Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory which is its strength but also a major weakness. You have to predict the long-term consequences with accuracy, however we cannot know the consequence of an action until it has actually been carried out. Although we may anticipate an action to produce a good consequence, it may not in reality. Also the immediate good consequences may fulfill the conditions of the principle, but these could be outweighed by the possible negatives outcomes of the same action that occur later on. This theory is not realistic for calculating the consequences which will be produced by an action as that is not something that can be known for definite, instead it is predicting the possible consequences that an action will have.
Another challenge raised against the theory is the fact that it is subjective and it forces you to regard everyone and all pleasures as equal, however different things make different people happy. Something that may give a person great pleasure, such as eating chocolate, may not produce as much pleasure for another person therefore it cannot be classified as a certain type of pleasure.
This is also a criticism of Mill’s idea of higher and lower pleasures. Mill attempts to classify higher pleasures as those which are intellectual and lower pleasures as bodily, however there is no universal agreement as to what is considered to be a higher or lower pleasure and so it is difficult to distinguish between them. He suggests that everyone should strive for the higher intellectual pleasures but everyone has different intellectual levels so may not be able to strive for pleasures as ‘high’ as other people. This should not mean that their pleasures are of less value because those are the high pleasures that the person aims for as an individual.
Bentham suggested that an action is good if it produces the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people, however there are challenges raised against this idea. The action that produces the most happiness is not necessarily the action that is right; therefore the interests of the majority can be used to justify immoral acts. An example can be an innocent man being tortured by a group of people. Just because the group of people is getting pleasure, it does not mean that the torturing of the innocent man is justifiable and should be considered ‘good’.
Also, as the interests of the majority are considered to be more important, the minority is being ignored. A particular action may produce pleasure for a greater number of people but there are other people that may be affected but are not considered. The majority may be happy but the same action may cause a minority group pain.
Overall, utilitarianism does not survive the challenges levelled against it because there are many aspects of it that make it difficult to apply it to real life situations. Actions and their consequences are too complex to be simply justified by the happiness and pleasure that they would produce. The theory also does not consider other factors (such as honor) that a person needs to have a good life as it is only focused on happiness.
by
araz1002 (student)
