Explain Utilitarian Ethics

Explain Utilitarian Ethics (25 marks)
Utilitarian ethics is an expansive field of normative ethics that believes that the action that you take should be that which maximises utility, that is to say prospering and maximizing happiness whilst mitigating suffering or sadness as much as possible. Whilst it was once often considered a hedonistic field, there being one that argues pleasure being the only true, intrinsic good or aim, it is now more commonly referred to that of a consequentiality field, focussed more on consequentialism. It may be argued then that there is quite a difference between the seemingly 'old Utilitarianism' and that of the new consequentialism.
Modern utilitarianists have adapted the theory that you should make the greater number of people happier instead of discarding it which happened to many other theories. Jeremy Bentham is one of the more notable people to adapt utilitarianism as he had an empirical observation of happiness is the equivalent to pleasure and the absence of pain as people desire please and seek to avoid pain. He also thought that we should carefully measure any possible outcomes or consequences of an action before we decide on the choice we will make. His adaptation of the theory also changed many laws because it was thought to be to correct to consider the consequences. Bentham also created the Hedonic calculus which was helpful in determining measurements of pleasure, which can be used with the utiltitarian theory.
There are 2 main types of utilitarianism, the first I will talk about is Rule. Rule utilitarianism has certain principles involved with it, and from these, certain actions that we commit are able to be deemed as unacceptable. The principle of utility is therefore applied to a rule so the rule will stay if it leads to greater happiness for more people. This therefore means that if you do something bad that may lead to many people being happy, it could go against a rule or principle that has been set down in Rule utilitarianism which could lead to misery or a reduction in happiness in another case, which would be deemed wrong. John Stuart Mill may be seen as a rule utilitarian as he thinks that certain rules have utilitarian justification.
The other type of utilitarianism is Act. Act utilitarianism is when you look at an action to determine what is moral in the situation, and from this, general rules can be derived. For example, if there has been a car crash, when a paramedic arrives on the scene, if there is a pregnant woman, the paramedic would treat her first if he follows act utilitarianism. This is because the pregnant woman has a higher potential of having a happier future than an individual in the crash because the idea is to do the greater thing for the greater number of people. There are many criticisms of Act utilitarianism because there are many calculations required to make the theory successful but Bentham thought that you could repeat a decision if there are similar circumstances.

In conclusion, Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, specifically defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. There are many different views on the two main forms of Utilitarianism and they both have big strengths and weaknesses which can affect people's opinions on these theories. People such as John Stuart Mill claimed to have proof of utilitarianism being the correct theory we should follow, but Jeremy Bentham had evidence to prove Mill wrong and change our opinion on utilitarianism as it is not just a single theory, but a large cluster which can be changed with his Hedonic Calculus.