Happiness pump

A happiness pump is an idea in philosophy.  A happiness pump is someone who will do anything to make other people happy even if it makes them very unhappy themselves.  They have turned themselves into a machine (a "pump") that makes happiness.

The happiness pump is a way of showing problems in utilitarianism.  Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy. It is a way of deciding which actions are good and which are bad. In utilitarianism, actions that make more happiness or stop pain are good.  Actions that stop happiness or make pain are bad.  In utilitarianism, it does not matter who is becoming happier or feeling less pain.  That means that, in utilitarianism, helping strangers is good.  The happiness pump is a person who has taken utilitarianism too far and will give themselves lots of pain so long as they believe it makes other people somewhere in the world much happier.

The happiness pump is only an idea.  Philosopher Joshua David Greene says it is almost impossible to be a happiness pump for real.  People who even tried would give up.

In popular culture

A happiness pump character is on one episode of the television show The Good Place.

Related pages
Thought experiment

References

Category:Philosophy