What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism?

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What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism?

The utilitarian approach to deciding what the right thing to do is to try and make the most amounts of people happy. Both Bentham and Mill believed this, they were both hedonists, believing that the most important thing in life is to be happy. However their theories differed in the way they measured pleasure. Bentham measured happiness considering the quantity of pleasure whereas Mill measured it by the quality of happiness that would occur.

The main weakness of utilitarianism is to do with the problem of consequences. When we use Bentham's theory we are unable to predict the future so as to see how our decisions will affect people later on. There is no way of telling for sure what the consequences of our actions will be, we just do what we think is right at that specific time. An example of this is shown through one of Roald Dahl's stories, 'Genesis and Catastrophe'. A doctor saves both the mother and child in a very difficult birth. His concluding words were 'you'll be alright Mrs. Hitler.' If the doctor was a utilitarian he would say he was doing