Is Happiness the Key of Life?
Mills once said that “We want to choose
an action that creates the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount
of people”. I personally, agree with his statement, because as human beings we
like to be the reason a group of people is happy. In a way it makes us feel
good with ourselves. Mills concept is a very important one, because it does not
only teach us how to be better people, but to also pass on good morals to
others.
Mills also mentioned Utilitarianism, an
action that derives its moral worth from the consequences it produces. This statement,
in my opinion, is true, because day to day we are making choices that either
result in bad or good outcomes. Therefore, it is important to always have in
mind the many consequences that can derive from a single choice. However, Mills
is not saying that one should always stop and think of the millions of
consequences that can occur, because there are situations where a decision has
to be taken instantly. That is why Mills proposed the Rule of Utilitarianism,
where a person can operate most of his/her life by general rules. Utilitarianism
gives us the choice of taking the correct decision in short time. For example, in
class we discussed the problem about been stock in a room with classmates and a
teacher and everyone in that room had the choice of either pressing a red
button that would automatically kill the people next door or not press it, but
risk dying, because the other class had the same choice. Utilitarianism, would
tell us to press the button in order to save as many people as possible,
because the purpose of this concept is to create the greatest amount of
happiness for the greatest amount of people. Therefore, I believe that Utilitarianism
is the best concept to follow when it comes to happiness.
I definitely agree with you. It does make a person feel good to know they caused any happiness to any amount of people. I also agree with the fact that people can operate their life according to general moral rules. We know not to lie, steal, or cheat. If we do any of that, the consequences of our actions are morally wrong. This could cause great unhappiness in some people because their conscious might feel bad about their actions. If people remember general ethically good rules and follow them, they will be happier.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Dayana. In my Opinion Utilitarianism is by far the best way to bring happiness because, like you said, we look for the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. Also to add on to the statement about the Rule of Utilitarianism, Mill adds on by saying that the only obstacles to being unhappy is selfishness and ignorance. I bring up this point because that was Mill's response to someone's objections to Utilitarianism based on the assumption that God does not make his creatures(humans) unhappy, but that we,as humans make ourselves unhappy. We would have to get rid of selfishness and ignorance if we would like happiness.
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