Utilitarian Approach

Utilitarianism The founder of classical utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham. According to Bentham human beings always try to avoid pains and seek pleasures. This kind of moral behavior is also called hedonism. Hedonism equates good with pleasure.

Defining Utilitarianism The founder of classical utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory It is consequentialist because it tells us that an act’s rightness or wrongness is determined solely by the act’s consequences and not by any feature of the act itself.

An example For example, if I make a promise to you and then act in such a way as to break it, my act has the feature of breaking a promise, and many people would claim my act was wrong because it has that feature. However, according to utilitarianism, that feature does not make the act wrong for that feature is irrelevant to whether the act is right or wrong. For the utilitarian, whether breaking a promise is right or wrong depends entirely on the act’s consequences.

Best consequences (?) Whether an act is morally right or wrong depends on whether the act does or does not bring about the best consequences. But how are we going to define the best consequences? According to Bentham human beings always try to avoid pains and seek pleasures. This kind of moral behavior is also called hedonism. Hedonism equates good with pleasure.

How can we evaluate pain and pleasure When called upon to make a moral decision one measures an action's value with respect to pleasure and pain according to the following: intensity (how strong the pleasure or pain is) duration (how long it lasts) certainty (how likely the pleasure or pain is to be the result of the action) proximity (how close the sensation will be to performance of the action) fecundity (how likely it is to lead to further pleasures or pains) purity (how much intermixture there is with the other sensation). One also considers extent — the number of people affected by the action.

Two Formulations of Utilitarian Theory Principle of Utility: The best action is that which produces the greatest happiness and/or reduces pain. Greatest Happiness: We ought to do that which produces the greatest happiness and least pain for the greatest number of people.

Stripped down to its essentials, utilitarianism is a moral principle that holds that the morally right course of action in any situation is the one that produces the greatest balance of benefits over harms for everyone affected. So long as a course of action produces maximum benefits for everyone, utilitarianism does not care whether the benefits are produced by lies, manipulation, or coercion.

Criticisms of Bentham’s theory Bentham’s theory could mean that if 10 people would be happy watching a man being eaten by wild dogs, it would be a morally good thing for the 10 men to kidnap someone (especially someone whose death would not cause grief to many others) and throw the man into a cage of wild, hungry dogs.

John Stuart Mill’s Adjustments to Utilitarianism Mill argues that we must consider the quality of the happiness, not merely the quantity. For example, some might find happiness with a pitcher of beer and a pizza. Others may find happiness watching a fine Shakespearean play. The quality of happiness is greater with the latter.

Mill’s Quality Arguments “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.”

Mill’s Quality Arguments “As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator. In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. ‘To do as you would be done by,’ and ‘to love your neighbor as yourself,’ constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.”

Criticisms of Utilitarianism If I am to bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number, not putting my own happiness above others, that may lead to a dilemma. I live in a neighborhood where 83% of my neighbors use drugs. I could make them most happy by helping supply them with cheap drugs, but I feel uncomfortable doing that. What should a utilitarian do?

Criticisms of Utilitarianism Bernard Williams criticizes the implied “doctrine of negative responsibility” in Utilitarianism. For example, a thug breaks into my home and holds six people hostage, telling us he will kill all of us. “However,” the thug says, “if you will kill two of your family, I will let you and the other three live.” With Utilitarianism, the good thing to do is to kill two members of my family.

A Second Criticism of Utilitarianism If one must decide the probable outcome of an act before knowing whether it is good or bad, how can children learn to evaluate acts, since they know so little of what consequences might arise from their actions?

Mill’s “Rule” Utilitarianism “... Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness; and the beliefs which have thus come down are the rules of morality for the multitude, and for the philosopher until he has succeeded in finding better.” Mill concludes, however, that we should always seek improvements.

Rights and Utilitarianism Many philosophers hold that we have certain rights, either from God, nature, or from a social contract Can the idea of rights be made compatible with Utilitarianism? If ignoring rights brings about more happiness to the greatest number, should we ignore so-called rights? Mill’s rule-based view in On Liberty; having a right to liberty will bring the greatest happiness