Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

1. Bentham

   • Utility
     • Based on result: Most useful end is the one which brings the most happiness and pleasure
     • Assessing which act is best: 'The greatest happiness principle
     • Not necessarily the most people just the most happines
     • Seen as the originator
     • Barrister
   • Sovereign good
     • Supreme ethical value
     • Motivated by pleasure and avoid pain
     • Earlier theory (opposite)..
       • HEDONISM
       • Only right is pleasure
   • Teleological?
     • One Underlying rule
     • 1 guiding principle
     • Principle of utility
   • The Hedonic calculus
     • Intensity (In)
       • How strong/instant pleasure
     • Duration (Durham)
       • How long it lasts
     • Certainty (city)
       • Sure of pleasure?
     • Extent (expect)
       • How widely it covers/spreads
     • Propinquity (propa')
       • Nearer the better
     • Fecundity (Fat)
       • chance of it repeating
     • Purity (Preists
       • Lesser the pain the better
     • Measured in Hedons
   • ACT!

2. Act Utilitarianism

   • Considers consequence
   • Relativistic
   • Takes situation into account
   • Decisions based on best consequence ( most happiness)
   • Associated with Bentham
   • Hedonic calculus applied in every situation no matter what
   • Seems to favour individual cases

3. John Stuart Mill's Rule Utilitarianism

   • Levels of pleasure
     • Bentham Wrong...
     • Pleasure is qualitative not quantitative
     • Otherwise it could justify gang rape
     • Mill more linked with writings from Aristotle on happiness (eudaimonia
     • Higher and Lower pleasures
       • Some pleasures more significant than others...Quality not quantity
       • Higher pleasures of the mind
         • Intellectual pleasures such as reading poetry
       • Lower pleasures physical
         • Eg: having a feast
         • serves to meet baisic body needs
       • Lower pleasures important but aim for higher pleasures
       • Quantity should be weighed against quality of pleasure
   • Universalisability/Harm principle
     • Mill was a civil servant and wanted social reform
     • He wanted to show right and wrong in one situation is for all
       • Why?
         • 1.We all want happiness
         • 2.Happiness only desirable as end as thing sonly desired because they bring happiness
         • 3.Everyone ought to increase happiness for all as overall happiness increase will increase my happiness
     • Bentham's too centred on individuals
       • Society made up of individuals that need to be collectively happy
         • Mill promoting more universal happiness
     • Harm principle idea that we want to avoid it
       • If everyone does so we are universally avoiding pain

4. Development of Rule Utilitarianism

   • Moral actions are those that conform to the rules that leads to the greatest good
   • Hedonic calculus not needed as well-worked rules of utilitarianism should show the right thing to do
   • Strong rule
     • action only right if it follows the rules
     • Universal nature of rules.... so should lead to greatest happiness
     • Rule utilitarians draw similarities between old and present circumstances
   • Weak rule
     • In great circumstances rules need to be broken
     • Eg: 'do not murder'
       • what if you could kill Hitler?
         • ?
   • Mill believed to be a hybrid of both

5. Quotes

   • "Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but a very dry thing to talk about" Bentham
   • "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure" Bentham
   • "The immorality of morality" Aurther Miller
   • "Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied" Mill

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