Utilitarianism

Lesson # 4

Leadership and Ethics

Utilitarianism

What is Utilitarianism?

Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism:– The moral philosophy that actions derive their

moral quality from their usefulness as means to some end, especially as means productive of happiness or unhappiness.

– Applied to civics and politics, the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the sole end and criterion of all public action.

Utilitarianism• Who was Jeremy Bentham?

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism• Recognized as ‘Act Utilitarian’• Right actions result in ‘good or pleasure,’

wrong actions result in pain or absence of pleasure.

• ‘Max pleasure/min suffering morality criticized as “pig-philosophy”

• Hedonic Calculus

Utilitarianism

• Some have argued lecture, that “the ends cannot justify the means” in moral choices.

• Would a utilitarian say that the ends can justify the means?

Utilitarianism• “Hedonic Calculus:” measuring pleasure

and pain using what amounts to a formula (for a group, it measures intensity,

duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.). This calculation allows a utility based decision to be made on virtually any subject.

Is this useful?

Utilitarianism“Hedonic Calculus Exercise”

Problems with Utilitarianism

•Don’t always know the consequences of our actions•Difficulty in measuring pleasure and happiness•May be counterintuitive – sacrifice one to save many•Concerned only with ends – only the bottom line matters•Does not take moral significance of individuals seriously enough, we are mere conduits of utility

Utilitarianism

Who was John Stuart Mill?

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism• A more sophisticated form of

Utilitarianism.• Concerned with quality of pleasure

and quantity of people who enjoy it.• Recognized higher and lower types of

human pleasure.

UtilitarianismJohn Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism• Lower pleasures: eating, drinking,

sexuality, etc.• Higher pleasures: intellectuality,

creativity and spirituality.• ‘Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than

a fool satisfied’• ‘Rule’ Utilitarian?

Utilitarianism

Act (Contemporary) Utilitarianism

“An act is right if and only if it results in as much good as any available

alternative.”

UtilitarianismRule Utilitarianism

“An act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is itself a member of a set of rules whose

acceptance would lead to greater utility for society than any available

alternative.”

UtilitarianismRule Utilitarianism

• Debated as a valid form of Utilitarianism

• Exceptions to the rules can often be found!

• Three levels of rules suggested:

UtilitarianismRule Utilitarianism: Levels of Rules

• Rules of thumb always to be followed unless in conflict with another rule.

• Higher level rules which override thumb rules.

• No rules apply – do your best!

Utilitarianism“Society and the Bomb”

• Who was Henry L. Stimson?• Why did he advise President Truman to

drop the bomb?

Utilitarianism“Society and the Bomb”

• Is killing the innocent always wrong, no matter what the consequences?

• Would you have advised President Truman to drop the bomb?

Questions?

Next:

Kantian Ethics

Medical Triage

1 2 3

Will D ie without Will live Might save if they Extraordinary -- don’t treat now Get Medical attentionmeasures

Utilitarianism

• Your military strategists have targeted a significant munitions factory located next to a children’s hospital. Obliterating the factory is crucial to the success of your overall campaigning. Any hit on the factory will impact the hospital.

• How would you decide what to do using Utilitarian principles?

• Do you find the Utilitarian recommendations morally satisfactory?

Utilitarianism• The Chief Executive Officer of large

corporations often earn from 18 to 30 times more per year as the average employee in those corporations.

• Can you think of a Utilitarian defense for this “salary pyramid”?

• Can your think of some objections that a Utilitarian might raise to this radically unequal distribution of economic benefits?

Utilitarianism• Do you think that Mill’s version of

utilitarianism is an improvement of Bentham’s?

• What is the chief difference?• Can you think of situations in which an

action that wold maximize happiness would, nonetheless, be a wrong act?

• Give some examples and explain them?

UtilitarianismExercise

• Directions: You are a group of survivors from a ship which is rapidly sinking. A lifeboat is near at hand but it can only hold ten people. The waters outside of the boat are dangerous, insuring death for those who do not make it aboard the life boat. How long they will survive in the frigid, shark infested waters is unclear - just that they will indeed die.

UtilitarianismQuestions

• How was the decision made? Did a leader naturally emerge from the group?

• Were the rights of the less fortunate considered?

• Did the survivors feel remorse for the shipmates they consigned to death?

• Was there a consistent theory (or philosophy) which guided the decision making?

Utilitarianism“Society and the Bomb”

• Do you agree that in some circumstances the use of nuclear weapons is morally permissible?

• A tenet of Utilitarianism is that each person counts for one and only one. On this view then is there a difference between the moral worth of the lives of a civilian and a combatant? In light of this, ought there to be a difference?