Fostering the Greatest Happiness for the Greatest Number of People Essay

Fostering the Greatest Happiness for the Greatest Number of People - Essay Example Despite opponents of fostering happiness, moral actions will definitely foster and sustain the greatest happiness within the greatest number of people in a given society or community. Key words: Greatest, happiness, moral, action, utilitarianism, fostering, and sustaining Fostering the Greatest Happiness for the Greatest Number of People Based on the utilitarian philosophy any public policy should aim at making a greater number of people attain the greatest possible happiness (Roberts, 2011). Despite the fact that attaining greatest happiness for a greater number of people is unfeasible and undesirable on ideological grounds, there are better ways of attaining the same (Brulde & Bykvist, 2010). Since the classical time social history has shifted its main objective from poverty alleviation to making sure that every individual receives a more considerable standards of living (Roberts, 2011). Enhanced standard of living is one way of achieving happiness within a given population. Theref ore, Veenhoven (2010) argues that despite the philosophical misconceptions that fostering greatest happiness to a greater number of people is both undesirable and unfeasible, there are numerous strategies, actions, and policies that would enhance the same. The following discussion attempts to provide a deeper understanding on how to foster the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. In order to provide the same, the discussion includes definitions of both the greatest happiness as well as the greatest number of people. The following discussion attempts to provide a deeper understanding on how to foster the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.... What’s more, the paper attempts to provide an overview of the main points under the conclusion sections. Definition of Terms ‘Happiness’ is a word that has many different meanings. The meanings of the word ‘happiness’ are always mixed up when use thereby ending into elusive reputations. One of the ways of defining happiness is on the basis of quality of life. According to Roberts (2011), happiness used in a broader sense would indicate high quality of life or the art of well-being. As a quality of life or well-being happiness denotes that life is a good thing even though such meanings do not provide the features or aspects of a good life. When used in specific ways under the aspect of quality of life or well-being, happiness can described some of the aspects of quality of life (Brulde & Bykvist, 2010). In most cases, happiness is used to define two main classifications revolving around the life’s quality or well-being. Vertically, happiness may be used to differentiate between chances of good life against the actual outcomes that individuals undergo through. On the other hand, happiness can be used horizontally to provide a distinction between external and internal qualities of a person. Understanding happiness in respect to quality of life has been commonly used especially in the contemporary economy. Qualities of life can be viewed as either inner or outer qualities on one perspective and as either life-chances or life-results on the other perspective (Brulde & Bykvist, 2010). A life that has desirable outer qualities and life-chances is considered to be livability of environment whereas a life that has both results and outer qualities is considered to be utility of life. Notably, life with chances and inner qualities is