LESSON 3: UTILITARIANISM
He had continued to write up
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF UTILITARIAN MORAL
PHILOSOPHY
EPICUREANISM –The Epicureans: to attains the highest
possible sensory enjoyment
The highest good is pleasure, the greatest evil is pain.
So he wished to develop a way of life whose aim was to avoid
pain in all forms.
Society was not a natural phenomenon, but rather a
deliberate vernation aimed at bringing order out of chaos.
Pleasure was augmented by the presence of law, provision
for punishment and preservation of order.
FOLLOWED THE BELIEFS OF BRITISH EMPIRICISTS
Thomas Hobbes: the people’s selfish concern for their own
pleasure
David Hume: that people would never be able to know moral
laws , because of the people’s capacity for sympathy a
capacity that all people share. It means pleasure of others
John Locke: it is suitable for people to produce pleasure as
what is to be considered that is good and consequently the
desire to produce pain to be considered as evil
AS AN ETHICAL DOCTRINE
The rightness or wrongness of actions is determined by the
goodness and badness of the consequences (Timbreza, 28)
Consider good as coming from the dictates of reason or from
following the human nature
Focus on the ethical doctrine on the measurement of the
principle of utility by considering the amount of pleasure and
the amount of pain in a particular action
JEREMY BENTHAM
PLEASURE -PAIN CALCULUS (THE GREATEST HAPPINESS
PLEASURE)
LIFE OF J. BENTHAM
He was born in London I 1978. Began studying history and
Latin at the age 3, at 12 he entered the Queen’s College in
Oxford and earned his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in 3years,
age of 17 he graduated and finished his MA. He died on 6
June 1832 aged 84 at his residence in Queen Square Place in
Westminster, London, England.
to a month before his death, and had made careful
preparations for the dissection of his body after death and its
preservation as an auto-icon. He donated his body at
University College of London
PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
Famous book’ Ethics: the introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation,1789)
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two
sovereign masters. PAIN and PLEASURE”
The greatest happiness for the greatest number of people
Follow the “Greatest Happiness Principle” choose that action
that leads to the greatest happiness for the greatest number
of people
It is designed to free people from oppressive laws and to
make governing bodies moral
Designed to provide a foundation to many democratic
societies (rejection of monarchies and churches)
JOHN STUART MILL
THE BENEVOLENT SPECTATOR AND PLEASURE - PAIN
CALCULUS
LIFE OF J.S MILL
He was born in 1806. By the age of 3 he began to study
Greek, by 8 he had read major works of Plato and study Latin
and Algebra at 12 he had read Aristotle’s Logic. But in the age
of 20 he experienced emotional burnout. He died at the of 67
in 1873
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIANISM
Only one moral principle –the principle of UTILITY: the actions
are good insofar as they tend to promote happiness, bad as
they then to produce unhappiness.
- that pleasure as the sole element in human good and that
regards the morality of actions are entirely dependent on
consequences or results of human well being.
- The main concern of the utilitarian is the consequences,
effects, results and outcomes.
- They discarded religious traditions and social conventions
- Some pains may possibly result from the action we take,
but what matters is the greatest possible balance of
happiness over unhappiness for all individuals affected.
BOTH BENTHAM AND MILL
They both agree to remove the strain of individualism and
subjectivism
They gave an alternative formulation of the principle of utility
which is the:
PRINCIPLE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER means an action is
good as insofar as it produces he greatest happiness for the
greatest number of people or wrong insofar as it produces
more harms that benefit for the greatest number of
individual
THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUITY- implied benefits or happiness for
the concerned.
in the alternative formulation: equal greatest number of
individuals
THE BENEVOLENT SPECTATOR AND THE PLEASURE-PAIN
CALCULUS
According to Utilitarian one’s action is to be considered moral
if more people will profit from such particular moral decision.
MILL described this point as the attitude of BENEVOLENT
SPECTATOR who kindly watches over serving or an active part
in the process.
BENTHAM suggested a PLEASURE-PAIN CALCULUS which help
us to gauge the consequences of our action
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
For Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the principle of utility is
about our subjection to these sovereign masters: pleasure
and pain.
On one hand, the principle refers to the motivation of our
actions as guided by our avoidance of pain and our desire for
pleasure.
On the other hand, the principle also refers to pleasure as
good if, and only if, they produce more happiness than
unhappiness.
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) supports Betham’s principle of
utility. He reiterates moral good as happiness and,
consequently, happiness as pleasure. Mill clarifies that what
makes people happy is intended pleasure and what makes us
unhappy is the privation of pleasure. The things that produce
happiness and pleasure are good; whereas, those that
produce unhappiness and pain are bad.
For Bentham and Mill, the pursuit for pleasure and the
avoidance of pain are not only important principles— they
are in fact the only principle in assessing an action’s morality.
Why is it justifiable to wiretap private conversations in
instances of treason, rebellion, espionage, and sedition? Why
is it preferable to alleviate poverty or eliminate criminality?
In determining the moral preferability of actions, Bentham
provides a framework for evaluating pleasure and pain
commonly called felicific calculus, a common currency
framework that calculates the pleasure that some actions can
produce.
Contrary to Bentham, Mill argues that quality is more
preferable than quantity. An excessive quantity of what is
otherwise pleasurable might result in pain. Whereas eating
the right amount of food can be pleasurable, excessive eating
may not be.
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE GREATEST NUMBER
Utilitarianism is not only about our individual pleasures,
regardless of how high, intellectual, or in other ways noble it
is, but it is also about the pleasure of the greatest number
affected by the consequences of our actions.
Utilitarianism is not dismissive of sacrifices that procure more
happiness for others.
Also, it implies that utilitarianism is not at all separate from
liberal social practices that aim to improve the quality of life
for all persons.
JUSTICE AND MORAL RIGHTS
Mill understands justice as a respect for rights directed
toward society’s pursuit of the greatest happiness for the
greatest number. For him, rights are a valid claim on society
and are justified by utility.
Utilitarians argue that issues of justice carry a very strong
emotional import because the category of rights is directly
associated with the individual’s most vital interests. All of
these rights are predicated on the person’s right to life. Mill
describes:
Mill creates a distinction between legal rights and their
justification. He points out that when legal rights are not
morally justified in accordance to the greatest happiness
principle, then these rights need neither be observed, nor be
respected. This is like saying that there are instances when
the law is not morally justified and, in this case, even
objectionable.

While it can be justified why others violate legal rights, it is an

act of injustice to violate an individual’s moral rights. Going
back to the case of wiretapping, it seems that one’s right to
privacy can be sacrificed for the sake of the common good.
This means that moral rights are only justifiable by
considerations of greater overall happiness.