John Stuart Mill’s standard is the, “Greatest Happiness Principle.” This principle holds that actions are right in proportion, as they tend to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong as they promote the opposite of happiness (*utilitarianism 1104). This principle means that the action that creates the larger amount of happiness or pleasure is the correct action. For example, to use the same situation as stated earlier, a person has three pieces of candy s/he can either eat all three pieces or share with two friends. Now either action is acceptable but to share the candy will make more people happy than all three pieces being eaten by the owner. According to the, “Greatest Happiness Principle,” sharing the candy is the correct action, because it allows for the good to be distributed among the greatest number of people.
After a brief review of the two principles I found that the, “Greatest Happiness Principle,” is the better standard for choosing whether or not an action is right. I feel that with in certain boundaries, to not include criminal acts or personal harm that, what will satisfy the most people is correct. This is because agreeing with something does not mean that it is right. A person will agree more times with pleasing many people than with only pleasing themselves.
Following the same example listed above, for one person to eat all the candy would be greedy and sharing the candy has more satisfaction than to eat it. The owner of the candy is not only making him/her-self happy by sharing, but also other people. If a person only thinks of satisfying her/his-self then s/he is not thinking of those around him/her and this is pure ignorance and should in no situation be considered correct.
This principle does not always hold water. It has flaws; there are some situations when a person must think of no one else but her/his-self. Such situations are when it is in his/her best interest to go against the group. This does not necessarily have to be considered immoral. An example of this would be a student has a test Friday morning, Thursday night her/his friends want her/him to go out with them. If s/he chooses to stay in and study then according to the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” s/he is wrong; because s/he has gone against the group, s/he is not promoting the greatest happiness. Yet if s/he does not go against the group then s/he is doing wrong to him/her-selves, because s/he will not be ready for her/his test the following day and will not do well. In this type of situation, s/he must go against the group to protect her/his self and his/her interests.
Utilitarianism believes that to think only of your own interests is wrong and if you are living by the Utilitarian way then to put your interests above those of the group is unacceptable. The belief of Utilitarianism does not necessarily mean it is moral because there are times that people need to think of themselves. In the case of the student with a test Friday morning, for her/him not to think of him/her-self would be immoral. This is because s/he is no looking after her/his own interests; lets face it, if s/he doesn’t look out for her/him-self then no one else will either. Utilitarianism is not universal, it is not the ultimate moral principle and there are times when a person must look after her/his own interests. Although if performing a duty will make others happy and will not harm the person performing the action then it is correct and should be done.
