UTILITARIANISM

Jim is on a botanical expedition in South America when he happens upon a group of 20 indigenous
people, and a group of soldiers. The whole group of indigenous people is about to be executed for
protesting their oppressive regime. For some reason, the leader of the soldiers offers Jim the chance to
shoot one of the prisoners, since he’s a guest in their land. He says that if Jim shoots one of the
prisoners, he’ll let the other 19 go. But if Jim refuses, then the soldiers will shoot all 20 protesters. What
should Jim do? What would you do?

That is an example of a case critique of Utilitarianism presented by Bernard Williams, a 20 th century

British philosopher.

What is Utilitarianism? It is a moral theory that focuses on the results, or consequences, of one’s actions
completely disregarding the intentions. This moral theory is generally held to be the view of that the
morally right action is the action that produces the most good. Often, most people say that
Utilitarianism is hedonistic moral theory, meaning that good equals to pleasure which is something all
people want and that we tend to avoid pain. Do take note that Utilitarianism is other-regarding and NOT
self-regard, meaning focuses on other people than yourself. Essentially, that is the principle of utility. It
is also said that Utilitarianism suggest that we make our moral decisions from the position of a
benevolent, disinterested spectator. Utilitarianism perfectly falls into a school of thought called
Kantianism, which was named after Immanuel Kant. Kantianism is all about sticking to the moral rule
book without any excuses.

HISTORY OF UTILITARIANISM

This theory was already a thought during ancient times. This has been thought of by ancient Greek
philosopher like Epicurus. Modern Utilitarianism was developed by British philosophers Jeremy Bentham
and John Stuart Mill during the 18 th century. The idea of utilitarianism between the three are the same
and they agree that actions should be measured in terms of the happiness, or pleasure, that they
produce. They said that because happiness is what everyone aims for, and it is why we do things. But
basically, for Utilitarianism, good is good and bad is bad, regardless of intentions and everything in
between.

Bentham and Mill used utilitarianism because of their concerns for social and legal reforms. They
developed this theory in order to point out what is wrong within the society.  The conviction that, for
example, some laws are bad resulted in analysis of why they were bad. And, for Jeremy Bentham, what
made them bad was their lack of utility, their tendency to lead to unhappiness and misery without any
compensating happiness. If a law or an action doesn't do any good, then it isn't any good.

TWO TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

There are two types of Utilitarianism, act and rule utilitarianism.

Act Utilitarianism

Act Utilitarianism, otherwise known as Classical Utilitarianism. This was the kind of Utilitarianism that
Bentham and Mill initially proposed. It states that in any given situation, you should choose the action
that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. Period.

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people
tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. Adam are standing some distance
off in the train yard, next to a lever. If he pulls this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of
tracks. However, he notices that there is one person on the side track. He has two options:

1. Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track.
2. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.

Rule Utilitarianism

Rule Utilitarianism states that we need to live by rules that, in general, are likely to lead to the greatest
good for the greatest number. This argues that we need to need to think of the long term and not the
short term. This allows us to refrain from acts that might maximize utility in the short run, and instead
follow rules that will maximize utility for the majority of the time.

REFERENCES:

 Driver. J (2014, September 22). History of Utilirianism.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/
 Nashton, S (N.D.). Act and Rule Utilirianism. https://iep.utm.edu/util-a-r/
 Crash Course (2016, November 22). Utilitarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #36.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a739VjqdSI