Utilitarianism
Objectives from reading:
• EMP (24 pages)
– Moral Reasoning in Western Culture
(Lucas), pp. 115-117; Utilitarianism and
the Greatest Good (Lucas), pp. 119121; Utilitarianism (Mill), pp. 123-131;
Utilitarianism, (Pojman), pp. 133-137;
The Ones Who Walk Away from
Omelas (LeGuin), pp. 139-142.
• CSME (5 pages)
– Leave No One Behind (Rubel), pp. 3-5;
– Hiroshima: The First Use of Nuclear
Weapons (Valaquez and
Rostenkowski) pp. 75-76.
Comprehend the moral basis and
standard of Utilitarianism
• What is Utilitarianism?
• What is the difference between
Mill & Bentham’s concept of
utilitarianism?
• Difference between “rule” &
“act” utilitarianism
• What are the strengths &
weaknesses of utilitarianism as
a moral theory?
• Understand the “Principle of
Utility.”
Those Who Walk Away From Omelas
Why do some people walk
away? What is the author
saying about utilitarianism?
How many of your troops
are you willing to risk?
The Range of Ethics
Absence of
Ethics
The
Criminal
“I KILLED HIM
AND I DON’T
CARE”
The
Delinquent
Relativism
Normative
Relativism
Consequentialism
Teleological Ethics
Utilitarianism
Descriptive
Relativism
Most Pleasure
Individual
Relativism
Greater Net
Happiness
Accepted
Practices
Based On :
Consequences
Outcomes
Duty Ethics
Deontological
Virtue
Kantian – Duty
Aristotle
Truth
Honor
Justice
Character
Rights
Habituation
Divine Law
Stoicism
Natural Law
“I DON’T CARE
ABOUT THAT”
“CATCH ME IF
YOU CAN.”
Rule Based Moral Theories
Character
Based
What do Moral “Theories” Offer?
• We don’t require moral theories to tell us that lying
and homicide are wrong, and helping those in
need is a good thing to do.
• Moral theories
– explain WHY these things are right and wrong, and
– give me REASONS for believing them so
• Moral theories also
– help illuminate “grey areas,”
– clarify difficult problems, or
– resolve conflicts that arise
What are the Characteristics of a Good
Moral Theory?
• Clear and unequivocal:
– tell us what actions are right (or wrong) and WHY
• Reliable:
– Offers straightforward answers in a wide variety of situations & able to
resolve conflicts when they arise
• Comprehensive:
– Covers not only individual actions, but social and political practices,
institutions, and policies
• Psychologically realistic:
– Doesn’t depend on false assumptions about what people are like
• Yields predictable results in familiar situations
• Is not wildly at odds with our habits, intuitions, and
customary responses to ordinary problems
Counting Costs &
Making Tough Calls
Military decision-making, and public policy generally (including economic
policy), frequently make use of “outcomes-based” reasoning
The “right” decision, action, or policy is often defined as the one that
optimizes the balance of benefits over harms for all affected. For
example:
 President Truman’s decision to use nuclear force on Hiroshima
 “Lifeboat” dilemmas
 “Medical triage” decisions
Isn’t the military a decidedly “Utilitarian” organization?
Is this good or bad???
Utilitarianism
The “utility” (usefulness or moral rightness) of a policy
is measured by its tendency to promote the
“good” (or to prevent harm).
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) :
“The good” is simply pleasure
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) :
“The good” is happiness - a more complex notion,
achieved by living a principled and prudent life”
Bentham and Mills were reformers concerned with
political reform and franchising the populace
Bentham’s “Act” Utilitarianism
• “Nature has placed mankind under the governancy of
two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for
them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as
to determine what we shall do.”
• “The principle of utility . . . Is that principle which
approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever
according to the tendency which it appears to have to
augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose
interest is in question”
• “By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby
it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good,
or happiness, or to prevent the happening of mischief,
pain, evil, or unhappiness. . .”
Net Utility
For every human action, X, there is a quantity u(X)
associated with that action, called the “net utility” of
that act.
