PHIL WEEK 2 IN CLASS activity
Business Ethics Summer 2022 (1) Week 2, Lecture 1
Chaeyoung Paek
In today’s class…
We’re going to look at another very popular moral theory, Utilitarianism.
There will be an in-class activity at the end of this lecture.
Moral Theories: Take #2
In the last class, we’ve seen one of three moral theories we’ll look at in this class: Cultural Relativism.
Cultural Relativism rejects the universal moral truth; other two moral theories uphold the universal moral truth.
What we’ll look at today is Utilitarianism; it is one version of Consequentialism.
Consequentialism
Consequentialism: You should X if and only if X yields the best consequence.
Utilitarianists claim that a given option is better than the other option(s) when it yields more utilities as its consequence.
Utilitarianism is also popular among non-philosophers & philosophers!
Throughout this course, we’ll see how philosophers defend or criticize a certain view based on the utilitarian perspective.
Utilitarianism
Main Thesis: You should X if and only if X maximizes utility.
Whose utility?
: everyone’s, not just yours!!
(Egoism ≠ Utilitarianism)
(ex) Taking a seat on a bus
Over what period of time?
: over all time.
(ex) Recycle
Hedonic Utilitarianism
Hedonic Theory of Value: The goodness/badness of an action is solely a matter of the balance of pleasure and pain resulted by the action.
Hedonic Utilitarianism
- Hedonic Theory of Value + Utilitarianism
- Utility = the net balance of pleasure over pain
Main thesis: You should X if and only if X maximizes the net balance of pleasure over pain.
(ex) Taking a class vs. Taking a nap
Attractive features
1. Impartiality: demands you to be blind to gender, race, class, age, species, etc.
(ex1) John Stuart Mill advocated animal rights and women’s right to vote in 19th century.
(ex2) Many Utilitarianists adopt vegetarian/vegan lifestyle!
2. Explains our moral intuition well
(ex) “We sent the dog to a farm to she can live with other animal friends!”
3. Conflict resolution: delivers what you ought to do in morally conflicting situations
(ex) Lying (to the Nazis) vs. Letting your jewish neighbors be captured
One (weak) objection
“Utilitarianism is the philosophy of the swine.”
: Utilitarianism allows people to act irresponsibly and degradingly, as long as they can get the most pleasure.
Response to the ”philosophy of swine” objection
If you’re a utilitarianist, whenever you act, you should try to maximize utility for everyone over all time; it takes determination and responsibility to make every choice count!
We can take the quality of pleasure into account; there are “higher pleasures”, which we get from appreciating arts, reading, learning, etc., that are high in quality than “animal pleasures” we get from eating, having sex, etc..
Objections & Replies
Most objections against Hedonic Utilitarianism use counterexamples.
Form of objections: “X maximizes utility, but X is wrong.”
Form of replies
Does X really maximize utility?
Is X really wrong?
Objections & Replies
(ex) Trolley problem
X = saving 5 people by pushing one man in front of the trolley
Does X really maximize utility?: Maybe Yes?
Is X really wrong?: Yes!!
Conclusion: Trolley problem is a successful counterexample against Utilitarianism.
Why? Because Trolley problem shows that maximizing utility is sometimes bad.
The Experience Machine Objection
Suppose that there’s a machine that allows you to experience maximum pleasure, when you’re plugged
into the machine. One caveat: you cannot be unplugged once you’re in the machine. Would you choose to be plugged into this machine?
(Robert Nozick)
The Experience Machine Objection
According to Hedonic Utilitarianism, you ought to plug yourself to the Experience Machine.
Not only that, you ought to persuade others to plug themselves into this machine as well!
But this seems wrong; why do we have a moral obligation to spend our lives in a box?
RE: The Experience Machine Objection
Does plugging yourself into the Experience Machine really maximize the utility?
- No; there’s a unique pleasure that you can only get from living your own life.
(B) Is it wrong to plug yourself into the Experience Machine/to persuade others to plug into the Experience Machine?
No/??
Conclusion: The experience machine objection is not successful.
Justice & Rights Objection
Peeping Tom:
Peeping Tom: Tom is a local pervert who takes pleasure in secretly watching people taking their clothes off. To satisfy his desire, he sets up cameras all over the locker rooms in the Rec center and watches people changing their clothes. But he did such a good job hiding the cameras that no one knows Tom is watching them.
Justice & Right Objection
Q. Should Tom stop secretly watching people taking their clothes off?
Yes! It violates people’s privacy!
But according to Hedonic Utilitarianism, Peeping Tom should not stop doing this, as long as no one knows about his secret “hobby”.
In fact, what he should do at this point is just to make sure that no one would ever find out about this, not to stop watching people!
It seems like Hedonic Utilitarianism demands us to ignore what is just or what is right thing to do.
RE: Justice & Right Objection
Does letting Tom secretly watching people really maximize the utility?
Yes/No
Invasion of privacy/Can our utility be decreased when our rights are violated secretly?
(B) Is it wrong for Tom to keep watching people?
- Yes.
Personal Relationship Objection
Neighbor’s Kid: You have a 12-year-old son who is quite normal in every aspect. Your neighbor’s 12-year-old son, on the other hand, is a genius who is working on the cure for lung cancer; he is nice to everyone and always working on some charity works. One day you found out that your son and your neighbor’s kid, who went swimming in a pond in the forest nearby, are drowning.
Personal Relationship Objection
Q. Who should you save, your kid or your neighbor’s kid?
Your kid!
But according to Hedonic Utilitarianism, you should save your neighbor’s kid instead!
It seems like Hedonic Utilitarianism demands us to ignore or even sacrifice our personal relationships in order to maximize utility!
RE: Personal Relationship Objection
Does saving your neighbor’s kid instead of your kid maximize the utility?
Yes?
No?
Is it wrong for you to save your neighbor’s kid instead of your kid?
- Yes
Demandingness Objection
Netflix vs. charity
: You decide to stay home and watch something on Netflix this Halloween. But you realize that spending $13 every month for a streaming service only maximizes you and the company’s utility; instead you can use the money and the time you spend on charity. So you join the local charity group. But then it occurs to you that you own some “luxury items”-some furniture, TV, etc.-that you can live without. So you sell them and use the money for charity…
Demandingness Objection
Q. Is it permissible for you to spend $13 every month for Netflix subscription?
Yes!
But according to Hedonic Utilitarianism, spending $13 and a considerable amount of time on a streaming service doesn’t maximize the utility; you should instead spend your time and money on helping others.
In fact, you should spend most of your time and money on charity; you should only spend time and money for yourself just to make sure you can get by.
But this is ridiculous! There are some people who do indeed live like this, and they are moral saints, but not all people have to be moral saints.
RE: Demandingness Objection
Does donating most of your money and time to charity maximize utility?
- Yes
(B) Is it wrong to donate most of your money and time to charity?
- No
Exercise: An application
Click ”2-1 In-class Activity” below the lecture video.
Click “Write Submission”; fill in your answers & click “Submit.”
This should take about 5 minutes; you now can look at other classmates’ answers (and respond to one, if you’d like!)
For the next class…
Read Kant, “The Good Will and the Categorical Imperative.”