UTILITARIANISM
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Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham
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SPACE FOR NOTES – you will need 2 diagrams
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
• This is a viewpoint independent of religious belief
(though religious people can use it).
• It is focussed on the consequences of the action.
• There are different types of Utilitarianism: Act,
Rule and Preference.
• Utilitarianism is based on the Principle of Utility or
‘the greatest good.’
Is it wrong to kill a baby?
• You have invented a time
machine!
• You press the button and
find yourself alone in a
room with baby Hitler.
• What are some of the
possible consequences if we
chose to kill the baby…
• If it stopped WW2 would
it make it right?
Making Ethical Judgments in
Utilitarianism
• Utilitarianism says that the
Result or the Consequence of
an Act is the real measure of
whether it is good or bad.
• This theory emphasizes
Ends over Means.
• It is therefore, a
consequentialist ethical
theory.
• A naval warship is in a
battle. It receives a
severe hit to the
engineering section and a
fire breaks out. If the
fire continues, the ship’s
munitions could explode,
killing the whole crew.
• The captain can use a
fast-acting fire
extinguisher that would
result in the blasts of
steam putting out the
fire, but this will kill the
5 men trapped in
engineering…What
should he do?
For the greater good……..
Utilitarianism is an
ethical theory behind
the justification ‘for
the greater good’
Theory focuses on the
‘greatest happiness
for the greatest
number’
Utilitarianism was devised by
Jeremy Bentham. (1758 – 1832)
He was born in London at a time of
great scientific and social change.
With revolutions in France and
America demands were being made
for human rights and greater
democracy.
Bentham worked on legal reform
and wrote ‘The Principles of
Morals and Legislation 1789’
Jeremy Bentham 1748-1832
• Was a child, received his degree
at 15 years old.
• Concerned with social conditions
of his time and was a political
philosopher and a political radical.
• Wrote ‘The Principles of morals
and legislation’ in 1789 in which he
proposed his ethical theory of
utilitarianism.
• His drive and belief in equality
was the inspiration for the
opening of UCL in London
• His preserved body is sill there in
a wooden cabinet.
Utilitarianism
We can divide his theory into three
parts:
1. Motivation - His view on what drove
human beings and what goodness and
badness was about
2. The principle of utility (usefulness) which is his moral rule.
3. The hedonic calculus - which is his
system for measuring how good or
bad a consequence is.
Issue: School Uniform
• In many schools, uniform is
a rule.
• What are the beneficial
consequences of school
uniform? Who for?
• Could school uniform be
seen as leading to the
greatest good for the
greatest number?
• Would a Utilitarian support
the wearing of school
uniform?
Bentham’s theory of motivation
Human beings are motivated by
pleasure and pain.
He is thus a Hedonist. He
believes that pleasure is the
ultimate motivation.
Bentham’s theory of motivation
All humans pursue pleasure and
seek to avoid pain.
This is a moral fact because
pleasure and pain identify what
is a good or a bad action
For humans the sole good is
pleasure and the sole evil is pain.
For this reason Bentham’s
Utilitarianism is called ‘Hedonic
Utilitarianism’.
The principle of utility
Once Bentham identified pleasure and
pain as the important qualities for
identifying what is moral he developed
the ‘Utility Principle’
The rightness or wrongness of an
action is judged by its utility or
usefulness to produce pleasure.
because pleasure produces a feeling of
happiness it is used interchangeably in
the utility principle.
.
Hedonic Calculus
The greatest good
• We can shorten this to: “an action
is right if it produces the
greatest good for the greatest
number’
• good is the maximization of
pleasure.
• The more pleasure that an action
produces the better it is.
• the larger the number of people
that an action produces pleasure
for, the better than action is.
The greatest number
This theory is democratic because
pleasure cant be for one person
alone.
When facing a moral dilemma,
Bentham argued that one should
choose to act in such a way that
brings about the maximum possible
happiness for the most people.
However, the possible consequences
of different possible actions must
be measured clearly to establish
which option generates the most
pleasure and the least pain.
The car accident
 a Doctor witnesses a car accident.
In the car are three people.
1. A pregnant woman
2. The young woman’s husband
3. The woman’s father.
 All have an equal chance of
survival but he can only save two
person in time. One person is
bound to die.
Who does he save and why?
