I’m struggling to write a paper on this very topic. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910, “Utilitarianism…teaches that** the end of human conduct is happiness**, and that consequently the discriminating norm which distinguishes conduct into right and wrong is pleasure and pain.” Now hopefully this is a deeply unsatisfying philosophy to the hearts of any baptized Christian reading this.
The Baltimore Catechism tells us that, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven” and “To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that is, we must believe in Him, hope in
Him, and love Him with all our heart.”
So I would say that utilitarianism doesn’t mesh well at all with Catholicism. We seek ultimate happiness in Heaven, but we must frequently deny ourselves “happiness” and comfort here on earth in order to pursue that goal.
I would LOVE to discuss this, perhaps it will help break my writer’s block, which is INTENSE right now. Maybe it’s more of a “researcher’s block”; it’s hard to even get started, and it’s hard to stay on task. I often have an easier time doing things for others than for myself, which I guess is how this thread is the most work I’ve done on this topic in weeks.