– This net utility of X is the sum of all the benefits (B)
minus the harms (H) of the action X
The net utility of X must be calculated for all
individuals, i, affected by X; thus:
u (X) = 3 B(x) - H(x),
for all i
An action is “morally right” if it has a higher net
utility than any alternative.
This is why Navy Options must take Calculus…
Early Criticisms of Bentham’s
Approach
• Hedonism – a moral
theory “fit for swine”
• Atheistic – leaves out
God
(and by extension, any
higher-order moral
considerations)
• Promotes selfishness –
calculus of pure selfinterest
Bentham’s rebuttal: Vulgar or not, nature has placed us under two
masters, pleasure and pain - there is no other standard
Those who walk away…
• Why did they walk?
• Would you stay or
would you walk
away?
• …or would you try
and change it?
– What important values
appear to be missing
in the Utilitarian
calculus?
LeGuin won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974
Modern Criticisms
• Quantification and measurability of “the good”
• Incommensurate notions of “the good”
• Ignores other, morally relevant considerations
– Human Rights
– Justice
– Distribution of “the good”
• Difficult and often inconsistent in practice to solve for
U(x) and maximize this variable
• No value in performing more than required by duty
Because the “good” hinges on the happiness of the
majority, utilitarianism is often associated with democracy.
On further contemplation, however, might it just as easily
be associated with Hitler’s Germany?
John Stuart Mill’s Revisions:
Utilitarianism
• Elevate the “Doctrine of the Swine” –
– Pleasures of the intellect, not the flesh
– Qualitatively better, not quantitatively
• “Happiness” is NOT simply equivalent to
pleasure
– “lower quality pleasures”
• shared with other animals – e.g., food, sex
– “higher quality pleasures,”
• uniquely human, involving our so-called higher faculties
“It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool or a pig satisfied.”
John Stuart Mill’s Revisions:
Utilitarianism
(Cont)
Utilitarianism is NOT equivalent to selfishness. Mill writes:
“. . .between his own happiness and that of another, utilitarianism
requires that one be strictly impartial as a disinterested and
benevolent spectator.”
“…not the agent’s own happiness but that of all concerned.”
Notions like “rights” and “justice” are merely “rules of
thumb” that represent underlying calculations of overall
utility (rule utilitarianism)
Is this what
Mill
really meant?
The Principle of Utility
(or Principle of Greatest Happiness)
says:
“The greatest happiness of all of those
whose interest is in question, is the
right and proper, and universally
desirable, end of human action.”
The greatest good for the greatest number
The Principle of Utility
“Principle of Utility” performs three vital
functions:
1)
Explains the foundations, and offers
justification, for our moral rules, laws, and
customs, or
2)
Exposes the inadequacy of unjust laws or
customs that do NOT promote utility; and
3)
Offers us a means for resolving
conflicts between rules and laws, or
deciding vexing cases on which
traditional moral rules and laws are silent
Do no harm
Don’t lie
Mill – 147
Intro - 139
Act vs Rule Utilitarianism
Act Utilitarianism
• Assesses the consequences of
our actions
Rule Utilitarianism
• Assess the consequences of
following particular rules:
– Is there justification in harming
someone?
– Is there justification in harming
a small number of people in
order to save a larger
number?
• An act is right if, and only if, it
results in as much good as any
available alternative
• An act is right if, and only if, it
is required by a rule that is
itself a member of a set of
rules, whose acceptance will
lead to greater utility for society
than any other available
alternative.
Pojman – 151-152
So how do you measure good/bad
consequences?
• The principle of utility (or Principle of Greatest Happiness)
says:
– “The greatest happiness of all of those whose
interest is in question, is the right and proper, and
universally desirable, end of human action.”
• Happiness can then be looked at either long term or short term,
physical pleasure or intellectual happiness
• Should allow everyone affected by the act to “get a vote”
• We already reason like this in many cases
• Act Utilitarian: The principle should be applied to particular
acts in particular circumstances
• Rule Utilitarian: An action is right if it conforms to a rule of
conduct that has been validated by the principle of utility
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF
UTILITARIANISM?
