Utilitarianism I think therefore I teach notes

• Utilitarianism goes side by side with Kant
• Utilitarianism applies to the final ethics topic which is business ethics
• David Hume is not a utilitarian but believes ethics should be based on utility, meaning usefulness
• Utility

  Usefulness
• Jeremy Bentham's concept of utility in utilitarianism

  Happiness
• Jeremy Bentham wanted to create a system of right and wrong that would benefit society
• Francis Hutchinson: 'The greatest happiness for the greatest number'
• Jeremy Bentham combined Hume's idea of utility and Hutchinson's idea of happiness to create utilitarianism
• Principle of utility: maximize pleasure, minimize pain
• Jeremy Bentham: 'Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters - pleasure and pain'
• Utilitarianism is concerned with outcomes and is teleological
• Hedonistic

  Pleasure-focused
• Utilitarianism sees moral acts as those which reduce maximum happiness and minimum pain for the maximum number of people
• Utilitarianism in a country is reflected in the voting system where the majority vote counts
• Jeremy Bentham's original head was rumored to have been stolen and replaced with a fake head
• Jeremy Bentham preserved his body to remind people not to grave rob or murder for profit
• According to Bentham, morally good actions equal the greatest sum of pleasure and the least sum of pain
• Bentham's argument for what makes an act right or wrong involves evaluating happiness, pleasure, and pain
• Bentham proposed the Hedonic Calculus, a way to seek pleasure and evaluate actions based on pleasure and pain
• Bentham proposed a way to seek pleasure which he calls his hedonic calculus or pleasure seeker designed to satisfy the individual
• Hedonic calculus


  A way of calculating the benefit or harm of an act through its consequences, teleological consequentialist, always looking at outcomes
• Seven ways to maximize happiness according to the hedonic calculus

  • Intensity
  • Duration
  • Certainty of pleasure
  • Propinquity
  • Purity
  • Extent
• The hedonic calculus attempts to quantify happiness by looking for a quantity, trying to quantify how many of the seven hedonic calculus criteria are met
• It may not always be possible to accurately predict the consequences of an action, as pleasure and pain are subjective and hard to predict reliably
• What counts as pleasure is subjective, as one person's pleasure may be another person's pain
• John Stuart Mill, also known as J.S. Mill, is associated with utilitarianism
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) had a number of problems with Bentham's utilitarian arguments
• Mill was related to Bentham in some way
• Mill disagreed with all of Bentham's arguments
• Main issues Mill had against Bentham's arguments:
• Main issues against Bentham's arguments

  • Does not distinguish between different sorts of pleasures
  • Does not provide a rank order for multiple pleasures
  • Questions what about minorities left out
  • States that pleasure mills are little more than animal instinct (e.g., sex, food, drink)
• Mill is famous for coming up with the idea of "swine philosophy" which focuses on animalistic pleasures
• Mill created his own strand of utilism away from Bentham
• John Stuart Mill: '"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied."'
• Quote meaning

  Implying it's better to be dissatisfied in learning and understanding than just satisfied like a pig in its muck or like a fool
• Quote explanation

  Why a pig and why Socrates are chosen in the quote
• Socrates links with the idea of knowledge and understanding

  Higher and lower pleasures: lower pleasures shared with animals like pigs, higher pleasures stimulate the mind only experienced by humans
• Mill's categories

  • Bodily pleasures
  • Mind pleasures
• Mill recognized in reality people do not always opt for the higher pleasure
• Ignorance can lead to not always choosing higher pleasures