GEC 8: ETHICS

UTILITARIANISM
• For example, if one has Php 5 000 that he can either
spend on new shoes, or he can donate it to help the
poor, obviously donating it will help more people, but
is it reasonable to sacrifice the happiness of yourself
and your loved ones in order to help complete
strangers?
 WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM?
• Utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories
that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and
well-being for all affected individuals. Although
different varieties of utilitarianism admit different
characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is to
in some sense maximize utility, which is often defined
in terms of well-being or related concepts.
 UTILITARIANISM

• For instance, Jeremy Bentham, the founder of

utilitarianism, described utility as "that property in any
object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage,
pleasure, good, or happiness...[or] to prevent the
happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the
party whose interest is considered.
 UTILITARIANISM

• "Utilitarianism was founded by Jeremy Bentham and

further developed by his disciple, John Stuart Mill.
Bentham was most interested in the ramifications that a
utilitarian ethics would have for the law, and he
developed a precise system for correlating a crime's
detrimental effect on utility to the severity of its
punishment.
 What is utility?
• Utility refers to a way of understanding the results of peoples’
action.
• Specifically, they are interested on whether these actions
contribute or not to the total amount of resulting happiness in
the world.
• Utilitarian value pleasure and happiness, this means that the
usefulness of actions is based on its promotion of happiness.
 Principle of utility
• Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters,
pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do.…
• By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or
disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency it appears
to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in
question: or, what is the same thing in other words to promote or to oppose
that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever, and therefore not only of
every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government.
 Hedonic calculus
• Bentham introduces a method of calculating the value of pleasures and pains, which
has come to be known as the hedonic calculus.
• The value of a pleasure or pain, considered by itself, can be measured according to
its intensity, duration, certainty/uncertainty and propinquity/remoteness.
• In addition, it is necessary to consider "the tendency of any act by which it is
produced" and, therefore, to take account of the act's fecundity (productivity), or
the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same kind and its purity, or
the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind. Finally, it
is necessary to consider the extent, or the number of people affected by the action.
 What are the main differences between Bentham and
Mill's utilitarianism and which theory is better?

• Both thought that the moral value of an act

was determined by the pleasure it
produced. Bentham considered only
quantity of pleasure, but Mill considered
both quantity and quality of pleasure.
 Basic principles of Utilitarianism
By Emrys Westacott

• There are three principles that serve as the basic axioms of utilitarianism.
1. Pleasure or Happiness Is the Only Thing That Truly Has Intrinsic Value. ...
2. Actions Are Right Insofar as They Promote Happiness, Wrong Insofar as
They Produce Unhappiness. ...
3. Everyone's Happiness Counts Equally.
 Basic principles of Utilitarianism
By Emrys Westacott

1. Pleasure or Happiness Is the Only Thing That Truly Has Intrinsic

Value. ...
• Utilitarianism gets its name from the term "utility," which in this context does
not mean "useful" but, rather, means pleasure or happiness. To say that
something has intrinsic value means that it is simply good in itself. A world in
which this thing exists, or is possessed, or is experienced, is better than a world
without it (all other things being equal).
• For example, a screwdriver has instrumental value to the carpenter; it is not
valued for its own sake but for what can be done with it.
 Basic principles of Utilitarianism
By Emrys Westacott

2. Actions Are Right Insofar as They Promote Happiness, Wrong Insofar

as They Produce Unhappiness. ...
• This principle is controversial. It makes utilitarianism a form of
consequentialism (doctrine of an action to be nudged solely by its result)
since it says that the morality of an action is decided by its consequences.
The more happiness is produced among those affected by the action, the
better the action is. So, all things being equal, giving presents to a whole
gang of children is better than giving a present to just one. Similarly, saving
two lives is better than saving one life.
 Basic principles of Utilitarianism
By Emrys Westacott

3. Everyone's Happiness Counts Equally.

• This may strike you as a rather obvious moral principle. But when it was
put forward by Bentham (in the form, "everyone to count for one; no-one
for more than one") it was quite radical. Two hundred years ago, it was a
commonly held view that some lives, and the happiness they contained,
were simply more important and valuable than others.
• For example, the lives of enslavers were more important than enslaved
people; the well-being of a king was more important than that of a peasant.
 Professor James Rachels critiqued the philosophy of
utilitarianism, mainly by attacking the following points:

• 1. Actions are judged to be right or wrong only

on the basis of their consequences.
Utilitarianism was making happiness the goal
that we seek out in our endeavors.
 Professor James Rachels critiqued the philosophy of
utilitarianism, mainly by attacking the following points:

• Example:
An example proving this is if a friend bad-mouths
somebody behind their back, Utilitarianism will claim
that it is a moral action, because the person is not aware;
Ergo, it did not cause them any harm. Happiness should
be a response to what one has achieved or obtained.
 Professor James Rachels critiqued the philosophy of
utilitarianism, mainly by attacking the following points:

• 2. The only consequence that matters are

whether happiness or unhappiness results
• The dogma (principle or belief) of only
considering the consequence (result/effect) of an
action important, rather than the action itself.
 Professor James Rachels critiqued the philosophy of
utilitarianism, mainly by attacking the following points:

• For example, if a police officer is accused of

abusing somebody based on their race, clearly the
best solution according to utilitarianism would be
to find the officer guilty, and punish them
severely, as this will cause the greatest number of
people to achieve happiness.
 Professor James Rachels critiqued the philosophy of
utilitarianism, mainly by attacking the following points:

• 3. No one's happiness is more or less important than another's- each

are equally important
• Rachels also attacks the Utilitarianist argument that everybody
is equal, and your own happiness is no more important than
anybody else's. He claims that this is completely impractical, as
one can usually increase the happiness of somebody else
whenever they buy something.
PRICIPLE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER
• Equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to desire
the utilitarian moral agent alone and independently from
others.
• This is not only about our individual pleasures, regardless
of how high, intellectual, or in other ways noble it is, but
it is also about the pleasure of the greatest number
affected by the consequences of our actions.
 PRICIPLE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER
• For utilitarian standards
• It is not the agent’s greatest happiness, but the greatest
amount of happiness altogether.
• Therefore, utilitarianism 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
absurdity.
 Justice and Moral Rights

• Utilitarian argue that issues of justice carry a very

strong emotional importance because the
category of rights is directly associated with the
individual’s most vital interest.
• All these rights are predicted on the person’s
right to life.
 Legal and Moral Rights

• Moral rights are personal rights that connect the

creator of a work to their work. Moral rights are
about being properly named or credited when
your work is used, and the way your work is
treated and shown. ... This is called right of
attribution.
 Legal and Moral Rights

• Legal rights, in contrast, are based on a society's

customs, laws, statutes or actions by legislatures.
An example of a legal right is the right to vote of
citizens. Citizenship, itself, is often considered as
the basis for having legal rights and has been
defined as the "right to have rights".
• Bentham and Mill see moral good as pleasure, not merely
self-gratification, but also the greatest happiness principle
or the happiness for the greatest number of people.
• We are compelled to do whatever increases pleasure and
decreases pain to the greatest number of persons, counting
as one and none as more than one.