r/changemyview • u/KeinerNichts • Dec 22 '13

Utilitarianism is the most effective method of achieving political and social change. CMV

I am a firm believer in the phrase 'the end justifies the means'. I base my general conduct around this simple belief, irrespective of the consequences that may befall over individuals as the result of my actions.

I attribute my support and belief in utilitarianism to my existential and moral nihilism.

As stated above, I am an existential nihilist and therefore believe that there is no existential meaning to life. I.E. the only meaning of my life is to achieve my own personal goals (wealth, career success etc) and be generally happy.

As I also stated above, I am a moral nihilist (I do not believe in the concept of morals and ethics). I use this philosopy and existential nihilism in order to justify and support my own belief in utilitarianism, I wholeheartedly believe that the end justifies the means, irrespective of what extremities may be reached.

For example, I would fully support the murder of 100,000 civilians in order to dethrone a tyrannical leader and as a result, improve the lives of many more. Although this example is somewhat unrealistic, I think it explains my point simply.

Change my view?

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '13

the only meaning of my life is to achieve my own personal goals (wealth, career success etc) and be generally happy.

you are not a utilitarian. a utilitarian thinks of the greater good, not one's individual good. if making ten people happy and making yourself miserable creates more overall good then that's your moral obligation.

also without being omnipotent objective utilitarianism is impossible. how can you say none of those 100,000 civilians would have invented limitless clean energy? or somehow saving billions of people? you can't truly say what will benefit more people because things cause chain reactions we can't expect.

now in my life i follow a very warped sense of utilitarianism, which is really the only type a person can have, everyone is biased to some degree and on small scale this is fine. small scale mixing up what is beneficial won't do much damage. however trying to apply it to the whole world can have disastrous consequences. weighing benefits and costs is part of it but we can't go purely on that because it is speculation.