Social Responsibility

and Ethics
USMAN CHAUDHRY
 UTILITARIANISM:
Social Costs and Benefits
Consequentialist or Utilitarian Approach: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill(1700’s)

A general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated
on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society

We should bring the most benefit (i.e., intrinsic value) to everyone

Fundamental Imperative of utilitarianism is: produce the greatest overall amount of

good in the world

 Ford - PINTO

2
UTILITARIANISM:
Social Costs and Benefits
Utility
◦ is the net benefits that are produced by an action therefore
utilitarianism is the term that refers to the action that maximizes
benefits or minimizes costs

Determine Action with

Estimate
alternative Determine net greatest sum
direct indirect
actions/ utility of utility
costs
policies chosen

3
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
An analysis to determine the desirability in investing in a
project by figuring whether its present and future
benefits outweighs its present and future costs

4
Measuring Utility?
Difficult to measure Utility – varies from person to person
(satisfaction level – same job, two people)
As many of the benefits and costs of an action can not be
reliably predicted, they also can not be adequately measured.
It is unclear exactly what is to count as a benefit and what is
to count as a cost.
◦ This approach should not be done only in monetary terms as
there are desirable goods (pleasure, health, knowledge etc)

5
Utilitarian Replies to Measurement
Objections
Although utilitarianism ideally requires accurate quantifiable
measurements of all costs and benefits, this requirement can be
relaxed when such measurements are impossible.
Several commonsense criteria that can be used to determine the
relative values that should be given to various categories of
goods.
◦ Instrumental and Intrinsic goods
◦ Money and Health
◦ Distinction b/w needs & wants.

6
Problems with Right & Justice
The major difficulty with utilitarianism, it is unable to deal
with two kinds of moral issues. Those relating to Rights &
Justice.
That is, the utilitarian principle implies that certain actions
are morally right when in fact they are unjust or violate
people’s rights.
◦ Suppose that your uncle has incurable and painful disease, so that he is
quite unhappy but does not choose to die. Although he is hospitalized
and will die within a year or so.

7
Problems with Right & Justice
Second, utilitarian approach can also go wrong when it is
applied to situations that involve social justice.
◦ Consider next that Ford’s Manager decided to make no change
to Pinto’s design, they were not only making the Pinto cheaper
but also building a car with a certain amount of risk.

8
The Concept of a Right
A right is an individual's entitlement to something. A person has a
right when that person is entitled to act in a certain way or is
entitled to have others act in a certain way toward him or her.
Legal right: - An entitlement that derives from a legal system that
permits or empowers a person to act in a specified way or that
requires others to act in certain ways toward that person.
Moral rights: - Rights those human beings of every nationality
possess to an equal extent simply by virtue of being human
beings.

9
Utilitarian Replies to Objection on rights
& Justice
Utilitarian’s has proposed an important and influential
alternative version of utilitarianism called;
Rule-Utilitarianism.
◦ This is to limit utilitarian analysis to the evaluations of moral
rules, whether an action is ethical or not.

10
Utilitarian Replies to Objection on rights
& Justice
The theory of the Rule-utilitarian has two parts.

• An action is right from an ethical point of view if and only if the

action would be required by those moral rules that are correct.

• A moral rule is correct if and only if the sum total of utilities

produced if everyone were to follow that rule is greater than the
total of utilities produced if everyone were to follow some
alternative rule.

11
Rights & Duties
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” United Nations(1948)

o The right to own property alone as well as in association with others…

o The right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment…
o The right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for [the worker] and
his family an existence worthy of human dignity…
o The right to form and to join trade unions…
o The right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitations of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay…

12
Moral rights
Tightly correlated with duties. This is because one person's
moral right generally can be defined-at least partially-in terms
of the moral duties other people have toward that person.
◦ Worship as you choose

Provide individuals with autonomy and equality in the free

pursuit of their interests.
Provide a basis for justifying one's actions and for invoking
the protection or aid of others.
◦ Others have a duty to aid me to in exercising my rights
◦ A stronger person helping a weaker one

13
Negative and Positive Rights
Negative rights: - Duties others have to not interfere in certain
activities of the person who holds the right.
◦ Right of privacy (others should not interfere - privacy)
Positive rights: - Duties of other agents (it is not always clear
who) to provide the holder of the right with whatever he or she
needs to freely pursue his or her interests.
◦ Others should help someone who is not able to help on his/her own
(government may be…)

14
Contractual Rights and Duties
Attached to specific individuals and the correlative duties are imposed
only on other specific individuals.
Arise out of a specific transaction between particular individuals.
Depend on a publicly accepted system of rules that define the
transactions that give rise to those rights and duties.

A basis for the special duties or obligations that people acquire when
they accept a position or role within a legitimate social institution or an
organization.
For example,
◦ Employers and employees
◦ Buying and selling on credit

15
What kind of ethical rules govern
contracts?
Both of the parties to a contract must have full knowledge of the
nature of the agreement they are entering.
Neither party to a contract must intentionally misrepresent the
facts of the contractual situation to the other party.
Neither party to the contract must be forced to enter the contract
under duress or coercion.
The contract must not bind the parties to an immoral act.

16
A Basis for Moral Rights: Kant Immanuel Kant (1724 to 1804)

Categorical Imperative: Moral principle that obligates everyone

regardless of their desires and that is based on the idea that everyone should be
treated as a free person equal to everyone.

First Formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative:

◦ An action is morally right for a person in a certain situation if, and only if, the
person’s reason for carrying out the action is a reason that he or she would
be willing to have every person act on, in any similar situation.

Second Formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative:

◦ An action is morally right for a person if, and only if, in performing the action,
the person does not use others only as a means for advancing his or her own
interests, but always
i. treats them as they have freely and rationally consented to be treated, and
ii. contributes to their ability to pursue what they have freely and rationally chosen to pursue.

17
A Basis for Moral Rights: Kant
Kant Rights: specific major areas to deal with each other as free and
rational persons
− Categorical Perspectives imply generally people should deal with each other
in precisely this way
− Human beings have clear interests for basic needs, interest in safety and
interests in preserving contracts

An interest is important enough to become a right if;

1. We would not be willing to have everyone deprived of the freedom to pursue

interest
2. Freedom to pursue that interest is needed to live as free and rational beings

18
Criticisms of Kant:
•Both versions of the categorical imperative are
unclear.
•Rights can conflict and Kant’s theory cannot resolve
such conflicts.
•Kant’s theory implies moral judgments that are
mistaken.

19