THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM The Principle of Utility
Utilitarianism
- Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that argues for the
goodness of pleasure and the determination of right
behavior based on the usefulness of the action’s
consequences. This means that pleasure is good, and
that the goodness of action is determined by its
usefulness.
- Putting these ideas together, utilitarianism claims that
one’s actions and behavior are good in as much as they
are directed toward the experience of which refers to
the usefulness of the consequences of one’s action and
behavior. When we argue that the drug war program of
the present government is permissible because doing
so results in better public safety, then we are arguing in
a utilitarian way. It is utilitarian because we argue that
some individual rights can be sacrificed for the sake of
the greater happiness of the many.
• Their system of ethics emphasizes the consequences of
actions.
- This means that the goodness or the badness of an
action is based on whether it is useful in contributing
to a specific purpose for the greatest number of
people.
• Utilitarianism is consequentialist.
- This means that the moral value of actions and
decisions is based solely or greatly on the usefulness
of their consequences; it is the usefulness of results
that determines whether the action or behavior is
good or bad.
• The utilitarian value pleasure and happiness.
- This means that the usefulness of actions is based on
its promotion of happiness as the experience of
pleasure for the greatest number of persons, even at
the expense of some individual rights.
• Jeremy Bentham Utilitarianism
- Born on February 15,1748 in London, England.
- Died on June 6, 1832.
- He was the teacher of James Mill, father of John Stuart
Mill.
- Bentham first wrote about the greatest happiness
principle of ethics and was known for a system of penal
management called panopticon.
- Intellectual inheritor of David Hume
- Recognized as ‘Act Utilitarian’
- Right actions result in ‘good or pleasure,’ wrong actions
result in pain or absence of pleasure.
* The Principle of Utility
* Law and Social Hedonism
* Felicific Calculus
BIAGTAN, KRISTINE JOY A. || MEDTECH 2-Y1-11
- In the book An Introduction to the Principles of Morals
and Legislation (1789), Jeremy Bentham begins by
arguing that our actions are governed by two
“sovereign masters” --which he calls pleasure and pain.
These “masters” are given to us by nature to help us
determine what is good or bad and what ought to be
done and not; they fasten our choices to their throne.
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. It is like saying that in our everyday
actions, we do what is pleasure as good if, and only if,
they produce more happiness than unhappiness. This
means that it is not enough to experience pleasure, but
to also inquire whether the things we do make us
happier. Having identified the tendency for pleasure
and the avoidance of pain as the principle of utility,
Bentham equates happiness with pleasure.
Actions that lead to pleasure are right, ones that produce
pain are wrong.
Law and Social Hedonism
• Law
- Government should not pass laws that protect
tradition, customs or rights.
- Government should base all laws on the happiness
principle.
* The greatest happiness for the greatest number.
- Bentham’s theory is both empirical (how much pain
or pleasure is caused by the act or policy) and
democratic (each individual’s happiness is as
important as another’s)
• Social Hedonism
* Ethics as Greatest Happiness
- Moral worth judged by presumed effect
- Action guided by pleasure/pain
Felicific Calculus
- common currency framework that calculates the
pleasure that some actions can produce.
In this framework, an action can be evaluated on the basis
of intensity or strength of pleasure;
* Duration or length of the experience of pleasure.
* Certainty, uncertainty, or the likelihood that
pleasure will occur; and
 * Propinquity, remoteness, or how soon there will be
pleasure.
These indicators allow us to measure and pain in actions, we
need to consider THREE MORE DIMENSIONS:
* Fecundity or the chance it has of being followed by
sensations of the same kind
* Purity or the chance it has of not being followed by
sensations of the opposite kind.
* Lastly, when considering the number of persons who
are affected by pleasure or pain, another dimension
is to be considered --extent.
Felicific calculus allows the evaluation of all actions and their
resultant pleasure. This means that actions are evaluated on
this single scale regardless of preferences and values. In this
sense, pleasure and pain can only quantitatively differ but
not qualitatively differ from other experiences of pleasure
and pain accordingly.
• John Stuart Mill
- Was born on May 20, 1806 in Pentonville, London,
United Kingdom.
- Died on May 8, 1873 in Avignon, France from
Erysipelas.
- He studied Greek at the age of three and Latin at the
age of eight. He wrote a history of Roman Law age
eleven. He was married to Harriet Taylor after 21 years
of friendship.
- His ethical theory and his defense of utilitarian views
are found in his long essay entitled Utilitarianism
(1861).
• A more sophisticated form of Utilitarianism.
• Concerned with quality of pleasure and quantity of
people who enjoy it.
• Recognized higher and lower types of human pleasure.
* Principle of Greatest Number
* Justice and Moral Rights
- Mill dissents from Bentham’s single scale of pleasure.
He thinks that the principle of utility must distinguish
pleasures qualitatively and not merely quantitatively.
- For Mill, utilitarianism cannot promote the kind of
pleasures appropriate to pigs or to any other animals.
He thinks that there are higher intellectual and lower
base pleasures.
• Lower pleasures: eating, drinking, sexuality, etc.
• Higher pleasures: intellectuality, creativity and
spirituality
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool
satisfied.”
BIAGTAN, KRISTINE JOY A. || MEDTECH 2-Y1-11
Principle of Greatest Number
- Utilitarianism cannot lead to selfish acts. It is neither
about our pleasure nor happiness alone; it cannot be
all about us. If we are the only ones satisfied by our
actions, it does not constitute a moral good. In this
sense, utilitarianism is not dismissive of sacrifices that
procure more happiness for others.
- Utilitarianism is interested with the best consequence
for the highest number of people. It is not interested
with the intention of the agent. Moral value cannot
discernible in the intention or motivation of the
person doing the act; it is based solely and exclusively
on the difference it makes on the world’s total amount
of pleasure and pain.
Utilitarianism is interested with everyone’s happiness, in
fact, the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Justice and Moral Rights
- When we call anything a person’s right, we mean that
he has a valid claim on society to protect him in the
possession of it, either by the force of law, or by that
education and opinion. If he has what we consider a
sufficient claim, on whatever account, to have
something guaranteed to him by society, we say that
he has a right to it.
- The right to due process, the right to free speech or
religion, and others are justified because they
contribute to the general good. This means that
society is made happier if its citizens are able to live
their lives knowing that their interest are protected
and that society (as a whole) defends it.
- A right is justifiable on utilitarian principles in as much
as they produce an overall happiness that is greater
than the unhappiness resulting from their
implementation.
- 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.
In short, Mill’s moral rights and considerations of justice
are not absolute, but are only justified by their
consequences to promote the greatest good of the
greatest number.
 BETHAMITE
Democratic Utilitarianism
- No one pleasure is -
inherently better than any
other - If you party and get drunk
- If drunken parties make
you happy, then go for it!
- Reading poetry isn’t
better than watching The -
Bachelor, it’s just
different.
MILLSIAN
Elite Utilitarianism
Some pleasures are better
than others
every day, then you won’t be
as happy as you otherwise
might be.
Enjoying poetry is better than
watching bad TV. And if you
disagree, it is because you
don’t understand quality.

“Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all
the misery you are able to remove.” - Jeremy Bentham

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully

exercised over any member of a civilized community, against
his will, is to prevent harm to others." - John Stuart Mill

BIAGTAN, KRISTINE JOY A. || MEDTECH 2-Y1-11