Saint Mary’s University

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION & HUMANITIES

Department 0f Social Sciences and Philosophy

CHAPTER 2: UTILITARIANISM (Immanuel Kant 1748-1832)

• The Principle of Utility
• Principle of the Greatest Number
• Justice and Moral Rights

At end of the lesson the students should be able to:

• Discuss the basic principles of utilitarian ethics;
• Distinguish between two utilitarian models: the quantitative model of Jeremy Bentham
and the qualitative model of John Stuart Mill; and
• Apply utilitarianism in understanding and evaluating local and international scenarios.

INTRODUCTION
• January 25, 2015, the 84th Special Action Force (SAF) conducted a police operation
at Tukanalipao, Mamasapano in Maguindanao. The“Oplan Exodus” was intended to
serve an arrest warrant for Zulkifi bin Hir or Marwan, a Malaysian terrorist and bomb-
maker who had a $5 million bounty on his head.

• Although the police operation was “successful” because of the death of Marwan, the
firefight that ensued claimed 67 lives – 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers, 18
Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters, and five civilians.

• A Congress investigations based on this tragic mission, then Senate President

Franklin Drilon and Senator Francis Escudero debated the public hearing of an audio
recording of an alleged conversation that attempted to cover up the massacre of the
PNP-SAF commandos. Drilon questioned the admissibility of these recordings as
evidence under the Anti-Wire Tapping Law whereas Escudero cited the legal brief of
the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) arguing that the Anti-Wire Tapping Law
protects only the recording and interception of private communications.

Jeremy Bentham
• Born: 15 February 1748, Houndsditch, City of London, United Kingdom
• Died: 6 June 1832, Westminster, United Kingdom
• Notable ideas: Greatest happiness principle
• Main interests: Political philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics, economics
• Influenced by: John Locke, Cesare Beccaria, Thomas Hobbes
• Education: University of Oxford, The Queen's College, Oxford, Westminster School

He is an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer and regarded as the founder of
modern utilitarianism.
• Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy, the principle that "it
is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right
and wrong".

• Bentham wrote first the greatest principle of ethics and was known for a system of
penal management (panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of
control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in
the 18th century. It is described as circular prison with cells arranged around a
central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed.)

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 • Advocacies: economic freedom, women’s rights and the separation of church and
state, animal rights and abolition of slavery, death penalty and corporal punishment
for children.

Bentham denied individual legal rights nor agreed with the natural law. And on his death, he
donated his corpse to the University College London on June 6, 1832 where his auto-icon
is in public display up to this day to serve as his memorial.

UTILITARIANISM: An Introduction

Utilitarianism, as a normative theory suggests that we can decide what is morally right or
morally wrong by weighing up which future possible actions promotes such goodness in our
lives and the lives of people more in general.

Hedonism is a theory of well-being of how well a life is going for the person living that life.
What separates Hedonism from other theories of well-being is, the hedonist believes that
what defines a successful life is directly related to the amount of pleasure in life; no other
factors are relevant at all. Thus, the more pleasure a person experiences in life, the better
life goes, and vice versa. Whereas other theories might focus on fulfilling desires people
have, or an objective list of things such as friendship and health.
The roots of Hedonism can be traced back as far as Epicurus (341–270 BC) and Ancient
Greece. Epicurus held the hedonistic view that the primary intrinsic good for a person is
pleasure; meaning pleasure is always good for a person in and of itself, irrespective of the
cause or context of the pleasure. Based on this theory, pleasure is always intrinsically good
for a person and less pleasure is always intrinsically bad.
The roots of Hedonism can be traced back as far as Epicurus (341–270 BC) and Ancient
Greece. Epicurus held the hedonistic view that the primary intrinsic good for a person is
pleasure; meaning pleasure is always good for a person in and of itself, irrespective of the
cause or context of the pleasure. Based on this theory, pleasure is always intrinsically good
for a person and less pleasure is always intrinsically bad.
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
• For Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the principle of utility is about our subjection to
these sovereign masters: pleasure and pain. The principle refers to the motivation of
our actions as guided by our avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure. The
principle also refers to pleasure as good if, and only if, they produce more happiness
than unhappiness.
John Stuart Mill
• Born: 20 May 1806, Pentonville, London, United Kingdom
• Died: 8 May 1873, Avignon, France
• Education: Home-schooled (UCL)
• Spouse: Harriet Taylor Mill (m. 1851–1858)
• Main interests: Political philosophy, ethics, economics, inductive logic
• Influenced by: Jeremy Bentham, Aristotle, Adam Smith, John Locke

John Stuart Mill, usually cited as J. S. Mill, was a British philosopher, political economist,
and civil servant. He is one of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism. He
contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy.

THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIANISM

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.
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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.
QUESTIONS:
• 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. He argued
that 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 all human’s life.
Because of the premium given to the consequences of actions, Mill pushes for the moral
irrelevance of motive in evaluating actions:
• He who saves a fellow creature from drowning does what is morally right, whether
his motive be duty or the hope of being paid for his trouble; he who betrays the friend
that trusts him, is guilty of a crime, even if his object be to serve another friend to
whom he is under greater obligations.
• But to speak only of actions done from the motive of duty, and in direct obedience to
principle: it is a misapprehension of the utilitarian mode of thought, to conceive it as
implying that people should fix their minds upon so wide a generality as the world, or
society at large.
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.
LESSON SUMMARY
• Bentham and Mill see moral good as pleasure, not merely self-gratification, but also
the greatest happiness principle or the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
In determining the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, there is no
distinction between Bentham and Mill.
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 • Mill provides an adequate discourse on rights despite it being mistakenly argued to
be the weakness of utilitarianism. However, he also claims that in extreme
circumstances, respect for individual rights can be overridden to promote the better
welfare especially in circumstances of conflict valuation.
References:
1. Bulaong, O., Calano, M.J., Lagliva, A., Mariano, M.N., and Principe, J. D. (2018).
ETHICS: Foundations of Moral Valuation. Manila: Rex Book Store Inc.

2. Dimmok, M. and Fisher, A. (2017). Ethics for A Level. Open Book Publisher
Retrieved from https://books.openedition.org/obp/4416