UNIT II

UTILITARIANISM
UTILITARIANISM “THE GREATEST HAPPINESS FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER”

THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE IN UTILITARIANISM IS THAT WHEN YOU MAKE A MORAL

DECISION YOU SHOULD DO WHAT BRINGS THE GREATEST HAPPINESS OR GOOD TO
THE GREATEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE
MAIN CONCEPT OF UTILITARIANISM
• THAT THE MOST ETHICAL CHOICE IS THE ONE
THAT WILL PRODUCE THE GREATEST GOOD
FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER
LESSON I: COMMON GOOD
COMMON GOOD
• The common good as "certain
general conditions that
are... equally to everyone's
advantage.“
• The notion that life in community is
a good in itself and our actions
should contribute to that life
IMPORTANT THINGS
ON COMMON GOOD

• The common good consists of

three essential elements:
respect for and promotion of
the fundamental rights of the
person; prosperity, or the
development of the spiritual
and temporal goods of society;
the peace and security of the
group and of its members.
 COMMON GOOD
• It corporates the morals and
it also calls attention to
common conditions that are
important to the welfare of
everyone
FEW KEY ASSUMPTIONS
BUILT INTO THE CONCEPT
OF THE COMMON GOOD

• First, it assumes that human

beings are fundamentally
social creatures; we are built
to be in relationships and not
live in isolation.
FEW KEY ASSUMPTIONS
BUILT INTO THE CONCEPT
OF THE COMMON GOOD

• Second, because we are made for

community our individual well being is
mutually interdependent my good
includes yours, and vice versa.
• Finally, the idea of the common good
rests on a pretty robust optimism about
human beings.
LESSON II: PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
 JEREMY
BENTHAM

JOHN
STUART MILL

TWO PHILOSOPHERS AGREED WE SHOULD SEEK HAPPINESS AND AVOID

PAIN
 JEREMY
BENTHAM
• British Philosopher
• Jurist
• Social Reformer
• Founder of modern
utilitarianism
 JEREMY BENTHAM
• Bentham’s utilitarianism was based on
the outcome of actions. He said the
correct action in any situations is the
one that leads on the most happiness
or the least pain. The more happiness
caused, the better the moral act.
JOHN STUART MILL
• Philosopher
• Political Economist
• Civil Servant
• Politician
JOHN STUART MILL
• That actions that lead to
people's happiness are
right and that those that
lead to suffering are wrong
• Is a system of ethics
according to which
'actions are right in
proportion as they tend to
produce happiness, wrong
as they tend to produce
the reverse of happiness'
 THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM
• THESE ARE TWO FORMULATION OF UTILITARIAN
THEORY
PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY GREATEST HAPPINESS

• THE BEST ACTION IS THAT WHICH • WE OUGHT WHICH PRODUCES THE

PRODUCES THE GREATEST HAPPINESS GREATEST HAPPINESS AND LEAST
OR REDUCES PAIN PAIN FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER OF
PEOPLE
PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
• the principle that actions are to be judged
by their usefulness in this sense: their
tendency to produce benefit, advantage,
pleasure, good, or happiness. (mill, said)
• Principles 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.'
 • a state of being unhappy
or, in other words, a lack
of happiness
• Pain or absence of
pleasure

• Is pleasure or absence of
pain
PRINCIPLE OF • an emotional state
characterized by feelings
UTILITY of joy, satisfaction,
contentment, and
fulfillment.
LESSON III: PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST
HAPPINESS
 PRINCIPLE OF
GREATEST HAPPINESS

• Equating happiness with pleasure

does not aim to describe the
utilitarian moral agent alone and
independently from others;
• It also about the pleasure of the
greatest number affected by the
consequences of our actions.
PRINCIPLE OF
GREATEST HAPPINESS
• It is necessary for us to consider
everyone’s happiness, including
our own, as the standard by
which to evaluate what is moral.
• Utilitarianism is interested with
everyone’s happiness, in fact,
the greatest happiness of the
greatest number.
 BENTHAM EXPLAINS:
• The 'greatest happiness' part is a
maximising principle: it enjoins
people to act so as to maximise
human happiness produced. But
the 'of the greatest number' part is
a principle of distribution: it enjoins
people to act so as to spread
happiness around as equally as
possible.
 MILL EXPLAINS:
• I have dwelt on this point, as being
part of a perfectly just conception
of utility of happiness, considered
as the directive rule of human
conduct.
 MILL EXPLAINS:
• But it is by no means an
indispensable condition to the
acceptance of the utilitarian
standard; for that standard is not
the agent's own greatest
happiness, but the greatest
amount of happiness altogether,
 MILL EXPLAINS:
• If it may possibly be doubted
whether a noble character is
always the happier for its
nobleness, there can be no
doubt that it makes other
people happier, and that the
world in general is immediately
a gainer by it.
MILL EXPLAINS HIGH PLEASURE AND
LOWER PLEASURE:

