UTILITARIANISM

ETHICS
UTILITARIANISM

• Is an ethical theory that argues that the goodness of pleasure

and the determination of right behavior is based on the
usefulness of the action’s consequences. This means that
pleasure is good and the goodness of the action is determined
by its usefulness.
MAKING ETHICAL JUDGMENTS IN
UTILITARIANISM

• Utilitarianism says that the Result or the Consequence of

an Act is the real measure of whether it is good or bad.
• This theory emphasizes Ends over Means.
• Theories, like this one, that emphasize the results or
consequences are called teleological or consequentialist.
BENTHAM’S FORMULATION OF
UTILITARIANISM

• Man is under two great masters, pain and

pleasure.
• The great good that we should seek is happiness.
(a hedonistic perspective)
• Those actions whose results increase happiness or
diminish pain are good. They have “utility.”
FOUR THESES OF UTILITARIANISM

• Consequentialism: The rightness of actions is determined solely

by their consequences.
• Hedonism: Utility is the degree to which an act produces
pleasure. Hedonism is the thesis that pleasure or happiness is
the good that we seek and that we should seek.
• Maximalism: A right action produces the greatest good
consequences and the least bad.
• Universalism: The consequences to be considered are those of
everyone affected, and everyone equally.
TWO FORMULATIONS OF UTILITARIAN
THEORY

• Greatest Happiness: We ought

• Principle of Utility: The best
to do that which produces the
action is that which produces
greatest happiness and least
the greatest happiness and/or
pain for the greatest number
reduces pain.
of people.
TWO TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

• Rule: An action is right if and

• Act: An Action is right if and
only if it produces the greatest
balance of pleasure over pain
for the greatest number.
(Jeremy Bentham)
only if it conforms to a set of
rules the general acceptance of
which would produce the
greatest balance of pleasure
over pain for the greatest
number. (John Stuart Mill)
APPLICATION OF UTILITARIAN THEORY
• A) You attempt to help an
elderly man across the street.
He gets across safely.
Conclusion: the Act was a good
act.
• B) You attempt to help an
elderly man across the street.
You stumble as you go, he is
knocked into the path of a car,
and is hurt.
• Conclusion: The Act was a bad
act.
APPLICATION OF UTILITARIAN THEORY
• If you can use eighty soldiers as
a decoy in war, and thereby
attack an enemy force and kill
several hundred enemy
soldiers, that is a morally good
choice even though the eighty
might be lost.
• If lying or stealing will actually
bring about more happiness
and/or reduce pain, Act
Utilitarianism says we should
lie and steal in those cases.
CRITICISMS OF BENTHAM’S THEORY

• Bentham’s theory could mean that if 10 people would be happy

watching a man being eaten by wild dogs, it would be a morally
good thing for the 10 men to kidnap someone (especially someone
whose death would not cause grief to many others) and throw the
man into a cage of wild, hungry dogs.
JOHN STUART MILL’S ADJUSTMENTS TO
UTILITARIANISM

• Mill argues that we must consider the quality of the happiness, not
merely the quantity.
• For example, some might find happiness with a pitcher of beer and
a pizza. Others may find happiness watching a fine Shakespearean
play. The quality of happiness is greater with the latter.
MILL’S QUALITY ARGUMENTS

• “It is better to be a human being

dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better
to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool
satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are
of a different opinion, it is because they
only know their own side of the
question. The other party to the
comparison knows both sides.”
MILL’S QUALITY ARGUMENTS

• “As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism

requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and
benevolent spectator. In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we
read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. ‘To do as you would
be done by,’ and ‘to love your neighbor as yourself,’ constitute the
ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.”
CRITICISMS OF UTILITARIANISM

• If I am to bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number, not

putting my own happiness above others, that may lead to a
dilemma. I live in a neighborhood where 83% of my neighbors use
drugs. I could make them most happy by helping supply them with
cheap drugs, but I feel uncomfortable doing that. What should a
utilitarian do?
CRITICISMS OF UTILITARIANISM

• Bernard Williams criticizes the implied “doctrine of negative

responsibility” in Utilitarianism. For example, a thug breaks into my
home and holds six people hostage, telling us he will kill all of us.
“However,” the thug says, “if you will kill two of your family, I will
let you and the other three live.”
• With Utilitarianism, the good thing to do is to kill two members of
my family.
THANK YOU!!!