UTILITARIANISM

Objectives:
 Articulate what utilitarianism is
 Critique Utilitarianism
• Make use of utilitarianism
JEREMY BENTHAM

Jeremy Bentham (1748—1832) was the father of

utilitarianism, a moral theory that argues that actions
should be judged right or wrong to the extent they
increase or decrease human well-being or 'utility'.
UTILITARIANISM

• Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right

from wrong by focusing on outcomes.
• It is a form of consequentialism.
• Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the
one that will produce the greatest good for the
greatest number.
Example

• If you are choosing ice cream for yourself, the

utilitarian view is that you should choose the flavor
that will give you the most pleasure. If you enjoy
chocolate but hate vanilla, you should choose
chocolate for the pleasure it will bring and avoid
vanilla because it will bring displeasure.
WHAT IS RULE UTILITARIANISM IN SIMPLE
TERMS?

• The idea behind Rule Utilitarianism is that whenever

you are in a situation and have alternatives you
calculate the utility to be produced by adopting a
course of action (rule) which would produce the
greatest utility in the long run if it were followed every
time that situation arose.
There are three principles that serve as the
basic axioms of utilitarianism.
• Pleasure or Happiness Is the Only Thing That Truly
Has Intrinsic Value. ...
• Actions Are Right Insofar as They Promote
• Happiness, Wrong Insofar as They Produce
Unhappiness. ...
What are the 4 theories of utilitarianism?

• Above we have explained the four elements accepted

by all utilitarian theories: consequentialism, welfarism,
impartiality, and aggregationism. While this is useful
for distinguishing utilitarian from non-utilitarian moral
theories, there are also important distinctions
between utilitarian theories.
CONSEQUENTIALISM

• On this view, bringing about good outcomes is all that

ultimately matters, from a moral perspective. Thus, to
evaluate whether to perform an action, we should
look at its overall consequences, rather than any of
its other features (such as the type of action that it is).
WELFARISM

• Welfarism is the view that the value of an outcome is

wholly determined by the well-being of the individuals in it.
• Specifically, welfarism holds that positive well-being is the
only intrinsic good, and negative well-being is the only
intrinsic bad.
• Philosophers use the term “well-being” to describe
everything that is in itself good for someone, as opposed to
things that are merely instrumentally good.
Impartiality and the equal consideration of interests

• Impartiality is the view that a given quantity of well-being is

equally valuable no matter whose well-being it is.
• As utilitarian philosopher Henry Sidgwick states: “the good
of any one person is no more important from the point of
view… of the universe than the good of any other”.
• Utilitarians value the well-being of all individuals equally,
regardless of their nationality, gender, where or when they
live, or even their species.
Aggregationism

• Aggregationism is the view that the value of an outcome is

given by the sum value of the lives it contains.
• When combined with welfarism and impartiality, this
implies that we can meaningfully “add up” the well-being of
different individuals, and use this total to determine which
trade-offs are worth making.
JUSTICE AND
FAIRNESS
Objectives:

 Articulate what justice and fairness are

 Critique justice and fairness
• Make use of justice and fairness
Principles of Justice

• The most fundamental principle of justice—one that

has been widely accepted since it was first defined by
Aristotle more than two thousand years ago—is the
principle that "equals should be treated equally and
unequals unequally.
Different kinds of justice :Distributive justice

• Refers to the extent to which society's institutions ensure

that benefits and burdens are distributed among
society's members in ways that are fair and just.
• When the institutions of a society distribute benefits or
burdens in unjust ways, there is a strong presumption
that those institutions should be changed.
Retributive or corrective justice
• Retributive justice refers to the extent to which punishments
are fair and just.
• In general, punishments are held to be just to the extent that
they take into account relevant criteria such as the
seriousness of the crime and the intent of the criminal, and
discount irrelevant criteria such as race.
• It would be barbarously unjust, for example, to chop off a
person's hand for stealing a dime, or to impose the death
penalty on a person who by accident and without
negligence injured another party.
 Compensatory justice
• Refers to the extent to which people are fairly compensated
for their injuries by those who have injured them; just
compensation is proportional to the loss inflicted on a person.
• This is precisely the kind of justice that is at stake in debates
over damage to workers' health in coal mines. Some argue
that mine owners should compensate the workers whose
health has been ruined.
• Others argue that workers voluntarily took on this risk when
they chose employment in the mines.
Taxation

• Taxation is the imposition of compulsory levies on

individuals or entities by governments in almost every
country of the world.
• Taxation is used primarily to raise revenue for
government expenditures, though it can serve other
purposes as well.
What does ethics mean in tax?

• Tax ethics refers to the tax payer's moral obligation to pay

taxes and is affected by the relationship between the tax
payer, as a citizen, and the government.
• Tax ethics and tax evasion are often used interchangeably.
What is taxation in human rights?

• Taxes remain the preeminent means through which

governments raise revenues needed to deliver essential
public goods and services and to protect rights.
• Moreover, taxation affects equality and non-discrimination,
the bedrock principles of the human rights regime.
THE END
RESOURCES:

• https://utilitarianism.net/
• https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/
justice-and-fairness/
• https://chrgj.org/focus-areas/inequalities/tax-and-human-rights/