Utilitarianism

In Ethics: Selections from Classical and Contemporary Writers by Oliver A. and Johnson A. Reath, utilitarian is when the "right action should aim at producing the most good in the world in some impartial fashion---in particular that it should aim at increasing happiness and well-being and minimizing suffering." (Qut. Ethics: Selections from Classical and Contemporary Writers by Oliver A. and Johnson 320) Thus, this means that as long as an action can produce the greatest good for most people, the action will be right. If the suffering of an individual can make ten people happy, then the action is right. However, suppose that two groups of people are enemies. Group A has ten members and so does group B. Group A cannot stand (suffers from) the existence of Group B, and so does Group B in the existence of Group A. As a result, Groups A and B both desire to engage in battle in order to eliminate their suffering and become happy from the destruction of the enemy group. In such situation, it would be difficult to assess whether the victory of Group A or B will create the greatest good. If they do not battle, then the result is even worse since there will be twenty people in total from Groups A and B that will be unhappy. And if both groups are vanished from the battle, that is, all twenty people are killed, the result will be the same. Thus, the only option is for both groups to battle. It is clear that since the members in both groups are the same, and assuming that when a group is defeated all members are killed while the victorious group will have all members remaining, it would be difficult to decide which group should win to produce the greatest good from the utilitarian view.

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