He saves…
The doctor if he was a utilitarian
would save…
The pregnant woman first – this is
because she and the baby would
have the happiness/pleasure of two
people.
The husband would be next
because the happiness of a new
family would outweigh the
happiness of one man.
The old man would be left because
he has had his portion of happiness.
Equal circumstances
• What if the circumstances
are equal.
• Two men are in the car.
• Both are doctors
• Both are GP’s with the same
number of patients in their
surgery.
• Who does he save then?
Thinking Points- Debate
1. Are actions only good
because they have good
results?
2. Suppose a surgeon could
use the organs of one
healthy patient to save
the lives of several
others. Would the
surgeon be justified in
killing the healthy
patient for the sake of
the others?
Suppose a rape is committed
that is thought to be racially
motivated. Riots are brewing
that may result in many
deaths and long term racial
antagonism. You are the police
chief and have recently taken
a man into custody.
Why not frame him? He will
be imprisoned if found guilty
and this will result in peace
and safety. Only you, the
innocent man and the real
rapist (who will keep quiet),
will know the truth. What is
the morally right thing to do?
• Sadistic guards torture a wrongly
imprisoned innocent man. What
difficulty does this example pose for
Bentham’s theory?
The Hedonistic Calculus
In the hedonic calculus Bentham considers
1. How strong the pain or pleasure is
2. Whether it is short-lived or life-long
3. How likely is there to be pain or pleasure
4. If it is immediate
5. Likely to lead to more
6. Extent of combinations
7. The number of people affected
The balance of pleasures and pains is
compared with those of other options and the
best results determined.
The action that leads to this consequence is
the MORALLY correct one to pursue.
Application of Utilitarian Theory
• A) You attempt to
help an elderly
lady across the
street. She gets
across safely.
• Conclusion: the
Act was a good
act.
• B) You attempt to
help an elderly
lady across the
street. You
stumble as you
go, she is knocked
into the path of a
car, and is hurt.
• Conclusion: The
Act was a bad
act.
Application of Utilitarianism
Actual Cases
• The decision at Coventry
during WWII. The decision
was made not to inform the
town that they would be
bombed.
• The Ford Pinto case: A
defective vehicle model was
not recalled and repaired by
Ford because they felt it was
cheaper to pay the liability
suits than to repairs all the
defective cars.
JS Mill (1806-1873)
1.
Mill was a child prodigy able to read several
languages from an early age. He learnt
Greek at 3 so he could read his fathers
philosophy books.
2. His father was a follower of Bentham and
the young Mill was heavily influenced by
Bentham’s social reform policy.
3. Mill has been linked to the beginnings of
modern feminism and could be considered
the greatest British philosopher of the 19th
century. He has certainly been one of the
most influential.
Mills adjustments
 While Mill accepted the utility principle
he was concerned about the difficulty
raised in the example of the sadistic
guard.
 If the greatest good for the greatest
number is purely quantitative (based on
quantity) what would stop one person
from being extinguished by the
majority.
 Mill was aware that utilitarianism was
being criticized for promoting desire
and that it lowered human nature to the
level of swine.
John Stuart Mill
• Some pleasures are ‘higher’ than
others.
• “It is better to be a human being satisfied
than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates
satisfied than a fool satisfied”
• The pleasures of the mind are higher
than those of the body.
Arrange the following pleasures in qualitative
order:
• Drinking alcohol
• Listening to
music
• Hearing poetry
• Spending time
with friends
• Eating chocolate
• Playing sport
• Achieving fame
• Viewing beautiful
artwork
• Spending time
with your
partner
• Watching a good
movie
• Attending family
gatherings
• Reading a novel
Quality over quantity
 Pleasures of the mind are higher
than those of the body.
 To pursue purely bodily
pleasures – food, drink, sex, was
not as high an objective as those
that are intellectually
demanding.
 The background of this view lies
in Mills classical philosophical
education.
 For Plato philosophical thinking
is the highest activity for
humans.
Examples
1. A woman is gang raped by 10
men. The greatest pleasure
implies that this action is AOK.
2. A mother of four has an
abortion because her other
children did not want to
share their room.
3. The sadistic guard?
John Stuart Mill
Review
1. Some pleasures are better than
others.
2. Higher and lower pleasures.
3. The greatest good should be
those actions which maximise
higher pleasures.
4. This is how we can overcome the
weaknesses of Bentham’s
Utilitarianism.