Is utilitarianism compatible with the core values of an American society?why?why not?

Question

Is utilitarianism compatible with the core values of an American society?why?why not?

Answer 1

Since this is the philosophy section, I will assume you are talking about the moral theory. The answer, simply, is no.

The core values of American society emphasize things like rights. The version of rights that America follows in particular is a kind of negative rights, where one is considered free in so far as one is free to not be interfered with. On a personal level, most Americans feel very strongly that they have an absolute right to their money/property etc. because they believe, or state they believe, they earned it through hard work. If there is any moral tradition which modern Americans descend from, it would be some sort of synthesis of John Locke and Kant - heavy emphasis on deontological rights, an atomistic view of human society, an absolute boundary between human and non-human life, etc.

This world view is entirely compatible with very un-utilitarian things like spending more money on ice cream or cosmetics than on international development even while millions of children die annually from easily preventable diseases and conditions that such development could cure. It is compatible with a view where non-human animals hold no moral weight and it is permissible to slaughter them in extremely cruel ways for taste or fashion. It is compatible with refusing to take steps to limit the pollution or waste a luxurious lifestyle causes, even when all reliable predictions indicate such pollution will cause great hardship for the poor of the world.

Quite honestly, I believe, the core values of American society are, in the modern world, out of date and do more harm than good. We need an ethics which actually represents real conditions and relationships today, not an ethics from centuries ago when the world was a very different place.

Answer 2

In our rather bare-bones, make as much money as you can, society, utilitarianism seems to be the core and getting worse. But for any country with that core value, it cannot continue very long because it devalues life, makes people unhappy, suspicious, anti-social and unspiritual. America is a lot that way, except maybe at Xmas time. The only infusion of sanity is art.

Answer 3

American society doesn't even know what its core values are. At one time, a rather large number of people declared loudly and often that America was a Christian nation and that Christianity defined America's core values. Things change, and in the modern world, American society has awakened to the realization that not everybody is a Christian, and that those who wish to impose Christian values as the "law of the land" are a small but loud minority.

Without the Christian banner to anchor the national spirit on a unified (albeit ever unpopular among most folks) system of ethics defined by their religion, America is still at a loss with regard to just what we as a nation wish to consider "right" and "wrong" or "just" and "unjust". The question is nowhere near settled yet, so evaluating the worth of anything with regard to America's "core values" is simply not possible.

However, utilitarianism can be said to be quite compatible with the former Christian morality which had prevailed with an iron fist up until very recently. Most fervent religious politicians don't care what they have to do to impose the Christian agenda, they only care that it be imposed in order that they may continue holding such heavy-handed power over the masses. They were and continue to be the quintessential utalitarians. Their particular brand of utilitarianism is no longer compatible with America's current sociopolitical climate, but that doesn't mean Amerca's emerging new identity is going to have any problem with another variety of the theme.

Answer 4

Well it may seem that way but i think the core value of american society is capitalism, not utilitarianism. In fact America promotes anti-utilitarianism because real utilitarianism focuses on the happiness of majority, while American culture emphasizes the happiness of the select few. There are always huge under privileged groups, from the native americans. blacks, irish, italian, hispanics, asians. then homosexuals, non-republicans, muslims, non-christians, atheists, and so on. Plus the definition of happiness is really vague, if you don't equate happiness with wealth then American culture is definitely not utilitarianist,

Answer 5

Jeremy Bentham came up with the idea of moral arithmetic. When people argue, "It is better for a small number of people to die than for millions to die," this is moral arithmetic. Moral arithmetic is interesting. In British hands the elite used it as a sort of carrot and stick approach to dealing with the working class.  In modern terms Utilitarianism would be somewhat similar to the Libertarians, except for the fact that Utilitarianism always aims at the greatest good for the greatest number. We could use a serious dose of it in American life.

Answer 6

What kind of utilitarianism?  Act, rule, two-level, preference?  What "core values" do you mean?  Constitutional freedoms, human rights?  There's no easy feasible calculus to be done unless you clarify what the variables are.

I can tell you that student_of_life's answer has totally ignored John Stuart Mill's rule utilitarian and talk of rights as a function of utility in "Utilitarianism" chapters 2 and 5.

Answer 7

I used to think utilitarianism meant only keeping what is useful...and having to do with things being useful.  Which is like materialism, so I would have said yes.  But after looking it up just now, I see that the actual philosophy is more complicated than that.  "An action conforms to the principle of utility if and only if its performance will be more productive of pleasure or happiness, or more preventive of pain or unhappiness, than any alternative."  In which case I don't think so, because part of American ideaology is just how many choices we have.  Alternative products and creations are part of the basis for a capitalist economy.  Essentially it seems utilitarianism is saying "There should only be one".  At the same time, though, how many advertisements claim to be better than all the competition?  Practically all of them.  So maybe it is compatible.  However, it seems that quote itself is only a minor part of the philosophy, considering everything else it's saying.  Like about actions and consequences.  I don't see how "Consequentialism" really relates to American values at all.