Happiness Now and Then the Essay

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According to utilitarian ethical theory, a lie would be very moral indeed if it increased someone's happiness without creating detriment to anyone -- telling a child that their unintelligible crayon markings is a great picture of a house, for instance, boosts their self-esteem and helps them to feel loved, and no one in the art world suffers for this white lie.

Utilitarianism also provides a solution to conflicting duties that Kant's theory not only ignores, but actually renders impossible. Given a choice between stealing or starving, Kant's theory would state that the only moral choice would be to starve, as stealing is always an immoral act. According to utilitarianism, however, as long as the person being stolen from would not starve from the loss, the act of not stealing would actually be immoral; the consequences of the theft would be to stop someone from starving, whereas the consequences of not stealing would result in a death. There is more utility derived from stealing, in this instance, making it a morally correct act. Utilitarianism, rather than relying on the absolutism of Kantian ethics, allows for the many variations of human behavior and circumstance that exist in a given instance.

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This makes it a far more practical, though also far less altruistic, ethical theory than Kant's, while at the same time rooting the basis of the system in reason. This had been one of Kant's main purposes in developing his own theory of ethics, but ironically it seems as though the utilitarian theory developed by Mill is even more rationally based.

I find myself much more in agreement with the basic theory of utilitarianism than with Kant's deontological absolutism. A large reason for this is, admittedly, the practicality of the system and the allowances it makes for gray areas of morality and conflicting duties. It is also appealing to me, however, because I do not believe that morality is absolute. Not only do different cultures and societies have different ideas of what is right and wrong, but individuals with different upbringings will also have very different senses and strengths of morality, and cannot necessarily be judged by the same standards at all times. Kant provided a very ethnocentric view of ethics, whereas Mill's utilitarianism can be applied to all societies at any time and place......

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