Utilitarianism Of The Greatest Happiness Principle

Utilitarianism,also known as the doctrine of the most happiness,is one of the most influential moral school in the west.The view of utilitarian happiness was born in the 18 th century England.This theory,based on the human nature of tending happiness and avoiding bitter "the greatest happiness of most people" as the basic moral principle and happiness as the only and ultimate pursuit of human.Utilitarianism provide one easy operating moral thinking mode which take outcome as judgement of behaviours.Every behaviour that can lead to happiness is supposed to be right,and vice versa.Utilitarianism also has a strong practical meaning because of focusing on practical interests and actual benefits.From the protection of individual freedom and personality,Utilitarianism advocate representative democracy as a tool of balancing individual and society interests.Despite its flaws are unable to overcome,utilitarianism has merits in both theory and logic.As a matter of fact,the new bourgeoisie of that time think very highly of it and utilitarianism also deeply influenced American Pragmatism.Over time,utilitarianism still takes an important seat in the history of western ethics and its great contribution should not be ignored.The pursuit of utilitarianism is securing the legitimacy of self-interest,in the meantime,advocating the mutual interest of oneself and others.This thought was mainly proposed to overcome drawbacks in the early stage of capitalism and make it consist with the moral view of that time.The greatest happiness principle of utilitarianism was deeply influenced by rationalism and egoism and inherited it critically.To utilitarian,the greatest happiness principle is self-evident.It is the foundation of social morality and government legislation.Happiness is the only thing that worth pursuing other things beside including ethic are mere tools or means of the pursuit of happiness.The combination of individual interests and social interests,at the same time insuring individual interests,was used to overcome the dominant place of egoism at that time in human minds.Utilitarian focus on individual interests,democracy and freedom,self-interests and social interests.This provides great inspirations in constructing socialist morality.However,there are also some limitations that,as a code of practice,the greatest happiness of utilitarianism is impossible to achieve.