UTILITARIANISM
Forensics 8.6 November 14, 2014
Basic Insights of Utilitarianism



The purpose of morality is to make the world a better
place.
Morality is about producing good consequences, not
having good intentions
We should do whatever will bring the most benefit
(i.e., intrinsic value) to all of humanity.
The Purpose of Morality


The utilitarian has a very simple answer to the
question of why morality exists at all:
Consequently, the emphasis in utilitarianism is on
consequences, not intentions.
The Emphasis on the Overall Good


We often speak of “utilitarian” solutions in a
disparaging tone, but in fact utilitarianism is a
demanding moral position that often asks us to put
aside self-interest for the sake of the whole.
Utilitarianism is a morally demanding position for two
reasons:
It always asks us to do the most, to maximize utility, not to do
the minimum.
 It asks us to set aside personal interest.

The Dream of Utilitarianism:
Bringing Scientific Certainty to Ethics

Utilitarianism offers us a powerful vision of the moral
life, one that promises to reduce or eliminate moral
disagreement.
If we can agree that the purpose of morality is to make the
world a better place; and
 If we can scientifically assess various possible courses of
action to determine which will have the greatest positive
effect on the world; then
 We can provide a scientific answer to the question of what we
ought to do.

UTILITARIANISM
Forensics 8.6 November 17, 2014
Objectives: SWBAT


Identify the difference between ACT and RULE
Utilitarianism
Analyze the role of utilitarianism through a
simulation
Act vs Rule Utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism
 Looks
at the consequences of each individual act and
calculate utility each time the act is performed.

Rule utilitarianism
 Looks
at the consequences of having everyone follow a
particular rule and calculates the overall utility of
accepting or rejecting the rule.

Rule utilitarians claim:



In particular cases, act utilitarianism can justify disobeying important
moral rules and violating individual rights.
Act utilitarianism also takes too much time to calculate in each and every
case.
Act utilitarians respond:


Following a rule in a particular case when the overall utility demands
that we violate the rule is just rule-worship. If the consequences demand
it, we should violate the rule.
Furthermore, act utilitarians can follow rules-of-thumb (accumulated
wisdom based on consequences in the past) most of the time and
engage in individual calculation only when there is some pressing reason
for doing so.
With a partner




Determine the right thing to do in this situation:
Ruth is 94 years old and suffering from terminal
cancer. While she is hooked up to machines they can
keep her alive for an indefinite amount of time,
though she is in a great amount of pain.
However, she is greatly loved by her family and
they will be devastated when she dies.
Do you “pull the plug,” or not?
Intrinsic Value
11



Many things have instrumental value, that is, they have
value as means to an end.
However, there must be some things which are not
merely instrumental, but have value in themselves. This
is what we call intrinsic value.
What has intrinsic value? Four principal candidates:

Pleasure


Happiness


John Stuart Mill
Ideals


Jeremy Bentham
G. E. Moore
Preferences

Kenneth Arrow
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832
12

British philosopher and social
reformer


Called for an end to slavery
Women’s rights




Property ownership
Right to divorce
Separation of Church and State
Bentham believed that we
should try to increase the overall
amount of pleasure in the world.
Pleasure


Definition: The
enjoyable feeling we
experience when a
state of deprivation is
replaced by fulfillment.
Advantages
 Easy
to quantify
 Short duration

Criticisms
 Came
to be known as
“the pig’s philosophy”
 Ignores higher values
 Could justify living on
a pleasure machine
Hedonism


A view on value, goodness v badness
Core
 The
only thing that is intrinsically good is pleasure
 The only thing that is intrinsically bad is pain
 All things lead to either pleasure
or pain
 Pleasure and pain come in episodes
 The
experiences had by a person at
a particular time
 Each
episode can be has an
amount of good/ bad that
can be quantified
Hedonism





