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Basics of Utilitarianism

Happiness is the measure of importance, not income/wealth/etc.

Society should strive to become as happy as possible as a whole.

A person is encouraged to think about the happiness of not just him/herself, but also of the society as

a whole.

If an action will make person one happier than person two becomes unhappy (thereby increasing the

total happiness of the society), that action should be done.

Criticisms/Responses

Not everyone has same intensity of preference/not everyone likes the same thing

o This is not really that bad, and allows for someone who doesn't like a certain type of thing to give

that to someone who does.

This implies a Buddhist monk who doesn't value money should give his money to a financier who

does value it (a.k.a. Nozick monster).

o

Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a person isn't made unhappy by giving up money, thisshouldn't be an issue. Once a person reaches a level where he/she is unable to sustain a living,

presumably his/her happiness will diminish and more funds will be allocated in that direction until

an equilibrium is reached.

Implies a sadist should be allowed to kill a person who does not value his/her own life.

o We can either argue that this doesn't matter (a person who doesn't want to live should be allowed

to die), or we could sidestep the issue and say that laws could still be put in place to forbid killing

at the cost of minor decreases in the overall happiness.

Hard to quantify happiness.

o True. We can argue for the use a common sense principle where an action is taken only when it

is known to increase the apparent happiness of the society. People are not awarded based on their actual contributions.

o Because utilitarianism is based off of happiness and not income, they will be awarded best on

what makes the overall group of workers (and therefore society) most happy. If a person feels

unsatisfied with their award, their happiness will decrease and at some point an equilibrium will

again be reached.

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Karl Marx

His philosophies andeconomic theories are nowcalled Marxism

Ph.D. in Greek Literature

Couldnt get a university position; became ajournalist

Main work: Three volumes: Capital (DasKapital) theLabor Theory of Value

Positive Aspects:

Asserts that people should not be able to makeincome because they are wealthy

Asserts that people should not be rewarded fromthreatening to withhold their capital from production

Negative Aspects (Not Predictive):

No role for consumer demand

No role for capital as an input

Additional Marxist Critique

Alienation: Under capitalism, workers produce butdont have control rights to control the

productionprocess. They are alienated from the means ofproduction.

Marxist Solution to Alienation:WorkplaceDemocracyworkers get to choose how toproduce (worker

cooperatives do this).Note: Marx was against private property whichmeans private ownership of productionnotprivate

ownership of consumer goods.

Opening statement main points:

Everyone wants to be happy

Humans are constantly trying to achieve happiness throughout their lifetime. ]

Utilitarianism adopts the idea that happiness is what needs to be emphasized when distributing

goods amongst individuals

Why is there constant struggle over large amounts of economic disparity when utilitarianism offers the

solution to attempt to make the most people happy as possible?

People who are unhappy with their situation cause unrest and struggle between groups who

have/dont have utilitarianism provides a solution to this