•
•
IS IT LOGICAL? INTUITIVE?
IS THIS A MORAL THEORY YOU CAN USE TO
MAKE DECISIONS?
–
•
Is pleasure vs pain the right metric?
WHAT IS UTILITARIAN REASONING BASED ON?
–
CONSEQUENCES – (OUTCOMES) – TELEOLOGICAL
1.
2.
3.
RIGHT/WRONG DETERMINED BY GOOD/BAD OUTCOME
PLEASURE (+) PAIN (-)
HUMAN FLOURISHING (+) SUFFERING (-)
Evaluating Actions by Their Consequences
(Examples from the trivial to the life determining)
Example:
(Not a deep moral issue)
Do I eat the donut this morning?
Considerations:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Long term – at least 500 calories = ¼ pound to my body weight
Short term pleasure – burst of sugar in my mouth
Will make me sleepy after about 45 min.
I love donuts, they make me happy
My heart condition
Am I a SWO?
Other consequences to consider?
A Little More Complex…
EXAMPLE:
CALCULATING THE CONSEQUENCES
Should I stay in the Navy after obligated service?
How do I decide?
One way is to look at consequences and measure happiness.
stay in navy
leave navy
Job security
(+1000)
need to pay for college (-500)
Get to serve country
(+200) will miss the camaraderie (-100)
will have obligated service (-300)
will not have to deploy (+600)
Travel around world
(+100)
Variety of duty
(+100)
Have to leave home
(-600)
Weighted Values: Commonly Accepted Decision-Making Process
How would a Utilitarian divide the $$?
Option$
A
B
C
Person A $100 $33.33 $80
Person B
$0
$33.33 $40
Person C
$0
$33.33 $0
Triage
Medical Triage Example
1) Will die without
extraordinary
measures
Is this a “fair” concept?
2) Will live--don’t treat
now
3) Might save if
they get medical
attention
• How do we morally justify letting people die without
medical attention?
 Shouldn’t we be trying to save every human life?
• How would you feel if you woke up on tent #1?
• How do we morally explain to the patient in tent #1 they
will not see a doctor?
Closing the Hatch
Crimson Tide
Questions on Closing the Hatch…
• Would you give the order to close the
hatch?
• What moral reasoning did you use?
But…
if your principle as C.O. is protect the
lives of your men/women, then how do
you justify giving the order to
intentionally kill one of your men?
– Will this moral reasoning work in all
situations?
– How do you deal with your moral
conscience after closing the hatch?
Criticisms
• Tyranny of the masses
– Cannibalism makes all but one person happy
• Ability to predict the future
– Forecast the consequences or the “ends”
• Which is fairer?
– Equal opportunity or equal happiness?
• $300 split 3 ways…
– Are numbers the best metric?
• 1 life for 1? …for 2?,,,for 5?...for 100?
Hiroshima
• GROUP A: Use Utilitarian Reasoning
to argue for dropping the bomb
• GROUP B: Use any reasoning to
argue against dropping the bomb
• Which choice brings about the “greatest
happiness?”
• Is “happiness” always the critical point?
• Who decides…What if the US lost the war?
• Is victory = tyranny of the masses?
Leave No One Behind
• 2 Options
– Send the second helo
– Don’t risk another rescue
• What is right?
• How did you decide?
Reading & Homework for Next Class
Intro to Military Justice
• Naval Law, 3rd Edition
– Chapter 1: Background of Military Justice -16 Pages
– Chapter 2: Fundamentals of Military Justice- 5 Pages
Objectives from reading & homework:
jag.navy.mil
– UCMJ
– Manual for Courts Martial
(MCM 2000)
– JAG Manual
– US Navy Regulations
Comprehend the purpose, scope and constitutional
basis of US Navy Regulations & the UCMJ and relate
these regulations to personal conduct in the military
service.
 Comprehend JO roles/responsibilities relative to the
military justice system and be aware of the essential
publications relating to military justice.
Know how discipline and punishment differ.
 Know the correct requirements for using Extra
Military Instruction (EMI).
Be aware of administrative methods used to maintain
good discipline.