Human and Utilitarianism Essay Example for Free

Human and Utilitarianism EssayLet me begin by defining Utilitarianism utilitarianism is the belief of doing what is remediate for the greater number of people. It is a opening used to determine the usefulness of the happiest outcome and how it depart affect everyone else. Now, this sounds like a amazing theory, what would be break dance than making yourself and others happy? I found myself at first agreeing with this theory up until I really looked into it. At first I found myself intellection that not everything is about being happy some may comport to suffer for the happiness of others. For example, there were two boats one contains three criminals on final stage row being transported to pri boy and the other boat contains ten happy, loving families simply enjoying a vacation. Both ships have bombs that will go eat up in a matter of seconds, blowing up both ships and killing everyone. However, there is a solution. I for some odd reason have a device that trammels off a bomb on ONE SHIP and deactivates the other. Now the morally right thing to do would be what? What is moral and right? Taking lives? Or saving them? I do not believe in playing God or taking lives.I would simply ignore the Utilitarianism way of thinking and walk away. I would let nature take its course. If God has arranged this to happen, then it is meant to happen. Who am I to walk in and play God ? I have to say I agree with Hospers when he says A hundred men might gain great pleasure from beating up or killing expert one Insignificant human being but other mens lives argon not theirs to dispose of. (Hospers) A Utilitarian would approach this feature by asking himself/herself, what will bring happiness? What will do effectual for greater numbers of people?Why should the prisoners get to live? in that location ar precisely three prisoners, and have done nothing in effect(p) but cause harm to society. What have these families done? The Utilitarian will pouch to analyze eac h detail of the positioning. They first see that there are only three prisoners as opposed to ten large families. Hence, there are less people on the prisoners boat. Then he/she will see that the prisoners have already been sentenced to death, all being on death row. However, the main organise will be that these are three bad men. Doing bad things, and causing pain and sorrowto others. Why should ten happy families be punished for their wrongly doings? The Utilitarian would settle for simply deactivating the bomb on the prisoners boat. Believing that killing them will bring greater practised and happiness to all. My argument to this is a human life is a human life what if one of those men are actually innocent and were convicted for a crime he didnt ease up? What if the other criminal was to be released in the morning and go home to a family of eight children and a loving wife? Truth is we dont know.Utilitarianism fails to acknowledge that a life is a life- we are not suppose t o be playing God. We dont decide who lives and who run shorts, even if it is for the greater good. We should just let nature run its course. Utilitarianism is a theory of always choosing pleasure over pain for the greater good of all. I believe that I have kept a closed mind towards Utilitarianism. The prisoners are already on death row, which means they are going to die for the evil they have set loose on our world. Why should I sacrifice the lives of innocent families, for a couple of men that have caused unhappiness to all?I want to have happiness, as does everyone else in the world. I mean does the world function over what the greater good for all is? Is that why we have soldiers in Iraq sacrificing their lives for the greater good of America? Maybe I have just overlooked all the positive outcomes of Utilitarianism. I find myself agreeing with a lot of what it has to say. I want happiness, I want innocent lives to be saved, and I want to strive for the greater good of all. I f ind it interesting how easy it is to fall into the comfort of Utilitarianism.It goes along with my morals and values and yet I still feel a sort of guilt. If I were to deactivate the bomb on the ship with the families and let the prisoners die, I would still be taking a human life. In my religion (Catholicism), a life is a life. We must forgive sinners and those who have sinned against us. But if these prisoners are on death rowwere they already destined to die? Would that already be in Gods plan? Was it God who sacrificed his only son for all of us sinners? I feel in a way that makes God himself a follower of utilitarianism.He set the example of offering his only son for our sins, to open the gates of heaven for everyone. Yet one of the Ten Commandments is Thou shall not kill. Is that not hypocritical? As I keep analyzing this situation I realize that God is God. He decides who lives and who dies, not us. I feel that its hard to stick to my morals when hearing the theory of Utilit arianism. Allowing someone to die at my hand for the greater good, for happiness of others. That just sounds selfish to me, kind of like the holocaust. Did all those innocent Jews endure experimentation and torture for the greater good of all?I mean, if it werent for these grotesque experiments we wouldnt know the maximum altitude that crews in damaged planes can parachute safely to the ground or find the cure/treatment for hypothermia. The Jews were used as guinea pigs for the greater good of everyone else. Is that not Utilitarianism? So many people could have died of hypothermia if that experiment was never conducted. But how many innocent lives were lost to reach this conclusion? Is there a limit to how much sacrifice should be made for the greater good? There should be.This is where I cannot connect with Utilitarianism, the fact that some sort of evil has to be done to help others. I see hypocrisy in this theory it wants happiness but wants to rule out evil. People are evil, mea n and rude. No one can be happy all the time no one can bring eternal happiness. This takes me linchpin to my original example, who would I save? The prisoners on death row or the innocent families? The Utilitarians seem to have a more interesting argument. Its funny how by writing this paper, my views changed. I look at the situation differently now. I do not feel as biased and conservative as before.My ideas have changed to a more liberal understanding sense. Why release these evil me back into the world? We have enough chaos and evil. These are just three men who chose their paths and now have to pay for it. They were sentenced to death for a reason, I will not be held responsible for the innocence of happy families, children, parents, aunts and uncles. They are not in prison because they have not done anything wrong. They simply stepped onto a ship, whose assign I now hold in my hands. I have made my choice I will deactivate the bomb on the families boat and let the prisoners face death.