• John Stuart Mill distinguished

between higher and lower
pleasures. Higher pleasures were
pleasures that were mental,
stimulating thought, or spiritual in
nature. Lower pleasures were
those that give instant gratification,
many bodily pleasures fall under
this category.
PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST NUMBER
• Utilitarianism, therefore, could only attain
its end by the general cultivation of
nobleness of others, and his own, so far
as happiness is concerned, were a sheer
deduction from the benefit. But the bare
enunciation of such an absurdity as this
last, renders refutations superfluous.
PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST NUMBER
• Utilitarianism cannot lead to selfish act. It is
neither about our pleasure nor happiness
alone; it cannot be all about us. If we are the
only ones satisfied by our actions, it does not
constitute a moral good. If we are the only
ones who are made happy by our actions, then
we cannot be morally good. In this sense,
utilitarianism is not dismissive or sacrifices that
procure more happiness for others.
PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST NUMBER
• Therefore, it is necessary for us to consider
everyone's happiness, including our own, as
the standard by which to evaluate what is
moral. Also, it implies that utilitarianism is not
at all separate from liberal social practices that
aim to improve the quality of life for all
persons. Utilitarianismis interested with
everyone's happiness, in fact, the greatest
happiness of the greatest number
LESSON IV: JUSTICE AND RIGHTS
 JUSTICE
• Justice, for many people, refers to fairness.
But while justice is important to almost
everyone, it means different things to
different groups.
• Justice is the ethical, philosophical idea that
people are to be treated impartially, fairly,
properly and reasonably by the law and
by arbiters of the law, that laws are to
ensure that no harm befalls another, and
that,
 JUSTICE
• Where harm is alleged, a remedial action is
taken – both the accuser and the accused
receive a morally right consequence merited
by their actions.
 FUNDAMENTALS OF
JUSTICE
• SOCIAL JUSTICE
Is the notion that everyone deserves equal,
economic, political, and social opportunities
irrespective of race, gender, or religion
• ist
 FUNDAMENTALS OF
JUSTICE
• DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
Refers to the equitable allocation of assets in
society.
• ist
 FUNDAMENTALS OF
JUSTICE
• ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE
Refers to the fairness treatment of all people
with regard to environmental burdens and
benefits.
• ist
 TYPES OF JUSTICE
• Restorative or corrective justice seeks to
make whole those who have suffered
unfairly.
• Retributive justice seeks to punish
wrongdoings/wrongdoers objectively and
proportionately.
• Procedural justice refers to implementing
legal decisions in accordance with fair and
unbiased processes and decisions.
 RIGHTS
• A right is an individuals entitlement
to something
• If this entitlement may be derived
from a legal system that allows the
person to behave in a certain way,
it is called a legal right.
• Rights can also be the consequences
of moral standards.
 MORAL RIGHTS
• They are tightly correlated with
duties because what is one’s right
is another’s duty.
• Moral rights enable individuals in
the free trace of their interests
• Moral rights constitute a basis for
justifying one’s actions and for
invoking the protection or
assistance of others.
 BASIS OF RIGHTS
• Utilitarians argue that moral
rights exist because their
existence maximizes utility.
However, right is an entitlement
and it should be regardless of
utility maximization so there
should be another source of
moral rights.
 BASIS OF RIGHTS
• Immanuel Kant (categorical
Imperative)
• Everyone has a moral right to
such treatment and everyone has
again the correlative duty to
treat others in this way.
 Kant’s Categorical
Imperative
• An action is morally rights for a
person if the person is absolutely
sure that she/he will approve the
same action of another person
• An action is morally right if a
person does not use other people
as means to attain his/her
interest but respects them.
 MILL EXPLAINS RIGHTS

• According to Mill that rights is the

due process and the right to free
speech or religion among others
are justified because they
contribute to the general good.