‘The greatest good for the greatest number’ flounders when society cannot agree on what is ‘good’ – or ‘bad’.
Caricature of John Stuart Mill, by ‘Spy’, Leslie Matthew Ward, in Vanity Fair, March 1873. John Stuart Mill had a strict dad who made him hate life. Liberalism is based on Utilitarianism.
Cons of Utilitarianism
1. Slave to your own pleasure ex (alcohol, shopping, drugs, overly-sexual and selfish).
2. It creates an unrealistic perspective for society.
3. It creates the potential for the majority to rule through tyranny.
Weakness of Utilitarianism: people are inherently selfish.
Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values such as justice and individual rights.
Overall, the weakness outweighs the strengths because it Utilitarianism doesn't take into account the feelings or happiness of the minority and also how can we measure pleasure, you cant add a value towards it. Utilitariansbelieve that thepurposeof morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things (such as pleasure and happiness) in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things (such as pain and unhappiness).
An example of utilitarianism was the belief that dropping the atomic bomb on Japan was a good idea since it potentially saved more lives than it lost. Source: https://www.yourdictionary.com/utilitarianism
Disadvantages of Utilitarianism
Society does not solely focus on happiness when making choices.
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