Utilitarianism

It is my belief that human beings do things for one of two reasons: pleasure or impulse/habit. Let me specify: by "pleasure" I mean only what they BELIEVE will cause them more pleasure than pain (however human beings are often quite horrid at making such judgements), and it is also the case that even though they may rationally believe that something will more pain than pleasure in the long term--such as drug use--nevertheless for psychological reasons the short-term net pleasure outweighs the long-term net pain. Indeed, all such pleasure/pain decisions are ultimately made in regards to how they make us feel right now, in the immediate future.
(And though it's irrelevant to this argument, by "impulse/habit" I mean those actions that come from no decision, such as reflex actions.)
Many would argue at this point that many times people resist doing what they believe will cause them the most pleasure because it is "wrong". But it seems to me that in cases like this the decision is made on the basis of net pleasure: when we avoid doing something we really want to do because it's "wrong", we are responding to something within us that we believe would cause us to experience pain in response to the "wrongness", and we find that this pain outweighs any potential pleasure. The inverse is true when we do something we would rather not because it's "right": we decide that the pain that would result from NOT doing what's right is greater than the pleasure. (By the way, "right" depends on one's value system, so for instant rationalists behave rationally because to not do so would violate their value system, causing pain.)
Some people get very upset at this point and say "does that mean that the only reason we are altruistic is because it makes us feel better?" to which I say: yes. However, there's an assumption here which I do not understand: the idea that there's something wrong with us performing altruistic actions because they make us feel good. What's in the least bit wrong with the fact that doing good things for other people makes us ourselves feel good? It seems to me that this is a great confirmation of the goodness of human nature!
(By the way, in regards to self-destructive behavior, once again my contention is that the pain is outweighed by the psycholgocial pleasure, or is outweighed by the pain that would be caused by not giving in to compulsion.)
That is my explanation of individual motivation. Now onto it's implications for ethics, which is utilitarianism. "What is good is what will ultimately cause the greatest amount of net pleasure for the greatest number of entities." (I use "entities" so that this definition can include pleasure beyond hat of human beings.) I am humbly following John Stuart Mill here, but adding a lot of my own touches.
First let me defend my assertion that pleasure=good. My observation is that this is, in fact, what human beings already believe, although perhaps not consciously. Consider: can you think of a single thing that is considered "good" that is not expected to cause pleasure? If we give medicine to people it's because we expect that it will cause them long-term pleasure (and this belief causes us pleasure). If we save someone's life it's because we believe that living is somehow more pleasurable than dying (and once again, when with this belief in mind we save someone's life, it makes us feel good). If someone is a selfish psychopath and considers killing people "good" it is only because, being incapable of taking others' pain into account, they derive pleasure from it. If people believe abortions are OK it is because they believe the potential pain of the mother is more important to avoid than the potential pain of the fetus (which may not even exist); if they are against abortion it's because they believe the opposite (this is a massive oversimplification of the issue, by the way). If someone tries to get people to turn to Christ it is because they believe that this will cause those people more long term pleasure when they are saved.
(Religion, in fact, depends on a certain hedonism, since all religions I know of offer some sort of ultimate reward and/or punishment to support their claims that you should do this and not that. Even religious people who are not concerned with this ultimate reward still behave in the way proscribed by their faith because to do otherwise would cause net pain.)
"The greatest pleasure for the greatest number of entities." The "greatest number of entities" part is a bit harder to justify, except that I once again believe it is a natural belief of humanity, and also I believe it is a logical consequence of hedonism if one recognizes the fuzziness of "self" (to be discussed in some future post).
Finally, I am not sure I believe Utilitarianism to be the ultimate form of morality, but I do believe it is an important part. I also think that it is of ultimate importance to qualify utilitarianism with a fundamental respect of individual rights, since otherwise it is very easy for forms of society such as dictatorships, fascist, communist, etc., to be justified. Of primary concern is the right to freedom of thought and speech, for reasons enumerated in my "Old FaceBook Note: My thoughts on the UU principles (for my fellow UUs)- Part 2", and also for more epistomolgical reasons which I will discuss later.