Utilitarianism

• What is utilitarianism?

  Morality lies in the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people
• Bentham's key ideas

  - human beings are hedonists: motivated by pleasure and pain

  - people should aim to create the most amount of good
• What is the principle of utility?

  The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its utility / usefulness. Refers to the amount or quantity of pleasure caused by the action
• Why is Bentham's theory teleological?

  It is concerned with the consequences of the action rather than the action itself. This is the most happiness and least pain.
• How does Bentham measure the most pleasure and pain?

  The hedonic calculus
• What are the properties of the hedonic calculus?

  - intensity

  - duration

  - certainty

  - propinquity

  - fecundity

  - purity

  - extent
• What is act utilitarianism?

  The principle of utility must be directly applied to each individual action; every situation is treated differently. When faced with a moral choice, a person must decide which action will lead to the greatest good in a particular situation. For example if lying were to achieve this then the person should lie. But if it ended in a lesser result, it would be better to tell the truth.
• Application of Bentham

  Imagine a scenario where a young mother about to give birth, the young woman's husband and an elderly man are all injured and you can only treat one. Who would you choose based on act utilitarianism and the principle of utility? According to Bentham, the mother would be the priority as the deaths of the mother and child are almost a certainty if you do not act now
• What did JS Mill believe?

  - quality > quantity

  - higher pleasures of the mind and lower pleasures of the body

  - rule utilitarianism
• What pleasures did Mill say were most important?

  Pleasures of the mind such as poetry or opera. Then basic needs such as eating and drinking come next
• What issues did Mill notice with act utilitarianism?

  1. Has the potential to justify any act

  2. Impractical to measure every action

  3. It can have extreme results
• What is rule utilitarianism?

  Establishes the best overall rule by determine the course of action which, when pursued by the whole community, leads to the best results. The rule takes priority over the person's immediate situation.
• Evaluation: consequences

  Strength - it seems reasonable to link morality with the pursuit of happiness. Also seems natural to consider the consequences of an action when deciding what to do

  Weakness - how can we know for certain what the consequences will be?
• Evaluation: Justice v happiness

  Weakness - the pursuit of happiness should never be at the expense of justice. Slavery may bring the greatest amount to happiness to the greatest number of people but there are still people suffering and no matter how small that number is they are still human and deserve to be treated equally
• Evaluation: pleasures

  Weakness - Mill does not consider motives. Some may feel that poetry is more significant to them than watching TV but others may disagree. You cannot apply these higher and lower pleasures for everyone because people have different preferences
• Evaluation: questions of pleasure and pain

  Weakness - how do we quantify pleasure? How can we compare different pleasures? Pain is sometimes necessary in order to enjoy the pleasures

  
  

  Not all of us gain pleasure from the same things, we are all different. It does not account for the complexities of humanity