Basic Information

Theory to Study: UTILITARINISM

Presenters:

Stephanie Ryu Idigpio

Mary Ann Libao

Project Description:
Start Date: February 19,2021

Completion Date: February 21,2021

Purpose of the Study:
1. To have a better understanding about Utilitarianism

2. To determine how to apply in Information Technology

A. Background Information

Utilitarianism is one of the most powerful and persuasive approaches to normative

ethics in the history of philosophy from the late 18th- and 19th century. It is an ethical theory

founded by Jeremy Bentham and developed and popularized by John Stuart Mill. Though there

are many varieties of the view discussed, utilitarianism is generally held view that the morally

right action is the action that produces the most good. There are many ways to spell out this

general claim. One thing to note is that the theory is a form of consequentialism: the right action

is understood entirely in terms of consequences produced. What distinguishes utilitarianism

from egoism has to do with the scope of the relevant consequences. On the utilitarian view one

ought to maximize the overall good — that is, consider the good of others as well as one's own

good.

The Classical Utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, identified the good

with pleasure, so, like Epicurus, were hedonists about value. They also held that we ought to

maximize the good, that is, bring about ‘the greatest amount of good for the greatest number’.

Utilitarianism was founded in the principle of utility which adheres to the belief that “an

act is good or morally right if it promotes happiness and bad or immoral if it tends to produce
pain”. The key therefore in utilitarianism is the principle of happiness hence again in

utilitarianism an act is good or morally right if it produces greatest happiness to the greatest

number of people and bad or immoral if it produces more harm or pain than benefits or

happiness to the greatest number of people. This explains why utilitarianism would not care

whether the action is done out of deception lie or manipulation as long as it produces maximum

benefits to many people.

How does Betham view happiness.

For him “Happiness is the absence of pain”. He introduced the philosophy calculus to

measure the degree of happiness or pleasure that a specific action may produce. The philosophic

calculus is also called the hedonistic calculus, it includes: intensity, duration, certainty,

propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.

For Bentham:

 the INTENSE (intensity) the pleasure, the better.

 the LONGER (duration) it lasts, the better.

 the MORE CERTAIN (certainty) that it will happen, the better.

 the CLOSER (propinquity) that it will occur, the better.

 the GREATER THE POSSIBILITY (fecundity) that it will be followed by another

pleasure, the better.

 the PURER (purity) the pleasure, the better.

 the GREATER THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT IT BENEFITS (extent), the better.

Types of Utilitarianism

 Act Utilitarianism

Act utilitarians believe that whenever we are deciding what to do, we

should perform the action that will create the greatest net utility. In their view, the principle of
utility—do whatever will produce the best overall results—should be applied on a case by case

basis. The right action in any situation is the one that yields more utility (i.e. creates more well-

being) than other available actions.

 Rule Utilitarianism

Rule utilitarians adopt a two part view that stresses the importance of moral

rules. According to rule utilitarians, a) a specific action is morally justified if it conforms to a

justified moral rule; and b) a moral rule is justified if its inclusion into our moral code would

create more utility than other possible rules (or no rule at all). According to this perspective, we

should judge the morality of individual actions by reference to general moral rules, and we

should judge particular moral rules by seeing whether their acceptance into our moral code

would produce more well-being than other possible rules.

The key difference between act and rule utilitarianism is that act utilitarians apply the utilitarian

principle directly to the evaluation of individual actions while rule utilitarians apply the

utilitarian principle directly to the evaluation of rules and then evaluate individual actions by

seeing if they obey or disobey those rules whose acceptance will produce the most utility.

B. Jeremy Bentham Arguments

Argument 1: Moral action should be directed by the principle of utility

Bentham’s works argued that moral action should be directed by the principle of

utility, which he defines as “the principle that approves or disapproves of every action according

to the tendency it appears to have to increase or lessen to promote or oppose the happiness of

the person or group whose interest is in question.” Bentham saw happiness as foundational to

the human experience. He sought to find the grounding of morality not in religion or the

supernatural, but in the directly experienced.

Argument 2: We could calculate utility and make comparisons.
 For instance, something that makes you very happy, but only for one second, is less

good than something that makes you half as happy for a full hour. Other factors that might alter

this calculation are the number of people who are made happy/unhappy, how likely the result is,

etc. This makes Bentham a “hedonist,” someone who believes that moral good is characterized

by the pursuit of happiness or pleasure.

C.Application to IT
Example:

In the workplace, the idea of this concept is if you conduct yourself properly at work, then you

will be able to achieve professional happiness. By making morally correct decisions, your

happiness will increase. However, if you choose to do something morally wrong, even though it

may be legal, your happiness will decrease.

References :

https://iep.utm.edu/util-a-r/#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20argument%20against,everyone%20knows
%20are%20morally%20wrong.

https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/utilitarianism/v-1/sections/arguments-for-
utilitarianism#:~:text=4\

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/

https://gohighbrow.com/a-brief-history-of-utilitarianism/

https://youtu.be/01Y1zVGv9h0