Ethics Foundations of Moral Valuation
hindi daw pwede, na ako daw ay pwedeng
Chapter II: Utilitarianism
•The Principle of Utility
•Principle of the Greatest Number
•Justice and Moral Rights
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be
able to:
• Discuss the basic principles of utilitarian
ethics;
• Distinguish between two utilitarian models:
the quantitative model of Jeremy Bentham
and the qualitative model of John Stuart Mill;
and
• Apply utilitarianism in understanding and
evaluating local and international scenarios.
INTRODUCTION
On January 25, 2015, the 84th Special
Action Force (SAF) conducted a police
operation at Tukanalipao, Mamasapano in
Maguindanao. Also known as Oplan Exodus,
it was intended to serve an arrest warrant for
Zulkifi bin Hir or Marwan, a Malaysian
terrorist and bomb-maker who had a $5
million bounty on his head. Although the
police operation was “successful” because of
the death of Marwan, the firefight that
ensued claimed 67 lives – 44 Special Action
Force (SAF) troopers, 18 Moro Islamic
Liberation Front fighters, and five civilians. In
one of the Congress investigations that
followed this tragic mission, then Senate
President Franklin Drilon and Senator
Francis Escudero debated the public hearing
of an audio recording of an alleged
conversation that attempted to cover up the
massacre of the PNP-SAF commandos.
Drilon questioned the admissibility of these
recordings as evidence under the Anti-Wire
Tapping Law whereas Escudero cited the
legal brief of the Free Legal Assistance
Group (FLAG) arguing that the Anti-Wire
Tapping Law protects only the recording and
interception of private communications.
Senator Grace Poe, previous chairperson of
the Senate committee on public order and
dangerous drugs, argued otherwise. “Sinabi
na ni Senator Drilon na ito daw ay illegal, na
maging liable kung ito daw ay ipapakinig ko
sa Senado, ako naman, ano ba itong mga
batas na ito? Ang mga batas na ito ay para
malaman natin ang katotohanan at
magkaroon tayo ng hustisya. Itong mga anti-
wiretapping or mga recording na ganito,
kung hindi pwedeng ilabas sa publiko,
pwede naming gawing basehan sa executive
session.” Senator Poe’s response leads us
to ask: Can the government infringe
individual rights? If it is morally permissible
for the government to infringe individual
rights, when can the government do so?
Does it become legitimate to sacrifice
individual rights when considering the
greatest benefit for the greatest number of
people?
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
– For Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the
principle of utility is about our subjection to
these sovereign masters: pleasure and pain.
On one hand, the principle refers to the
motivation of our actions as guided by our
avoidance of pain and our desire for
pleasure. On the other hand, the principle
also refers to pleasure as good if, and only if,
they produce more happiness than
unhappiness.
– John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) supports
Betham’s principle of utility. He reiterates
moral good as happiness and, consequently,
happiness as pleasure. Mill clarifies that
what makes people happy is intended
pleasure and what makes us unhappy is the
privation of pleasure. The things that
produce happiness and pleasure are good;
whereas those that produce unhappiness
and pain are bad.
JEREMY BENTHAM BIOGRAPHY
• Born on February 15th, 1748.
• Studied at Queen’s College in Oxford in
1760, and after he studied law at Lincoln’s
Inn.
• In 1776 Bentham published his first book A
Fragment on Government
• Bentham defined his theory of utilitarianism
in his book The Introduction to the Principled
of Morals and Legislation published in 1789.