Utilitarianism

Key Concepts:
1. Utilitarianism
2. Theorists of Utilitarianism
a) Jeremy Bentham
b) John Stuart Mill
3. The Principle of Utility
4. The Principle of the Greatest Number
5. Justice and Moral Rights
Utilitarianism
• Is an ethical theory that argues for the
goodness of pleasure and the determination
of right behavior based on the usefulness of
the action’s consequences.
• This means that pleasure is good and that the
goodness of an action is determined by its
usefulness.
• Putting these ideas together, utilitarinism
claims that one’s action and behavior are good
inasmuch as they are directed toward the
experience of the greatest pleasure over pain
for the greates number of persons.
• Its root word is “utility” which refers to the
usefulness of the consequences of one’s
action and behaviour
• Utilitarianism argues that some individual
rights can be sacrificed for the sake of the
greater happiness of the many.

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart

Mill (1806-1873) are the two foremost
utilitarian thinkers.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
• Born on February 15, 1748 in London, England
• He was the teacher of James Mill, father of
John Stuart Mill.
• Bentham first wrote about the greatest
happiness principle of ethics and was known
for a system of penal management called
panopticon.
• He was an advocate of economic freedom,
women’s rights, and the separation of church and
state, among others. He was also an advocate of
animal rights and the abolition of slavery, death
penalty, and corporal punishment for children.
• Bentham denied individual legal rights nor
agreed with the natural law.
• His famous work, An Introduction to the
Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• Born on May 20, 1806 in Pentoville, London,
England. He was the son of James Mill, a
friend and disciple of Jeremy Bentham.
• His ethical theory and his defense of utilitarian
views are found in his long essay entitled
Utilitarianism (1861).
• Mill died on May 8, 1873 in Avignon, France
from erysipelas
 The Principle of Utility
• In the book An Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation (1789), Jeremy
Bentham begins by arguing that occur are
governed by two “sovereign masters” – which
he calls pleasure and pain.
• These “masters” are given to us by nature to
help us determine what is good or bad and
what ought to be done and not.
• Principle of Utility is about our subjection to
these sovereign masters.
• On one hand, the principle of refers to the
motivation of our action as guided by our
avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure.
On the other hand, the principle also refers to
pleasure as good if and only if, they produce
more happiness than unhappiness.
• This means that it is enough to experience
pleasure, but also inquire whether the things
we do make us happier.
• Having identified the tendency for pleasure
and the avoidance of pain as the principle of
utility, Bentham equates happiness with
pleasure.
• Mill supports Bentham’s principle of utility. He
reiterates moral good as happiness and,
consequently, happiness as pleasure.
• Mill clarifies that what makes people happy is
intended pleasure and what makes us unhappy
is the privation of pleasure.
• The things that produce happiness and pleasure
are good; whereas, those that produce
unhappiness and pain are bad.
• Bentham and Mill characterized moral value
as utility and understood it as whatever
produced happiness or pleasure and the
avoidance of pain.
• The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of
pain are not only important principles – they
are in fact the only principles in assessing an
action’s morality
 Bentham’s Felicific Calculus
• Is a common currency framework that
calculates the pleasure that some actions can
produce. An action can be evaluated on the
basis of intensity or strength of pleasure;
duration or length of the experience of
pleasure; certainty, uncertainty, or the
likelihood that pleasure will occur; and
propinquity, remoteness, or how soon there
will be pleasure.
• Dimensions to be considered in evaluating our
tendency to choose actions:
• Fecundity or the chance it has of being
followed by sensations of the same kind,
• Purity or the chance it has of not being
followed by sensations of the opposite kind,
• Extent, when considering the number of
persons who are affected by pleasure or pain
• Felicific calculus allows the evaluation of all
actions and their resultant pleasure.
• This means that actions are evaluated on this
single scale regardless of preferences and
values.
• Pleasure and pain can only quantitatively
differ but not qualitatively differ from other
experience of pleasure and pain accordingly.
Mill’s arguments
• Mill thinks that the principle of utility must
distinguish pleasures qualitatively and not
merely quantitatively.
• For Mill, utilitarianism cannot promote the
kind of pleasures appropriate to pigs or to any
other animals.
• He thinks that there are higher intellectual
and lower base pleasures.
• We, as moral agents, are capable of searching
and desiring higher intellectual pleasures more
than pigs are capable of.
• We undermine ourselves if we only and
primarily desire sensuality; this is because we
are capable of higher intellectual pleasurable
goods.
• Human pleasure are qualitatively different from
animal pleasures
• Contrary to Bentham, Mill argues that quality
is more preferable than quantity.
• An excessive quantity of what is otherwise
pleasurable might result in pain.
• In deciding over two comparable pleasures, it
is important to experience both to discover
which one is actually more preferred than the
other.
 Principle of the Greatest Number
• Equating happiness with pleasure does not
aim to describe the utilitarian moral agent
alone and independently from others.
• This is not only about our individual pleasures,
regardless of how high, intellectual, or in other
ways noble it is, but it is also about the
pleasure of the greatest number affected by
the consequences of our actions.
• It is necessary for us to consider everyone’s
happiness, including our own as the standard by
which to evaluated what is moral.
• It implies that utilitarianism is not at all separate
from liberal social practices that aim to improve
the quality of life for all persons.
• Utilitarianism is interested with the best
consequence for the highest number of people.
• It is not interested with the intention of the agent.
 Justice and Moral Rights
• Mill understands Justice as a respect rights
directed toward society’s pursuit for the
greatest happiness.
• For him, rights are a valid claim on society and
are justified by utility.
• The right to due process, the right to free
speech or religion, and others are justified
because they contribute to the general good.
• This means that society is made happier if its
citizens are able to live their lives knowing that
their interests are protected and that society
(as a whole) defends it.
• Right is justifiable on utilitarian principles
inasmuch as they produce an overall
happiness that is greater than the
unhappiness from their implementation.
• Utilitarian argue that issues of justice carry a
very strong emotional import because the
category of rights is directly associated with
the individual’s most vital interests.
• All of these rights are predicated on the
person’s right to life.
• We are treated justly when our legal and
moral rights are respected
• Bulaong, Oscar G., M.J. T. Calano, A. M.
Lagliva, M.N. E. Mariano, & J.D. Z. Principe.
(2018). Ethics: Foundations of Moral
Valuation. Manila: Rex Book Store.
• De Guzman, Jens Micah, et.al. (2017). Ethics:
Principles of Ethical Behavior in Modern
World. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House
Inc.