I’ve heard a number of people say the same thing about utilitarianism. It’s interesting, because learning about it had almost the exact opposite effect on me.
One thing that struck me about utilitarianism right away is that your own utility matters as well as other people’s; not only is it ok to do something that makes you happy if it doesn’t harm anyone else and to take care of yourself, it’s actually the morally correct thing to do, all else being equal. In a utilitarian morality you should help other people, but at the same time everyone should take care of themselves and make their own lives better as well; making sure your own life is tolerable is actually a moral imperative, so long as you’re also trying to make the world a better place at the same time (especially since everyone probably has more control over their own happiness and quality of life then over anyone else’s.)
Maybe it’s because I was raised in a Catholic background and had previously been ingrained with the attitude that doing anything for yourself is selfish and unethical, but the idea that it’s actually morally correct to let yourself be happy was a big shock to me, in a positive way.
Which isn’t to say that people should waste a lot of money buying themselves useless things when that money could go to better uses, but I never liked doing that anyway, so that didn’t really affect me. Just the revelation that on some level taking care of yourself and letting yourself be happy is the morally correct thing to do was a very helpful concept to me.
I’ve heard a number of people say the same thing about utilitarianism. It’s interesting, because learning about it had almost the exact opposite effect on me.
One thing that struck me about utilitarianism right away is that your own utility matters as well as other people’s; not only is it ok to do something that makes you happy if it doesn’t harm anyone else and to take care of yourself, it’s actually the morally correct thing to do, all else being equal. In a utilitarian morality you should help other people, but at the same time everyone should take care of themselves and make their own lives better as well; making sure your own life is tolerable is actually a moral imperative, so long as you’re also trying to make the world a better place at the same time (especially since everyone probably has more control over their own happiness and quality of life then over anyone else’s.)
Maybe it’s because I was raised in a Catholic background and had previously been ingrained with the attitude that doing anything for yourself is selfish and unethical, but the idea that it’s actually morally correct to let yourself be happy was a big shock to me, in a positive way.
Which isn’t to say that people should waste a lot of money buying themselves useless things when that money could go to better uses, but I never liked doing that anyway, so that didn’t really affect me. Just the revelation that on some level taking care of yourself and letting yourself be happy is the morally correct thing to do was a very helpful concept to me.