Utilitarianism

Question 1

Classical Utilitarians

Answer 1

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Question 2

Ethical theories

Answer 2

Ethical theories attempt to articulate and justify principles that can be employed as guides for making moral decisions and as standards for the evaluation of actions and policies

Defines duties and obligations
Explanations and justifications of actions

Question 3

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) 
John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873)

Answer 3

They did not produce identical theory but, both their versions have come to be spoken of as “classical utilitarianism”

Question 4

Utilitarian Principles

Answer 4

Principle of Utility: “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”

Greatest happiness principle: “ Those actions are right that produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.”

Question 5

But how to define happiness?

Answer 5

Bentham
-pleasure of any kind

Mill

• certain pleasures are higher than others
• intellectual vs physical

Question 6

Pluralistic Conception

Answer 6

More recent formulations of utilitarianism have rejected the notion that happiness, no matter how defined, is the sole intrinsic good that actions or policies must promote

Knowledge, beauty, love, friendship, liberty, and health.

Question 7

Teleology

Answer 7

Since utilitarianism determines the rightness of actions in terms of their tendency to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number, it is considered to be a teleological (goal- directed ethical theory.

Question 8

Consequentialism

Answer 8

The principle focuses attention on the consequences of actions, rather than upon some feature of the actions themselves. The “utility” or “usefulness” of an action is determined by the extent to which it produces happiness. Thus, no action is in itself right or wrong. Nor is an action right or wrong by virtue of the actors hopes, intentions, or past actions.

Question 9

Consequentialism cont.

Answer 9

The position that the morality of an action is determined by its nonmoral consequences.

If the consequences are good, the action is right. If they are bad, the act is wrong.

Question 10

Consequentialism cont cont

Answer 10

Consequentialists consider The ratio of good to evil that an action produces. The right action is the one that produces or will probably produce as great a ratio of good to evil as any other action.
How much good can come out of this action (compared to alternative courses of actions) for how many people?

Question 11

Act Utilitarianism

Answer 11

judges the rightness or wrongness of an action on a case-by-case basis (according to the utilitarian principle, of course)

What will be the consequences of my action not only for myself but also for everyone else affected by my action?

Question 12

Act utilitarianism

Answer 12

Does the theory imply that any sexual activity is morally permissible if it produces a greater balance of pleasure over pain than any other alternative?

Question 13

Thought experiment

Richard Taylor

Answer 13

Do the pleasures of adultery justify lying to one spouse to maintain the affair?

That is, if revealing the affair to one spouse will injure the spouse and the marriage relationship, then it seems that one should conceal the affair.

Ignorance is bliss?

Question 14

Criticisms

Answer 14

Strict application of the view were the countenance actions we intuitively reject as wrong.

Hypothetical: judge in small-town sentencing an innocent person to death.

Utilitarianism would seem to require the judge to sentence the accused man to death, although she knows he’s innocent

Question 15

Rule Utilitarianism

Answer 15

Uses the utilitarian principle to judge moral rules and not individual actions.

Examples:
‘ We should never punish people for something they didn’t do.’
‘’ We should always tell the truth.’’
‘’ Stealing is never morally justified.’’

Question 16

Paul Ramsey institute center for Bioethics and Culture

Answer 16

Adopting a rule- utilitarian ethic, they argue that permissive moral doctrines that allow adultery, divorce, and homosexuality or harmful to society and so such activities are wrong.

Question 17

Criricisms

Answer 17

It is far from clear how to apply the principle to rules.
Rules that allow for exceptions seem better than those that don’t, but making exceptions threatens to reduce rule Utilitarianism to act utilitarianism.
How can we be sure that the predicted consequences will actually occur?

Question 18

Criticisms

Answer 18

Utilitarianism is unable to account for obligations engendered by such actions as promising and pledging, for such actions involve something other than consequences

Question 19

Harm Principle

Answer 19

It is morally permissible for me to do anything that doesn’t harm you.

Live and let live-so long as you don’t harm others.

But what kind of harm? Physical, economic, emotional, etc.?

Question 20

Harm Principle

Answer 20

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.’’

Question 21

Implications of the harm principle

No paternalistic laws

Answer 21

Seat belts
Helmets
Alcohol, smoking, drugs, tobacco
Snack foods

Question 22

Moral restrictions

No unnecessary moral restrictions

Answer 22

Pornography 
Prostitution 
Premarital sex
Extramarital sex
Suicide, euthanasia 
Homosexuality