Session 5

Utilitarianism

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the

Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend
to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended
pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the
privation of pleasure.
- Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
What were those points again?
• Point #1: Utilitarianism is not just about the lower appetites –
remember the pig, the fool and Socrates
• Point # 2 – “Sana all”; but “I know, right”
• Point # 3 - Selfishness and lack of mental cultivation (cause
unhappiness, dissatisfaction)
• Point #4: Self-sacrifice and general happiness
• Point #5: In GHP motive is not essential (although motive is necessary
in other frameworks)
• Point #6: Utilitarianism is not Expediency (and most certainly not
Machiavellianism)
Utilitarianism

• Some ethicists emphasize that the ethical action is the one that
provides the most good or does the least harm, or, to put it another
way, maximizes benefits and lessens harm.
• The utilitarian approach deals with consequences; it tries both to
increase the good done and to reduce the possible harm.
Watchutink?
Larry Gadon appointed as Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1793488/controversial-lawyer-larry-gadon-appointed-as-presidential-adviser-for-
poverty-alleviation#ixzz85myB1cw9

According to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), Gadon will work

closely with government agencies and non-government organizations to address
the roots of poverty.
“President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has appointed lawyer Lorenzo ‘Larry’ G. Gadon
as Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation. His appointment reflects the
government’s commitment to address one of the most pressing challenges faced by
our nation,” said the PCO in a statement.
Alvin the Evaluator
by Blue Festin

Alvin is a supervisor in a tertiary hospital. He is in charge of one of the

departments and has the task of rating his subordinates annually based on a
performance rating tool provided by the company. He tries his best to rate
fairly and consistently under the standards supplied by the HR Department.
Each employee is given a rating anywhere from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the
highest). The ratings carry much weight on the performance bonus awarded
at the end of each year. Needless to say, people are rarely happy with their
ratings, except for those who get a 9 or 10. Alvin, on the other hand, gets
exasperated and irritated at the criticism. This year, instead of going through
the exercise, and to spare himself the trouble, Alvin will just give everyone a
uniform rating of 8.0 out of 10, regardless of actual performance.
Is he correct in thinking this way? What points and matters from our
discussion on Utilitarianism will help your group evaluate Alvin the
Evaluator’s plan?
 How does one know what
produces the best and the most?
Or in the case of harms, the least and the fewest?
 Is the popularity
of social media
apps net-negative
or net-positive?

What about the

rise of AI?
 Notes to consider: Who does the calculating?
How are “goods” and “harms” expressed?

• Typically, the count differs depending on who does the

counting.
• This could lead to serious deficiencies in the analysis.
How far away into the future should we
evaluate the effect of consequences?
 What about unintended
consequences?
Watch this video first
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/wolves-yellowstone/
Unintended consequences?
Here’s another example.
So how did Roe v. Wade help trigger, a generation later, the greatest
crime drop in recorded history?
As far as crime is concerned, it turns out that not all children are born
equal. Not even close. Decades of studies have shown that a child born
into an adverse family environment is far more likely than other
children to become a criminal. And the millions of women most likely to
have an abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade -- poor, unmarried, and
teenage mothers for whom illegal abortions had been too risky and too
expensive -- were often models of adversity. They were the very women
whose children, if born, would have been much more likely than
average to become criminals. But because of Roe v. Wade, these
children weren't being born. This powerful cause would have a drastic,
distant effect: years later, just as these unborn children would have
entered their criminal primes, the rate of crime began to plummet.

It wasn't gun control or a strong economy or new police strategies that

finally blunted the American crime wave. It was, among other factors,
the reality that the pool of potential criminals had dramatically shrunk.
Systems Thinking
At a time when the world is more messy, more crowded, more
interconnected, more interdependent, and more rapidly changing than ever
before, the more ways of seeing, the better. The systems-thinking lens allows
us to reclaim our intuition about whole systems and
• hone our abilities to understand parts,
• see interconnections,
• ask “what-if ” questions about possible future behaviors, and
• be creative and courageous about system redesign.
Then we can use our insights to make a difference in ourselves and our world.
From: Thinking in Systems
-Dionella Meadows
 Given all this,
where did Ford
go wrong with
the Pinto?
By User Morven on en.wikipedia - Photo by Morven at the So Cal
Galaxies All-Ford Show in Anaheim, California on June 13, 2004., CC
BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1266694
Risk Management
Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks (defined
in ISO 31000 as the effect of uncertainty on objectives, whether positive or negative)
followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize,
monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to
maximize the realization of opportunities. Risks can come from uncertainty in financial
markets, project failures (at any phase in design, development, production, or
sustainment life-cycles), legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and
disasters as well as deliberate attack from an adversary, or events of uncertain or
unpredictable root-cause. Several risk management standards have been developed
including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards. Methods, definitions and goals vary
widely according to whether the risk management method is in the context of project
management, security, engineering, industrial processes, financial portfolios, actuarial
assessments, or public health and safety.
Risk Management
• Define the relevant risks in the “risk universe”;
• Determine the: 1. probability and 2. severity;
• Identify strategies to manage the risk
• The strategies to manage risk typically include transferring
the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the
negative effect or probability of the risk, or even accepting
some or all of the potential or actual consequences of a
particular risk.
What are our insights about the
connections between
leadership and utilitarianism?
 Utilitarianism – Implications for Ethical Leaders
• Examine consequences and options not
just for the short term.
• Examine options and consequences to
discover hidden costs and benefits.
• Understand that general policies always
have an impact on specific individuals.

• Do not express growth (and losses)

solely in monetary terms.
• Widen your sphere of analysis.
• Good information is critical.
Sometimes when I consider what tremendous
consequences come from little things, I am
tempted to think there are no little things.
- Bruce Barton, American author, advertising executive, and Republican politician