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Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Relativism Egoism
The 4
Concepts of
Ethics
Utilitarianism Deontologism
Utilitarianism
• Roots of utilitarian thinking can be found in
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), David Hume
(1711-1776), and Adam Smith (1723-1790).
• Classic formulations of Utilitarianism are
found in the writings of Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).
• The morality of an action can be determined
by its consequences
• An action is ethical if it promotes the greatest
good for the greatest number
• The theory tells us that we can determine the
ethical significance of any action by looking to
the consequences of that act.
• Maximizing the overall good or The Greatest
Good for the Greatest Number of People
• Utilitarianism provided strong support for
democratic institutions and policies
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• Government and social institutions exist for
the well-being of all people, not to further the
interest of the monarch – or the wealthy elite.
• The economy exists to provide the highest
standard of living for the greatest number of
people, not to create wealth for a privileged
few.
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• Utilitarianism looks at the consequences of actions.
• Utilitarianism is pragmatic: no one is ever right or
wrong in every situation. It all depends on the
consequences.
• Utilitarian acknowledge two kinds of value:
instrumental value and intrinsic value.
• If we judge our acts in terms of their consequences,
then we must have some independent standard for
deciding between good and bad
consequences…There must be some intrinsic value
by which we can judge the consequences of our acts.
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• Jeremy Bentham argued that only pleasure, or
at least the absence of pain was intrinsically
valuable.
• Happiness must be understood in terms of
pleasure and the absence of pain.
• Unhappiness must be understood to be the
presence of pain and the absence of pleasure.
• Pleasure and pain are the two fundamental
motivational factors of human nature.
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4. Six Points about Utilitarianism
• Utilitarianism determines right and wrong in terms of
consequences.
• Deontological theories emphasize ethics as a matter
of principle and offer ways to think about such
ethical principles as dessert, duty, promises,
property, rights, justice and fairness.
Utilitarianism differs from egoism:
Utilitarian acts are judged by their consequences for
the general and overall good. The good includes the
well-being of each individual affected by the action.
Egoism focuses only on individual self-interests.
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Implications Ethics for Business & Economics:
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4. Utilitarianism in Organizational
Context
• Free market economics is a form of
“preference utilitarianism” where the
utilitarian goal is the maximum satisfaction of
preferences.
• Efficiency structures our economy.
• We allow individuals the freedom to bargain
for themselves.
• Agreements occur only when both parties
believe a transaction will improve their own
position.
• Competition works to improve the overall
good. 12
• Problems from within
– Finding ways to measure happiness
– Differing versions of the good and
implications for human freedom
• Problem from outside
– The principle of consequentialism means
that the ends justify the means, but there
are certain rules we must follow no matter
what the consequences.
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Benefits and Costs of an Action to
Whom so ever They Accrue
B1 + B2 + B3 + . .+Bn> C1 + C2 + C3 + . . .+Cn
B1 + B2 + B3 + . .+Bn< C1 + C2 + C3 + . . .+Cn
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4.0 Moral Decision Making
Our ultimate ethical duty is to treat people with
respect.
• If our duty is to treat every person with respect, then
we can argue that each person has a right to be
treated in a respectful fashion.
• My rights establish your duties and my duties
correspond to the rights of others.
• Duties establish the ethical limits of our behavior.
Duties are what we owe to other people.
• Others have a claim upon our behavior.
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• Kant: Ethics requires us to treat all people as ends,
not as means to ends.
Humans are subjects that have their own purposes
and ends, and should not be treated merely as the
means to the ends of others.
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• Humans make free choices.
• Humans have autonomy.
• Humans originate action for their own ends.
• To treat someone as a means to an end is to
negate their autonomy – their ability to make
free choices.
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Virtue Ethics
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• Virtue ethics is also prescriptive in offering advice in
how we should live.
• Virtue ethics asks us to examine how character traits
are formed and conditioned.
• Look at the actual business practices we find and ask
what type of people are being created by those
practices.
• Many individual moral dilemmas that arise in
business can best be understood as arising from a
tension between the type of person we seek to be
and type of person business expects us to be.
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Conclusion
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• Deontological approaches insist that some
things should be done and some things should
not be done – regardless of the consequences.
Respecting individual rights and fulfilling out
ethical obligations can set limits on decisions
aimed at producing good consequences.
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• Virtue ethics encourages us to seek answers to
very profound questions:
– Who am I?
– What type of person am I to be?
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