The_Utility_Of_Punishment

The Utility Of Punishment The Utility of Punishment Born from the ashes of the 18th century, the nature of human action was shifted with the arrival of a new ethical theory of utility. The divine law and virtue ethics use to be the standard of measurement, yet now the net utility of actions where weighted for their pleasures and usefulness. As the western mind changed from that of a power triangle, with God and nobles on top and peasants at the bottom, to an individual focus where man is the measure, a theory of ethics that judge’s happiness as cost benefit calculations seemed to be an expected next step. In George Sher’s introduction to one of John Stuart Mill’s writings he recounts that, “the first elements of utilitarian thought” are brought out by the philosopher David Hume and then seen in political systems like utilitarianism (Mill, vii). However this thought’s tradition truly found its home in England. The basis of his theory seems simple, just like a math problem The calculations begins with one adding up all the pleasures that will be a result of a human action. Along the same line, one also adds up the mill, punishment, death, bentham, utilitarianism, pleasure, happiness, one, utility, theory, pleasures, pain, however, good, penalty, out, life, utilitarian, same, people, greatest, capitol, states, pains, human, system, new, moral, even, ethical, desirable, actions, action, yet, work