Utilitarian Logic in Difficult TimesUtilitarianism "Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, i.e. twenty-four sharpeners, four eye teeth and twelve incisors. Changes coat in spring..... "A perfect example of the product of utilitarian education, Bitzer calls a horse off the top of his head in a split second. Utilitarianism is the assumption that human beings act in ways that highlight their own self-interest. It is based on reality and leaves little to the imagination. Dickens provides three vivid examples of this utilitarian logic in Hard Times. The first; Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, one of the main characters in the book, was the headmaster of a school in Coketown. He firmly believed in utilitarianism and instilled this philosophy in the school's students from an early age, as well as in his own children. Mr. Josiah Bounderby was also a practitioner of utilitarianism, but was more interested in the profit derived from it. At the other end of the perspective, Dickens adds a group of circus members, who are the exact opposite of utilitarians, to provide a stark contrast to the ideas of Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind. Thomas Gradgrind Sr., a father of five, lived his life by the books and never strayed from his philosophy that life is nothing but facts and statistics. He successfully incorporated this belief into the Coketown school system and did his best to do so with his own children. Educators see children as easy targets just waiting to be pumped full of information. They did not consider, however, children's need for fiction, poetry, and other fine arts that are used to expand children's minds, all essential today to produce good-...... middle of paper.. .. ..imagination; which is the way life should be lived. Dickens obviously had a definitive opinion on how life should be lived and he did a great job of describing it. His method was somewhat indirect, in that he worked backwards to get his point across, but it proved very effective as the story progressed. Most of the story revolved around utilitarianism and the study of hard facts, but when character flaws began to emerge as a result of this philosophy, Dickens is quick to point them out. We actually see the book's main character and firm believer in utilitarianism, Thomas Gradgrind, experience the flaws of his practice and begin to move away from it. Now, after seeing his life fall apart, maybe he wants to be in the circus. Works Cited: Dickens, Charles. Hard times. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1990.