Transcript Document 7121010

Moral Theories: Utilitarianism
Consequentialism
Right or wrong depends on
result or consequence of an
action.
Good result—right
Bad consequence—wrong
Consequentialism
Egoism

Altruism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Classical utilitarianism
Hedonism = Pleasure-ism
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
John Stuart Mill (1806-73)
Utilitarianism
We seek happiness and avoid pain.
Happiness or pleasure is the only
good in itself;
Pain or unhappiness is intrinsically
bad or evil.
Utility
“By utility is meant…benefit,
advantage, pleasure, good, or
happiness or to prevent the
happening of pain, evil or
unhappiness to the party whose
interest is considered: if that party
be the community in general, then
the happiness of the community; if
a particular individual, then the
happiness of that individual.”
“Nature has placed mankind
under the governance of two
sovereign masters, pain and
pleasure. It is for them alone
to point out what we ought
to do,…the standard of right
and wrong.”
Principle of utility
Always act to produce
greatest happiness for
the greatest number of
people.
Bentham’s utility-calculus
Seven attributes that help
to calculate pleasure or
pain:
Intensity: magnitude of
the experience;
Bentham’s utility-calculus
Duration: how long the
experience lasts;
Certainty: probability it
will actually happen;
Bentham’s utility-calculus
Propinquity: how close the
experience is in space and
time;
Fecundity: its ability to
produce more experience of
the same kind;
Bentham’s utility-calculus
Purity: extent to which
pleasure is not diluted by
pain, or vice versa;
Extent: number of people
affected.
Simple utility-calculation
“Everyone counts as one, no one
counts as more than one.”
Each person’s happiness is equally
important;
no one’s happiness is to be
counted as more important than
anyone else’s.
Utilitarianism
(1) Consider the
various actions or
alternatives open
to you;
Utilitarianism
(2)Taking into account
all the persons affected,
calculate the pleasures
and pains involved;
Utilitarianism
(3) Choose
that
action which will
result in the
greatest balance of
pleasure over pain.
Cases
1. Should I give you a blow?
2. Picking a flower from
public garden for your
girl-friend?
Cases
3. Five dying young men
and a healthy young man
in hospital.
4. Is lying always wrong?
J.S. Mill
Consider quality as well as
quantity in the estimation of
pleasures.
Higher and lower pleasures
The superiority of mental over
bodily pleasures,
J. S. Mill
“Some kinds of pleasure are
more desirable and more
valuable than
others…utilitarian writers in
general have placed the
superiority of mental over
bodily pleasures.”
J. S. Mill
“It is better to be a
human being
dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied; better to be
Socrates dissatisfied
than a fool satisfied.”
Ideal utilitarianism
Not only happiness or
pleasure is intrinsically
good;
Love, knowledge, beauty,
friendship, etc.
Ideal utilitarianism
Rightness of an action
depends on maximizing
the amount of these
intrinsic goods.
Act-utilitarianism (AU)
1. Look at the consequence of
a particular action.
2. The principle of utility is
applied to individual action.
Act-utilitarianism (AU)
3. Total happiness > over
unhappiness—the action is
right;
Total unhappiness >
happiness—it is wrong.
Rule-utilitarianism (RU)
1. Look at the consequence of
a rule.
2. Principle of utility is applied
to a rule.
Rule-utilitarianism (RU)
3. If everyone following the rule
could produce good consequence,
then we should abide by that rule—
a right rule.
4. The rule is then applied to a
particular act.
RU
* Killing my rich uncle, right or wrong?
* Wrong, because it violates the moral rule
against killing.
* We should follow the moral rule against
killing because everyone following the rule
could produce greatest happiness for the
greatest number of people.
How AU and RU judge these cases:
1. Should I give you a blow?
2. Picking a flower from public
garden for your girl-friend?
3. Five dying young men and a
healthy young man in hospital.
How AU and RU judge?
• Mary is considering whether to
keep or break her promise to go out
with David. She believes that if she
breaks the promise in order to do
something else with some other
friends, David will be unhappy, but
Mary and the other friends will be
happier.
Criticisms against U-ism
1. Difficult to
calculate or
measure a person’s
happiness or pain.
Criticisms against U-ism
2. Utilitarian judgments
are often in
contradiction with our
moral intuition or
common-sense
morality.
Criticisms against U-ism
3. Utility is often
in conflict with
justice.
Criticisms against U-ism
4. The demand of
utility violates
an individual’s
rights.
Criticisms against U-ism
5. Forward-looking
morality, not
backward-looking,
inadequate.