PHIL 2525
Contemporary Moral Issues
Lec 13 Utilitarianism
Chapter 7
Lifeboat Ethics...

Garret Hardin maintains that
we have a duty to not help
the poor and starving of other
countries...



Rich nations are
like lifeboats.
The poor are
like the drowning
people in the
water.
If we let them
into our lifeboat,
we will all die.
Garrett Hardin:
Freedom of the Commons
and Resource Allocation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gAMFTAt2M
Evaluating Lifeboat Ethics...

Are rich nations like
lifeboats?

Where did the lifeboats
come from?

Why aren’t there enough
lifeboats?
Chapter 7 Epigraph

...sententious Christian doctrine
that “the end does not justify
the means.”
Epigraph: Sententious…p 97



dull and moralizing
self-righteous
putting on an air of wisdom
The new author obviously thinks you couldn’t have
figured it out….or the word is old and you shouldn’t
have to bother…
Chapter 7 Epigraph

...sententious Christian doctrine
that “the end does not justify
the means.”
We have to ask now, “If the
end doesn’t justify the means,
what does?” The answer is,
obviously, “Nothing!”
th
18
Century upheavals…
David Hume

Suggested that we are
somehow hard-wired
to approve of things
that help not only
ourselves, but also
society…
JEREMY BENTHAM, 1748-1832

Reading Hume
made me feel as
though “scales
had fallen from
my eyes.”
Jeremy
Bentham

Morality is about
making the
world as happy
as possible
JEREMY BENTHAM

“Nature has placed
mankind under the
governance of two
sovereign masters:
pain and pleasure.
Why was Utilitarianism Revolutionary?
Why was Utilitarianism Revolutionary?

Because it dispensed with God or
the hereafter as a moral marker…

Morality was a strictly human endeavour…
JEREMY BENTHAM
 “The
greatest good
for the greatest
number”

the “Hedonic
Calculus” as a
standard for judging
laws and social
institutions
The Utilitarian
Calculus
Criteria for measuring
pleasure and pain:





Intensity
Duration
Certainty (or uncertainty)
Nearness (or farness)
Extent
Utilitarianism and social reform…
Utilitarianism and social reform…
Utilitarianism and social reform…
Utilitarianism and social reform…
Utilitarianism and social reform…
Social Reform...
 Government
has
no place in the
bedrooms of the
nation….

"Utilitarians believe that
the sole factor in
determining an action’s
morality is the balance of
social good vs. social evil.
Appeals to moral
intuitions, social traditions
or God’s wishes are not
relevant."
Bentham advanced the principle of utility

Advocated “the greatest
happiness of the greatest
number”

Suggested the “Hedonic
Calculus” as a standard
for judging laws and
social institutions.
J. S. Mill 1806-1873

Not merely the quantity
of pleasure, but the
quality of happiness had
to be calculated.

Some pleasures are better
than others…
J. S. Mill 1806-1873

Not merely the quantity
of pleasure, but the
quality of happiness had
to be calculated.

Some pleasures are better
than others…

"Better a Socrates
unsatisfied … than
a pig satisfied.
John Stuart Mill

"Better a Socrates unsatisfied than a fool satisfied;
and better a fool unsatisfied than a pig satisfied.
John Stuart Mill
J. S. Mill 1806-1873

“Actions are right in
proportion as they tend to
promote happiness;
wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of
happiness.”
J. S. Mill 1806-1873

“Actions are right in
proportion as they tend to
promote happiness;
wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of
happiness.”
Lifeboat situations...
Utilitarian Tenets:

Moral rules are merely rules of thumb

The point is to achieve the greatest good for the
greatest number

Utilitarianism is a Consequentialist Theory
7.2: Euthanasia
What’s on a
man’s mind?
Matthew
Donnelly and
his right to die...
Utilitarian Argument…

The morally right thing to do on any occasion is
what will, on balance, result in the greatest good.

On at least some occasions, the greatest balance
of good may be brought about by mercy killing.

Therefore, on some occasions, mercy killing may
be morally right.
Mercy killing...p. 100



God is merciful
A merciful God would not disapprove
Bentham: About those who think God
disapproves:
“They call him benevolent in words, but they do
not mean that he is so in reality.”
Mercy killing...p. 100
 If
no harm is caused to anyone
else, it is no business of anyone
else.
7.3: Marijuana


Pleasure and pain?
Harms and benefits?

“All pleasures, for Bentham ,
were innocent until proven guilty
by their consequences, however unsavoury their
traditional reputation.”

Almost all Utilitarians favour legalization.
7.3: Marijuana


Pleasure and pain?
Harms and benefits?

“All pleasures, for Bentham ,
were innocent until proven guilty
by their consequences, however unsavoury their
traditional reputation.”

Almost all Utilitarians favour legalization.
7.4: Non-human
animals…

The question is not
whether they can talk
or reason .....
..... but whether they
can suffer.
The Meatrix...
Jeremy
Bentham

The time will come
when humanity will
extend its mantle
over everything
which breathes... "
Recapping:
3 main points of Utilitarianism:

Actions are judged right or wrong solely on the
basis of their consequences

The only thing that counts is the amount of
happiness or unhappiness produced by an action
(all else is irrelevant)

Each person’s happiness counts the same
Attendance
question:

What do you think of
Singer’s solution to
poverty?

How would your life
change?