introduction to ethics
Lola2230
UtilitarianismStudentversionpp.pptUtilitarianism
Happiness Counts Most
Natural Law & Utilitarianism
- Jeremy Bentham (19th century British philosopher)
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters:
“Pain and Pleasure.”
- The greatest happiness principle or the principle of utility: the obligation to seek to maximize the happiness and minimize the pain of those affected by the action
- Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethic
Happiness Counts Most
- Utilitarianism: pain & pleasure naturally dictate our actions
Hence, humane social policies aim to maximize happiness & minimize pain for those concerned/affected
- Bentham and later John Stuart Mill, radical British reformers, used utilitarianism to attack aristocratic power and privilege
Utilitarian Tyranny: J.S. Mill
- Mill’s teacher: Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
- Utilitarianism: the greatest good for greatest number
- But in the name of the greater good, individuals suffer
- Mill’s concern: Democracies don’t automatically protect liberty of individual & minorities
Majority rule can be minority ruin
Pursuit of Happiness
- Happiness is self-fulfillment: by actualizing our innate human capacities and potentials
- Actualizing potentialities takes a system to support & develop of reason & free expression
- Mill recognized we’re all liable to err and make mistakes, but the pursuit of happiness is worth the personal risk
Mill on the Purpose of Law
- Mill argued that the purpose of law is to protect the will of the individual
not to uphold the will of the majority
not to impose the will of the sovereign
- No-Harm-to-Others: Only to prevent harm to others may society restrain an individual’s use of freedom
- Individual’s own good never enough to justify coercion
