Ethics

1
The Philosophy of Utilitarianism

Module 16 The Philosophy of Utilitarianism

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. To learn the core of this 18th Century Philosophy
2. To differentiate the beliefs of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
3. To correlate Utilitarian philosophy in business

Utilitarianism
This philosophy is also known as Consequentialism that says the rightness or wrongness of
an object depends on the effect of the consequence regardless of the method it utilized. There are
two kinds of utilitarianism and they are Act utilitarian and Rule utilitarian, the first believed about
the goodness or badness of a particular act. An example is the assassination of former Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 that was an act of murder by the civilized people but to the
perpetuators it was an act beneficial to the maligned Indian minority. Rule utilitarian means the
goodness or evilness of an act itself. Say abortion may be an evil act but Western civilization view
it as a means to combat population explosion. Morality is defined, simply as increasing good and
decreasing evil by eliminating traditions, taboos or archaic beliefs that obstruct human
development. These age-old beliefs put man in a “primitive” way of life that denied their right to
free-will and are a bane to human behavior. The proponents of this theory were Jeremy Bentham
and John Stuart Mill wherein the first thought about this idea and later shared to his pupil which
the latter propagated for humanity albeit with his own interpretation. Despite being thinkers of
the 18th Century their ideas were utilized by the present generation but were doubted for its
absurdities. That even today the ideas of these scholars were unsure as to they tend to Act
Utilitarian or Rule Utilitarian. Their writings are ambiguous that they have no idea what utilitarian
act they subscribe.
The Philosophies of Bentham and Mill
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) proposed utilitarianism in this premises: 1) Human life is
greatly-affected by pleasure and pain; 2) consequences of actions are caused by pleasure and pain;
3) the idea of anything pleasurable is good and anything painful is evil is absolute; and 4) Pleasure
and pain can be quantified. To sum it up, man’s happiness is quantified by either pleasure and pain
and nothing else. They can be measured according to the following criteria such as: intensity,
duration, certainty and nearness.
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) for his part clarified his professors’ stand by making his own
counterpoint: 1) the quality of happiness is more important than its quantity; 2) the quality of
happiness cannot be measured for these things are felt and no amount of calculation can quantify
it; 3) Mill believed in the idea of the “General Happiness of the People” that happiness can be felt
by everyone, in short common happiness.

Course Module
Positive and Negative Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is famous for its maxim “Greater happiness for the greater number” and
believed in the premise that while man’s purpose in this world is to be happy, we must only think
more of happiness and neglect misery in our lives. Which brings us to Positive Utilitarianism
which adheres to the maxim mentioned, while is negative counterpart centers on its complete
contradiction “least misery for the least number of people”. It must be noted, though that both are
absurd because suffering is part of human existence that comes in great numbers that made a
considerable number of people suffering as well. Negative utilitarianism is also impractical if not
totally ludicrous because by experiencing misery we became emotionally stronger inasmuch as it
is triumph over adversity, life is not a bed of roses anyway. Positive Utilitarianism is also
preposterous for happiness may not be attained by everyone and anyone might not feel the same
way. For example, if we are happy inflicting pain to another being a sadist will the receiving party
feel pleasure? Certainly not unless he is a masochist.
Business Utilitarianism
As mentioned earlier, the rightness or wrongness of an action is based on the consequence
regardless of the method employed. We can also connect that to the common adage “the end
justifies the means” just as long as it benefits the society where one belongs. Conversely speaking,
any action is valid as long as it is for the “greater good for the greater number”. Now let us
correlate Utilitarianism to Business, four things have to be kept in mind:
1. Business depends upon the consequence of an action ergo consequentialism – as
mentioned the validity of the action is the consequence or the attainment of its ends.
This type of belief is considered bad because this is practically permitting the profiteers
of exercising avarice by jacking up price of commodities and at the same time using
substandard goods and services just as long as they attain of raking cash at the expense
of good business.
2. Business depends on welfarism – by welfarism we mean an act is valid if the society
where one belongs subscribed to that similar understanding. This is has positive effects
because it deals with the well-being of the society such as raising the salaries of the
workers that the State (unless they adhere to Command economy practiced by
Communists) approved.
3. Business is individualism – this centers on the happiness of the consumer while the first
two ideals are for the businessmen and the workers respectively. In this concept, the
businessmen will give quality goods and services at affordable prices devoid of profit
but merely public service.
4. Business is aggregation – by aggregation this means the rightness or wrongness of an
action is dependent in only on the average values of all the individual, egalitarian in the
real sense of the word. It simply means that happiness should be shared by all sectors of
business – the businessmen, workers, buyers and society.

References and Supplementary Materials

Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. Act and Rule Utilitarianism; https://www.iep.utm.edu/util-a-r/;
2. Utilitarianism; http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part2/sect9.html; 2002
3. Positive and Negative Utilitarianism;
https://procrastinatoryponderings.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/positive-and-
negative-utilitarianism-two-absurd-versions-of-consequentialism/; March 28, 2013
 Ethics
3
The Philosophy of Utilitarianism

4. Applying Utilitarianism in Business;

https://www.academicwritersbureau.com/samples/219-applying-utilitarianism-in-
business; December 1, 2016

Written by:
Christopher S. Espiritu
AMA Caloocan Campus

Course Module