ESSAY

Chapter 8 Instructor Notes – “Utilitarianism”

A consequentialist tradition: the outcome or consequences of our actions are more important than our intentions. (234)

Utilitarianism is particularly focused on consequences as they relate to promotion of the “greatest net happiness for all.” If the net is positive, the action is moral, and any means are acceptable.

“All” includes sentient beings: beings capable of feeling pleasure and pain (234). This expands the moral community to include many non-human animals which are capable of feeling pain. Generally, the ability to feel pain and be included in the moral community is measured by how well developed the species’ nervous system is.

Greatest happiness principle: “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (235).

Key Claims of Utilitarianism (p 236):

1. The desire for happiness is self-evident and universal.

2. Pleasure brings about happiness; pain brings about unhappiness

3. People are naturally sympathetic and concerned with promoting the happiness of others.

4. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined solely by its consequences.

5. An action is morally right to the extent that it promotes the happiness or pleasure of all those affected by it.

6. An action is morally wrong to the extent that it increases unhappiness or pain.

7. The moral community consists of all sentient beings.

Rule-Utilitarians –v- Act Utilitiarians: Rule utilitarians are concerned with the morality of particular classes of actions, such as torturing or stealing. Act utilitarians are concerned with the consequences of particular actions. In other words, rule-utilitarians evaluate potential normative rules against the principle of utility or the Greater Happiness Principle to and act-utilitarians evaluate potential applied (specific situations) against the principle of utility or the Greater Happiness Principle.

Bentham, Mill, and Mo Tzu:

Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832): Utilitarianism and Social Reform who developed this ethical meta-ethical theory (which is deeply focused on equality and democracy) in response to the injustices of his time (poor treatment of the working class, vast urban slums, pollution, child labor, widespread poverty – industrial revolution issues). His position: Utility provides the only source of political obligation for the state. It alone provides the test for what a law should be and which laws should be obeyed. Bottom-up focus rather than top down and regard religion as a very harmful.

To arrive at the proper (moral) law, we implement the Utilitarian calculus. The calculus involves evaluating 7 criteria and their effect on all sentient beings effected. Once completed, the numeric total of pleasure units provided a definitive answer to the morality of the law. The utilitarian calculus includes:

1. Intensity – the strength of the pleasure or pain. The greater the pleasure, the higher the value.

2. Duration – the length of time of the pleasure or pain. The longer, the higher the pleasure the higher the value.

3. Certainty – the level of probability that the pleasure or pain will actually occur.

4. Propinquity – how near in time (proximate) the please or pain is likely to occur. The sooner the etter.

5. Fecundity – the extent to which the pleasure will produce more pleasure

6. Purity – a consideration of whether the pleasure will produce some pain at the same time.

7. Extent – the number of sentient beings affected by the action (page 242).

John Stuart Mill – Godson of Bentham who reformulated utilitarianism. They were both interested in political and social reform, both disliked the influence of superstition (the Church), and both emphasized education (246).

Disagreement – (influenced by Harriot Taylor). For Mill, pleasure is not the only criterion; human dignity must be respected. Principle of non-maleficence introduced (248).

Mo Tzu (470 – 391 BCE): Utilitarianism as Universal Love (250 - )

Alternative to more passive Confucianism and Taoism (250). We can expand the principle of jen (love) from Confucius to apply to everyone and using this standard universally, we can achieve a world of peace and harmony. Confrontational like Socrates. He died in 391 BCE with approximately 300 followers.

Utilitarianism and the Moral Community:

One of the most credible elements of utilitarianism is its expansion of our concept to who counts in our moral community. Utilitarians have been in the forefront of many movements for human equality and the welfare of nonhuman animals. Contemporary Australian Philosopher, Peter Singer is largely responsible for the promotion of animal rights today. Among numerous other accomplishments, he coined the term “Speciesism.” This is the position of prejudice or bias of certain beings simply because of their membership is a specific species (usually human) (252 – 254). Note: equality of consideration is not equivalent to equality of treatment. While we respect kangaroos, we don’t give them the right to vote.

The Principle of Utility in Public Policy

Euthanasia: Is Death Always A Harm? – Many people believe it is appropriate, perhaps even obligatory, to mercifully and humanely kill an animal companion who is suffering and incurable. Yet, we are very torn about providing humans the same kindness. This is the central concern of the final paper for this course, so students should read Boss, 256-258 at a minimum to understand this issue. For utilitarians, the worth of a particular life depends only on the degree to which the pleasure of that life outweigh the pain of continued existence. Students should be able to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia and between active and passive euthanasia.

Military Conscription: Should National Service Be Compulsory? – Pages 258 and 259 discuss the utilitarian approaches to mandatory service in the military.

Taxing Fattening, Non-Nutritious Foods: Should Government Tax Lifestyle Choices Pages 259-261 discuss the utilitarian approaches to taxing fattening foods.

Critique of Utilitarianism:

1. The insistence on equality and impartiality is both one of its strengths and a weakness. Equality is generally regarded as a good thing, but this position may allow that those who have engaged in more productive work not be rewarded for their efforts.

2. It can violate the principle of retributive justice, which requires that people be treated fairly and that any penalties be proportioned to the misdeed. If we really wanted to deter, why not the death penalty for traffic violations?

3. The consequentialist focus fails to give sufficient attention to the integrity of the individual

4. It does not give sufficient attention to the role of moral sentiment (only autonomous reason)

5. It may be an impossible standard if we always had to act to maximize societal benefit. We would have no free time to pursue our own interests.

6. It does not require that people have any intrinsic value and that they may be treated solely as a means (similar to #3). Someone could become a scape-goat (as long as no one every learned that this may be happening).

7. Been accused of the naturalistic fallacy. While the desire for pleasure is self-evident, it does not necessarily follow that we should pursue it.

8. It does not allow for any consideration of anything outside of consequences, yet, we want to say that intentions do matter.

9. Positive:

a. It expands our moral community

b. It requires that consequences be considered

c. It offers helpful guidelines for making moral decisions (happiness is so pervasive, it is right to remind us that it must be considered in moral theory).

d. It serves a reminder that we should be ready to provide good reasons for our moral decisions (autonomous moral reasoning matters).