Ethics based on utility according
to the Greeks is called telos for ‘end result’. Nature has placed mankind under
the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them
alone to point out what we ought to do, as well to determine what we shall do.
On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of
causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do,
in all we say, in all we think; every effort we make to throw off our
subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a man may
pretend to abjure their empire; but in reality he will remain subject to it all
the while. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it
for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of
felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to question
it, deal in sound instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness
instead of light………….
By the principle of utility is
meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever,
according to the tendency which it appears to have augment or diminish the
happiness of the party whose interest is in question; or, what is the same
thing in other words, to promote or oppose happiness. I say of every action whatsoever,
and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every
measure of government…………..the mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception; When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The mirror effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of the mirror effect.
Of an action that is conformable
to the principle of utility one may always say either that it is one that ought
to be done, or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done. One may
say also, that it is right it should be done; at least that it is not wrong it
should be done: that it is right action, at least that it is not wrong action.
When thus interpreted , the words ought and the right and the wrong, and others
of that stamp, have a meaning; when otherwise they have none.
