Utilitarianism

• The three basic tenets of John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism

  1. The ”principle of utility”
  2. Hedonism
  3. ”a disinterested and benevolent spectator”
• utilitarianism is a consequentialist moral philosophy
• the principle of utility

  • the principle of utility is the greatest happiness principle
  • the right moral choice: the one that results in the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people (issue: happiness is being measured/amounted, excludes some people)
  • frequently used in public policy making
• hedonism

  • happiness: intended pleasure and absence of pain
  • unhappiness: pain and privation of pleasure
  • pleasure and absence of pain is the only desirable end
  • all other things are desirable only as means to an end
  • hedonism: pleasure is the only good that exists
  • pleasures different in 3 things: duration, intensity, kind
  • those who have experienced a range of pleasures ultimately prefer the higher pleasures (ex helping others, pursuing the truth, creating art)
  • those who have experienced the higher pleasures will never set them aside for the lower pleasures
• “A disinterested and benevolent spectator”

  • mill emphasizes the selfless character of utilitarianism: “Be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator
  • the moral agent should give equal consideration to each person affected including onself
  • to love your neighbor as yourself constitutes the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality
• Utilitarianism after Mill


  Utility of an act = measure the amount of good the act will produce and subtract the amount of evil it will produce
• Utilitarians


  See ethical decision-making as a process similar to math
• Utilitarian decision-making process

  1. Determine what is to be considered intrinsically good

  2. Give this good a value/rank it

  3. Determine what choice one has and the consequences that follow

  4. Choose the option that produces the greatest amount of intrinsic good
• Utilitarianism

  Consequences are the focus, unlike Kant's focus on duty
• Utilitarianism

  Differs from Christianity, which says one may never do evil so that good may come of it and there are certain actions that are always forbidden
• Catholicism: the consequences of an act must be taken into account when determining the morality of an act
• "Disinterested and benevolent spectator": every life is valuable