Utilitarianism

Weight Various Guidelines and Principles

 NOTE

UTILITARIANISM UTILITARIAN
 What is the “Good”?

Jeremy Bentham: Pleasure and Pains

Part I John Stuart Mill: The Quality of Happiness

Step 3

Strong Points Of Utilitarianism

 The Greatest Good
• Some ETHICAL THEORIES argue that the
consequences of an action make it either moral
or immoral.

• An action that lead to beneficial consequence

is right or moral, and one that leads to harmful
consequences is wrong or immoral.
 The Greatest Good
• The most influential consequentialist theory is known as utilitarianism.

• Utilitarianism takes its name from the concept of utility, meaning the use or benefits to be
derived from an action or situation.
 The Greatest Good (Cont’d)

“The great good for the greatest number of people”

What is the “Good”?

?
• Utilitarianism usually state that “the greatest good
means the greatest happiness.”
 What is the “Good”? (Cont’d)
• Everybody wants to be happy.

• It is the one universal thing that everybody desires and agrees is a good thing.

• So if everybody desires happiness, perhaps happiness is the universal good that provides a satisfactory
criterion for determining what is ethical or moral and what is unethical or immoral.

• The moral thing to do is whatever maximize happiness; the immoral thing to do is whatever minimizes
happiness and maximizes unhappiness.
Jeremy Bentham: Pleasures and Pains

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1783)

• An English philosopher
• Founded utilitarianism
• Happiness = pleasure
• Unhappiness = pain
• The more net unhappiness an action produces, the more
immoral it is.
• “The right (or moral , or ethical) action is the one that provides the
highest net quality of pleasure”
 Jeremy Bentham : Major Objections

• A number of major objections have been made of Bentham’s argument.

 First Objection

• First, it is difficult (if not impossible) to quantify or measure “units” of

pleasure and pain.
 Second Objection

• Second, it is argued that pleasure and pain are the wrong measures of
happiness and unhappiness.
Human being dissatisfied ~ A pig satisfied
Socrates dissatisfied ~ A fool satisfied
John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (1806 –1873)

A British philosopher
Political economist
Civil servant
“He contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and
political economy.”
 John Stuart Mill: The Quality of
Happiness

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 different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the
question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.
The Quality of Happiness
 Frist Criticism

“ One person gets the pleasure from many different ways.”

Watching a pornographic film
Attending an opera
Reading a book
Eating gourmet steak dinner
Hamburger, milkshake and French fries
 The Quality of Happiness

• “There is no common unit of measurement that can quantify

qualitatively different experiences of pleasure”
 Second Criticism

Some things are more precious than any pleasure.

Freedom
Human rights
Justice
Life
 The Quality of Happiness (Cond’t)

They also say “We should not be willing to trade these things away for a certain

quantity of pleasure and any ethical theory that tells us to do so is deficient”.

 The Quality of Happiness (Cond’t)

• Most modern utilitarian believe that Bentham’s equation of happiness with simple pleasure and the
absence of pain is too narrow.

• Therefore, they either agree with Mill by making qualitative distinctions between types of
pleasures and pains.
 The Quality of Happiness (Cond’t)

The maximization of human happiness (or human benefits)

and the minimization of human unhappiness (or human harm or costs) is the goal of morality.

This is the essence of utilitarianism.

 Strong Points of Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism make sense that we have a moral duty to behave in ways that create as
many benefits for human society as possible, and to avoid as much as possible the

harms or costs to the entire society.

• So there is no doubt that utilitarianism has a strong hold on our moral thinking and
reasoning.
Thank You!