Pain And Pain In John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism

A Utilitarian is someone who believes that the morally correct act is whichever brings the greatest amount of pleasure to the largest number of people. If Jim was a Utilitarian in this case, then he will most likely kill one person in order to save nineteen others. As Bentham says, “Utilitarianism accepts the fact about reality and uses it as the foundation of its ethical doctrine”. Furthermore, killing one person to let nineteen others free is the morally correct thing to do because Benthem states, “ A morally good action is one that brings the greatest pleasure or happiness for all people involved” . In this act, Bentham would have used his list of criteria to show the amount of pleasure and pain in this situation to determine if he should
As Mill states, “ Only consequences matter and intention means nothing when determining the value of an act.” Which leads me to when, Bentham believes that pleasure and pain motivates everything we do. In Bentham’s case we would receive great pain by not doing anything, but we see it as pleasure if we get our hands dirty to save any lives, we could, because if it were not up to Jim they all would have been dead. Mill’s believes that we all all driven by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. That being said, an immoral action of Utilitarianism is one that creates more pain, which in this case the action of Jim not killing one man, but because he didn’t kill on man the soldiers kill all twenty people which generates more pain for the action. If Jim chooses not to kill one person in order to save the rest, the consequences are that they will all will be murdered. All in all, the morally optimal action Jim should do would be to kill one man, and save the other nineteen because it generates more pleasure for the greater
I believe that people need to do what is best to help the greatest amount of people, and by doing so, you may benefit in some way, but more people benefit from that act which makes it moral. For instance, If you were to give ten thousand dollars to one family who is in need during the holidays it wouldn’t bring as much pleasure as if you were to give one thousand dollars to ten families. Throughout this semester, I had agreed with God’s providence and to preserve life and not kill; however, after reading Bethlem's and Mill’s views of Utilitarianism I believe there is a time when it's alright to murder, because in this case your preserving life of the nineteen Indians if you murder one. If you acted morally and did not kill one person, you're then sitting by watching twenty people being murdered and not preserving any lives. If I had the opportunity just like Jim had to save nineteen lives, then I would do it. I see this situation as preserving nineteen lives rather than killing one person; because if I did not show up, then all twenty of the Indians would have been killed and because I have the opportunity to prevent everyone being killed, then I will have to preserve as many lives as I can, even if that means taking the life of one individual. I mostly agree with Bentham's view of Utilitarianism because I think we all chose are actions based on a