Kant's Utilitarianism

I think that the ways that Utilitarianism is criticized is very interesting and thorough. The aspects of Kant’s answer are even more outstanding because he has a set explanation for every criticism. Kant’s overall philosophy of Utilitarianism is to maximize utility and states that “one finds the greatest amount of pleasure or the least amount of pain for the greatest amount of people. I like this philosophy because it seems to focus on humanity as a whole and not tailored or limited to certain group of people. This theory of philosophy uses Felicific or Utilitarian Calculus. This calculates how much pleasure or pain an action will have. This is interesting because I, from a personal standpoint, do this all the time. I have to plan out my actions so that I can figure out how they will affect other people. I had not realized that I was doing this or using this type of method until learning about Utilitarianism. It is ironic to me how people can go through their everyday lives doing certain things, and then find out it is a part of philosophical theory.

Utilitarianism has nine oppositions and nine responses from Kant. The three criticisms and responses that stood out the most are two, four and seven. The second critique claims Utilitarianism is based on or demeaning because it reduces the whole meaning of life to pleasure. Kant’s answer is that there are distinctive human pleasures which intel rational thinking; there are only certain pleasures that humans can perceive. The fourth critique states happiness can’t be a rational aim of human life because happiness is unattainable. Kant’s response was people are happy, and we want the happiness that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. I like this answer because I believe that happiness is attainable. I also believe that happiness produce a great amount of pleasure. The seventh claims that Utilitarianism is a Godless doctrine because its moral foundation is human happiness and not the will of God. His answer was it depends on what one determines the will of God to be, it’s God’s will for humanity to be happy. I agree with this answer completely. The answers that Kant gave to these three critiques stood out the most to me because of what they were based on. What critique and answer stood out the most to you?