A hedon = a standard unit of pleasure
A dolor = a standard unit of pain
The intensity of pleasure x the duration = # hedons
The intensity of the pain x the duration = #dolors
If a one minute massage creates 1 hedon, then a
five minute massage creates 5 hedons
Consequentialism
The view that right/ wrongness is determined
solely by the consequences
 Act Consequentialism

 An
act is only right if there is no other act a person
could perform that would bring about better
consequences
 Bentham’s view is all about summing the total
hedons and dolors created
 Total
Hedonic Value
Consequentialism

formulation
 Act
X performed by person P at time T is right if
and only if there is no act that P could perform at T
that would have better consequences than X
 The
act is right if and only if there is no alternative
that would bring about a greater sum of pleasure
over pain
HUA Examples

Darrell has a choice: take his exam, blow it off and
take a trip with his friends
Trip
Exam
Hedons
Party with friends
(100 hedons)
Make friends happy
(500)
Life experience (200)
Gets a good grade on test (100)
Graduates with honors (1000)
Gets good job, more money (100 000)
Dolors
Flunks exam (500 dolors)
Misses out on advanced
degree (10 000)
Disappoints parents (100)
Has to take exam ( 100)
Friends sad (500)
Cramps from writing essays (50)
Boring as hell (300)
Total Hedonic
Value
-1000
100,150
John Stuart Mill
1806-1873
19

Bentham’s godson
Believed that happiness,
not pleasure, should be the
standard of utility.

"greatest-happiness principle"


One must always act so as to produce the greatest
aggregate happiness among all sentient beings, within
reason.
Happiness

Advantages
A
higher standard,
more specific to
humans
 About realization of
goals

Disadvantages
 More
difficult to
measure
 Competing conceptions
of happiness
Ideal Values
21



G. E. Moore
1873-1958
G. E. Moore suggested that we should
strive to maximize ideal values such as
freedom, knowledge, justice, and beauty.
The world may not be a better place with
more pleasure in it, but it certainly will be
a better place with more freedom, more
knowledge, more justice, and more beauty.
Moore’s candidates for intrinsic good
remain difficult to quantify.
Preferences
22


Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel Prize
winning Stanford economist, argued
that what has intrinsic value is
preference satisfaction.
The advantage of Arrow’s approach
is that, in effect, it lets people
choose for themselves what has
intrinsic value. It simply defines
intrinsic value as whatever satisfies
an agent’s preferences.
 Pluralistic
Objectives: SWBAT


Identify key criticisms of utilitarian thought
Analyze the utilitarian applications in modern law
UTILITARIANISM – CRITICISM
Forensics 8.6 April 28, 2014
Criticism of Utilitarian Thought




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Responsibility
Integrity
Intentions
Moral Luck
Who does the calculating?
Who is included?
Responsibility

Utilitarianism suggests that we
are responsible for all the
consequences of our
choices

Impossible to foresee
ALL the consequences of
other people’s actions as
they respond to our own?
Terrorists threaten to kill
hostages unless demands
met, the demands aren’t met,
the hostages are killed.
 Is the government responsible for the
death of the hostages?

Integrity

Utilitarianism often demands we put aside selfinterest
 Sometimes
this means putting aside moral convictions
 Obama
and the NSA wire-tapping
 Legalization of
prostitution

Utilitarian thought
may result in going
against one’s moral
core
Intentions and moral luck


Utilitarianism is only concerned about results, not
intentions
This means that sometimes we “luck into” the morally
right decision
 Could
have the worst intentions in the world and
accidently do the right thing
 Could have the best intentions in the world and end up
hurting many
Who does the calculating?

Impact calculus can depend largely on who is doing
the calculation
 Your
parents, teachers, guardians, and government are
doing what they feel is right
 You can disagree
 They have the power – so they are right.

Utilitarianism favors those with power already
Who is included?

When considering consequences who is included in
the calculation?
 Myself?
(egoism)
 My group? (group egoism)
 Those of my country/ people? (patriotism/ nationalism)
 Those that share my skin color? (racism)
 All human beings? (speciesism)

Depending on who is included can have a massive
impact on the ethics of a decision