OBJECTIVES:

• To define utilitarianism.
• To identify the four elements of utilitarianism.
• To understand how utilitarianism works.
• To identify two types of utilitarianism, and discuss briefly how
they are different from one another in the way they are used by
the society.
• To discuss cases in which the principle of utilitarianism were used.
 UTILITARIANISM
Presented by: CHRISTOPHER JAN A. DE PANAY
Course-Year: MBA-1
References:

• BOOK
• (1) BUSINESS ETHICS – Ethical Decision Making and Cases 8 th Edition
AUTHORS: O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, Linda Ferrel
• ONLINE REFERENCE:
• (2) Introduction to Utilitarianism
• https://www.utilitarianism.net/
• CASES:
• (3) The Moral Obligation To Get Vaccinated (INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL SETTING)
AUTHOR: Sam Ben-Meir, December 29, 2021
• (4) An Analysis of President Duterte’s Rhetoric Using Mill’s Harm Principle (NATIONAL/ PHILIPPINES
SETTING)
AUTHOR: Lorlaine R. Dacanay, July 2019
• Failed Installation of Distribution Substation inside Koronadal City (LOCAL SETTING)
“The utilitarian seeks the
greatest good for the
greatest number of
people.”
WHAT CAN YOU OBSERVE IN THIS IMAGE?
• The image shows a woman who is
isolated from the group.
WHY?
Is she sick? or,
Did she do anything bad?
• “The utilitarian doctrine is, that
happiness is desirable, and the only thing
desirable, as an end; all other things
being only desirable as means to that
end.”
- John Stuart Mill
• Mill, J. S. (1863). Utilitarianism
WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM? (1)

• The goal of utilitarianism is to maximize

total utility, or to achieve the greatest good
for the largest number of individuals.
Utilitarians frequently do a cost-benefit
analysis when making ethical decisions,
taking into account the costs and
advantages to all parties involved.
FOUR ELEMENTS OF UTILITARIANISM (2)

• Consequentialism is the view that one morally ought to promote just

good outcomes.
• Welfarism is the view that only the welfare (also called well-being) of
individuals determines the value of an outcome.
• Impartiality is the view that the identity of individuals is irrelevant to
the value of an outcome. Utilitarians hold, more specifically, that
equal weight must be given to the interests of all individuals.
• Aggregationism is the view that the value of the world is the sum of
the values of its parts, where these parts are local phenomena such as
experiences, lives, or societies.
TWO (2) TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

• RULE UTILITARIANISM

• ACT UTILITARIANISM
Rule Utilitarianism

• RULE UTILITARIANS determine

behaviour on the basis of rules
designed to promote the greatest
utility rather than by examining
particular situations.
Act Utilitarianism

• ACT UTILITARIANS examine the

action itself, rather than the rules
governing the action, to
determine whether it will result in
the greatest utility.
EXAMPLES OF UTILITARIANISM

• Animal research by cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies.

• Comparison of whether to disclose that there is a product defect
or not. (Sam Colt, bolt salesperson)
Animal Research

• In evaluating an action’s consequences, some utilitarians consider the

effects on animals as well as on human beings. This perspective is especially
significant in the controversy surrounding the use of animals for research
purposes by cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies. Animal rights groups
have protested that such testing is unethical because it harms and even kills
the animals, depriving them of their rights. Researchers for pharmaceutical
and cosmetics manufacturers, however, defend animal testing on utilitarian
grounds. The consequences of the research (such as new or improved drugs
to treat disease, or safer cosmetics) create more benefit for society, they
argue, than would be achieved by halting the research and preserving the
animals’ rights. Nonetheless, many cosmetics firms have responded to the
controversy by agreeing to stop animal research.
Bolt Defect

• Building the bridge would improve roadways and allow more people to
cross the Mississippi River to reach jobs in St. Louis. The project would
create hundreds of jobs, enhance the local economy, and unite
communities on both sides of the river. Additionally, it would increase
the revenues of Midwest Hardware, allowing the firm to invest more in
research to lower the defect rate of bolts it produced in the future.
• A bridge collapse could kill or injure as many as 100 people. But the
bolts have only a 3 percent defect rate, there is only a 50 percent
probability of an earthquake somewhere along the fault line, and there
might be only a few cars on the bridge at the time of a disaster.
Conclusion:

• After analyzing the costs and benefits of the situation, Sam might
rationalize that building the bridge with his company’s bolts would
create more utility (jobs, unity, economic growth, and company
growth) than would result from telling the bridge contractor that
the bolts might fail in an earthquake. If so, a utilitarian would
probably not alert the bridge contractor to the defect rate of the
bolts
UTILITARIANISM IN ORGANIZATIONS

• GLOBAL SETTING
• Herd Immunity Concept in Global Vaccination Against COVID-19 Virus

• PHILIPPINES SETTING
• An Analysis of President Duterte’s Rhetoric Using Mill’s Harm Principle

• LOCAL SETTING
• Failed Installation of Distribution Substation inside Koronadal City
HERD IMMUNITY CONCEPT IN VACCINATION
(3)

• The utilitarian argument for the moral requirement to get

immunized is quite simple. According to utilitarianism, we should
act in a way that benefits the largest number of people. Since
herd immunity benefits the maximum number of people, it is a
morally noble aim. As a result, people have a moral imperative to
participate in the development of herd immunity by receiving
vaccinations.
Sam Ben-Meir, December 29, 2021
An Analysis of President Duterte’s Rhetoric Using Mill’s
Harm Principle, Lorlaine R. Dacanay, July 2019 (4)

• The investigation demonstrates that it is possible to

analyze President Duterte’s rhetorical substance in his
orders and statements using the harm principle. The
focus of the contents is mostly on imposing punishment
that is commensurate with preservation of social justice.
He varies on the side of act utilitarianism or rule
utilitarianism. Getting the desired social justice the
Utilitarian concept is upheld by discourse. A leader's
words typically result in actions that advance the public
wellbeing as a whole.
• The concept of harm in John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarian philosophy refers to the
layman’s term punishment. Legally speaking, punishment has been used
maintain the orderliness of the society. Simply put, it brings social justice as it
punishes the wrongdoer to appease the grief of the one who has been wronged
(Free Encyclopedia, 2018). Utilitarians believe that imposing punishment to an
offender has consequences to the offender and the society with which he has
wronged. But, the punishment should produce more “good” than “evil” to be
consistent with the greatest happiness. Eliminating harm to maximize
happiness is the premise of utilitarianism. The second concept is deterrence.
Punishment is served to deter future criminal acts. If an offender is punished,
it serves as an example for the others not to follow the criminal act as they
are sure to be punished as well. Incapacitation of a wrongdoer by putting him
in jail deters him from doing the same mistake again. The third concept is
rehabilitation. It is like the salvation of the criminals by providing them an
environment that brings about their renewal. Livelihood projects, educational
programs and counseling are provided for them to be competent again when
they are out in the real world (Dacanay, 2019).
SOCOTECO-I CASE

• To install a distribution substation inside the main part of the city of Koronadal
to minimize the system loss that comes out of power outages due to overloading
of the Morales substation. This would lessen the transmission losses incurred by
the electric cooperative which would bring about greater utility (easier
distribution of circuits, provide people with proper voltage output that would
result in lesser brownout)
• To not install a distribution substation because of the threat of radiation coming
from the machines. The radiation is tolerable and lower than that of cellular
phones.
• A utilitarian would decide that constructing a distribution substation in the city
of Koronadal would be ethical for it brings about greater benefit to the main
stakeholders of the electric cooperative.
 Thank you for you
participation!

This is the end of my report.