Abstract
A comparison of how people used to live when they were still cave-inhabitants, with current living conditions that provide an organized society, with concepts such as justice, respect, tolerance and morality, we can feel justifiably proud of the progress we have made. Mankind has progressed so far because we have used our minds and thought about what is right and how things ought to be. For instance, it is recognized that war is bad, because people suffer from it and that it is their right to live in peace. However, doing the just thing can sometimes be hard and we need to form a theory according to which will help clarify such problems in all situations. The utilitarian theory suggests that any action we take should always bring with it consequences that are most beneficial to the majority, in order to maximize the happiness of human kind. Rule-Utilitarianism goes even further by saying that any action one takes must be fit to be used as a rule which anyone can follow in similar circumstances. However such a moral theory raises questions about whether it acknowledges the importance of the human being as an individual. Through this paper, I am going to prove that Utilitarianism does not fit this requirement, by analyzing arguments both for and against it.
