kindness by sacrificing their happiness for yours. By sacrificing your happiness for someone else already makes you good human being. Its fits to gift that our actions have consequences. If someone cares only about his/her actions alone, he/she wouldnt have many friends ue to the lack to affection and concerns that he/she shows towards others. Another important advantage of utilitarianism is when youre faced with a challenging and difficult task it gives you the methodology of choosing th e right path, the one that will benefit the most people. Instead of oppugn how beneficial it will be for you. You begin to value other peoples happiness over your own. Therefore giving you the best possible option. Though it is good to put other before you, utilitarianism has its disadvantages as strong.This circumstance philosophical theory has many disadvantages, but the one that matters to me is. Utilitarians only care about happiness, whatever brings the greatest amount of people the greatest amount of happiness. Sure, happiness is good, but what about people who dont get off that happiness. For example out of 50 people, 35 of them get happiness. What happens to the other 15 people? Are we to just ignore how they tonicity? They are humans too, they have feelings as well. We cant chuck up the sponge them just because the other 35 people are happy. Secondly, if we care about others more than we care about ourselves.How can we possibly be able to live with ourselves? We cant always be looking out for other people. We have to take care of ourselves as well. In the end, its our life. We have to look out for ourselves and make the decisions based on how well our life is going to be. Theres a saying in the famous movie pirate of the Caribbean Even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons can be a wrong decision(Jonathan Pryce, 2003) So, I strongly believe that when it comes to making life changing decisions, we must always put ourselves before others.