Jeremy Bentham's Hedonistic Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham's Hedonistic Utilitarianism

1. Ultimate goal for Bentham

   • The goal of all actions is gaining pleasure
   • Avoiding pain
   • Idea of psychological hedonism

2. Psychological hedonsim

   • Individuals pursue pain and avoid pleasure
   • 'under the governance of two soverign masters, pleasure and pain'

3. Utility calculus

   • Moral value of an act can be calculated by considering the consequences.
     • Pleasure + pleasure (- Pain) = moral worth
       • Mugging example - Elderly woman is mugged, elderly woman is afflicted with lots of pain but the mugger gains pleasure. Arguably the womans pain outweighs the muggers pleasure so there is very little moral worth.
   • Utility calculus can be remembered with the acronym: PRRICED
     • Purity, richness, remoteness, intensity, certainty, extent, duration

4. Criticisms

   • Rule utilitarians argue that the theory is impractical
   • Long term consequences can't be known
   • Too time consuming to calculate moral worth
   • Leads to counter intuitive results
     • Organ harvesting example - if a doctor murders one person who could be saved, but donates all the organs to five people who are saved by the organs stolen from the person who was murdered, arguably there is more pleasure to the five people saved. Gives moral worth to that unlawful murder.