Utilitarianism is the theory that we should always try to maximize happiness. When it comes to Bernard Williams, he is considered one of the greatest critics of Utilitarianism. The first test case for the utilitarianism theory he covered was for George the Chemist. Geroge just got his Ph.D. in chemistry. He is finding it to be extremely difficult to find a job. His health is not the best, limiting him with job opportunities meaning his wife has to work. That being said, this causes them a lot of stress since they have small children to take care of. He ends up getting a job offer from an older chemist in chemical and biological warfare but refuses since he opposed to this field. I believe George should take this job, regardless of his opinions on the subject and the field. I believe this because if he is struggling to get a job as is and it’s currently putting a lot of strain on his wife and family, he should jump on any opportunity he can get. This goes back to the Utilitarian theory. Currently, his happiness is relying on him having a job and being able to support his family. The problems he is facing right now all revolve around him not having a job, and now he finally has a job offer but refuses to take it due to the work they do. He should take the job to take the strain off his family, and as the theory states, he should try to maximize his happiness.
The next test case Bernard Williams covered was Jim the Botanist. Jim stumbled upon a central square of a small South American town. He sees several Indians tied up against the wall and several armed men in uniform about to shoot them. The captain in charge questioned Jim asking how he ended up here, and he explained how it was on pure accident. Because of this, the captain grants Jim to be an honored visitor. Since he is an honored visitor, he has the option to kill one of the Indians himself and the others get to leave. If he doesn’t take this offer, the then captain will continue on with what he was doing and kill them all. Jim thinks about taking the gun and trying to kill the captain, but he worries that he and all the Indians will be killed so that would not work. In this situation, I believe Jim should kill one of the Indians to let the others go. I know killing someone is a horrible thing to do, but in this kind of situation, killing one person to let the others go versus all of them being killed is a much better outcome to the situation. Going back to the Utilitarian theory, I know Jim would be killing someone and that’s a hard thing to do, but ultimately he would be saving the lives of everyone else by doing so, granting them the maximum happiness they deserve. Plus, Jim would be considered a hero in their eyes for saving them.
Bernard Williams tries to make with these situations is that the moral of the story is, sometimes in life you have to do things you do not really want to do to get the best result. For example, if you have a big test coming up, you more than likely do not want to take the time to study for it. If you do study for it, you’ll have the better likely chance of doing better versus you not studying, even if you did not want to. George does not want this job because of what they do, but if he takes the job opportunity, he would be releasing so much stress and strain off of his family and fixing the problems he’s been facing. When it comes to Jim, he clearly does not want to have to kill an innocent man. If that means he is saving everyone else from the same fate then that ultimately is the best decision.
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