Nicole Pongratz
Allisen Jacques
Shannon Griese
Amber Teichmiller
4/13/2010
 It’s
the idea that the moral worth of an action is
determined solely by its effectiveness in
providing happiness or pleasure as summed
among all beings.
 Based on the simple view of human nature.
 Acting ethically means making decisions &
taking actions that benefit people by
maximizing “good” and minimizing “bad.”
Outcomes, results, or goals are the focus—not
the action taken to achieve them.
 “What
is my goal? What outcome should I
aim for?”
 Increase
the good that is done & reduce
the harm done.

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1806-1873
At a young age he spent time
learning from utilitarian
philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
His interest was in showing
difference between what
economics measured and
what human beings really
valued.
His writing
Utilitarianism 1861
defends the view that
“we ought to aim at
maximizing the welfare
of all sentient
creatures, and that the
welfare consists of
their happiness”.
 Happiness should not
only be assessed by
quantity, but quality.




1748 – 1832
“Good” for him meant pleasure.
Pleasures could be quantified & tried
devising a criteria for weighing
pleasures against each other
His philosophy shows how the
convention of law, politics and ethics
could all be recast in a simple
language of utility
"Nature has placed mankind
under the governance of
two sovereign masters,
pain and pleasure…"

Moral rule: what one
needs to do is to
maximize pleasure and
minimize pain
 Believed
that
education should be
made more widely
available
 Spent most of his life
critiquing the
existing law &
advocating legal
reform
• Never practiced law
himself

Differences between people

# of variables in any situation

No time to calculate

Consequences


Regards all happiness as equally good, regardless of
who gets it
Problem of personal loyalties

Makes choices that are difficult seem as though they
should be easy.
Happiness and utility are vague terms that we can’t
measure or weigh the relative utilities of different
courses of action

Supreme duties are irrelevant

The theory demands too much

Require to commit morally reprehensible acts

 Utilitarianism
vs. Capital Punishment
• By utilitarian standards, if punishment will bring
about more good than bad to society, and that
good cannot be brought about in a more
advantageous way, then it can be justified.
• Although punishment causes one to suffer, in
many ways it still benefits society.
What is the main point of Utilitarianism??
 Answer: It’s
the idea that the moral worth
of an action is determined solely by its
effectiveness in providing happiness or
pleasure as summed among all beings.
Who were the influential men that we
discussed?
 Answer:
Bentham
John Stewart Mill and Jeremy
“Pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only
things desirable as ends; all desirable
things…are desirable either for the pleasure
inherent in themselves, or a means to the
promotion of pleasure and the prevention of
pain…”
“The deeply rooted conception which
every individual even now has of himself
as a social being , tends to make him feel
it one if his natural wants that there
should be harmony between his feelings
and those of his fellow creatures…”
THE END