Ethics Utilitarianism Midterm PDF

ETIC111 LESSON 6: THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM WEEK 7 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OL...

ETIC111 LESSON 6: THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM WEEK 7 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL JEREMEY BENTHAM (1748-1832) THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM Born on February 15, 1748 in London, England. Died on What would be more ethical? Killing one person in front of June 6, 1832. 5 people or killing 5 person in front of one person? He was the teacher of James Mill, father of John Stuart TOPICS TO BE DISCUSS: Mill Meaning of utilitarianism Bentham first wrote about the greatest happiness principle of ethics and was known for a system of penal Jeremy Bentham management called PANOPTICON. The principle of utility John Stuart Mill Intellectual inheritor of David Hume Principle of the greatest number Recognized as ‘Act utilitarian’ Justice and moral rights Right actions result in ‘good or pleasure’, wrong actions result in pain or absence of pleasure WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM The principle of utility Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that argues for the Law and social hedonism goodness of pleasure and the determination of right Felicific calculus behavior based on the usefulness of the actions THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY (JEREMY BENTHAM) consequences. This means that pleasure is good and that the goodness of In the book An Introduction to the Principle of Morals and actions is determined by its usefulness. Legislation (1789), Jeremy Bentham begins by arguing that our actions are governed by two “sovereign Putting these ideas together, utilitarianism claims that one’s action and behavior are good in as much as they are masters”--which he calls pleasure and pain. These directed toward the experience of which refers to the “masters” are given to us by nature to help us determine usefulness of the consequences of one’s action and what is good or bad and what ought to be done and not; behavior. they fasten our choices to their throne. When we argue that the drug war program of the present The principle of utility is about our subjection to these government is permissible because doing so results in sovereign masters: PLEASURE AND PAIN better public safety, then we are arguing in a utilitarian ○ On one hand, the principle refers to the way. It is utilitarian because we argue that some individual motivation of our actions as guided by our rights can be sacrificed for the sake of the greater avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure. It happiness of the many. is like saying that in our everyday actions, we do what is pleasurable as good if, and only if, they UTILITARIANISM produce more happiness than unhappiness. This This system of ethics emphasizes the consequences of means that it is not enough to experience actions: pleasure, but to also inquire whether the things ○ This means that the goodness or the badness of we do make us happier. Having identified the an action is based on whether it is useful in tendency for pleasure and the avoidance of pain contributing to a specific purpose for the as the principle of utility. Bentham equates greatest number of people. happiness with pleasure. Utilitarianism is consequentialist: Actions that lead to pleasure are right, ones that produce ○ This means that the moral value of actions and pain are wrong decisions is based solely or greatly on the LAW AND SOCIAL HEDONISM & FELICIFIC CALCULUS usefulness of their consequences. It is the usefulness of results that determines whether LAW the action or behavior is good or bad. ○ Government should not pass laws that protect tradition, customs or rights The utilitarian value pleasure and happiness: ○ This means that the usefulness of actions is ○ Government should base all laws on the based on its promotion of happiness as the happiness principle experience of pleasure for the greatest number The greatest happiness for the greatest number of persons. Even at the expense of some ○ Bentham’s theory is both empirical (how much individual rights. pain or pleasure is caused by the act or policy) ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 6: UTILITARIANISM 1  ETIC111 LESSON 6: THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM WEEK 7 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL and democratic (each individual’s happiness is as For Mill, utilitarianism cannot promote the kind of important as anyother’s) pleasures appropriate to pigs or to any other animals. He SOCIAL HEDONISM thinks that there are HIGHER INTELLECTUAL and LOWER ○ Moral worth judged by presumed effect BASE PLEASURES ○ Action guided by pleasure/pain ○ LOWER PLEASURES: eating, drinking, sexuality, FELICIFIC CALCULUS etc. ○ Common currency framework that calculates the ○ HIGHER PLEASURES: intellectuality, creativity pleasure that some action can produce and spirituality ○ In this framework, an action can be evaluated on “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig the basis of intensity or strength of pleasure satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool ○ DURATION or length of the experience of satisfied.” pleasure PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST NUMBER ○ CERTAINTY, UNCERTAINTY or the likelihood that Utilitarianism cannot lead to selfish acts. It is neither pleasure will occur; and about our pleasure nor happiness alone; it does not ○ PROPINQUITY, REMOTENESS or how soon there constitute a moral good. In this sense, utilitarianism is not will be pleasure dismissive of sacrifices that procure more happiness for These indicators allow us to measure pain in actions, we others. need to consider THREE MORE DIMENSIONS: Utilitarianism is interested with the best consequence for ○ FECUNDITY or the chance it has of being the highest number of people. It is not interested with the followed by sensations of the same kind intention of the agent. Moral value cannot discernible in ○ PURITY or the chance it has of not being the intention or motivation of the person doing the act; it followed by sensations of the opposite kind is based solely and exclusively on the difference it makes ○ Lastly, when considering the number of persons on the world’s total amount of pleasure and pain. who are affected by pleasure or pain, another Utilitarianism is interested with everyone’s happiness, in dimension is to be considered - EXTENT fact, the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Felicific calculus allows the evaluation of all actions and JUSTICE AND MORAL RIGHTS their resultant pleasure. This means that actions are evaluated on this single scale regardless of preferences When we call anything a person’s right, we mean that he and values. In this sense pleasure and pain can only has a valid claim on society to protect him in the quantitatively differ but not qualitatively differ from other possession of it, either by the force of law or by that experiences of pleasure and pain accordingly. education and opinion. If he has what we consider a sufficient claim, on whatever account, to have something JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873) guaranteed to him by society, we say that he haas a right His ethical theory and his defense of utilitarian views are to it. found in his long essay entitled UTILITARIANISM (1861) The right to due process, the right to free speech or He studied Greek at the age of three and Latin at the age religion, and others are justified because they contribute of eight. He wrote history of Roman law age eleven. He to the general good. This means that society is made was married to Harriet Taylor after 21 years of friendship. happier if its citizens are able to live their lives knowing Was born on May 20, 1806 in Pentonville, London, United that their interest are protected and that society (as a Kingdom. Died on May 8, 1873 in Avignon, France from whole) defends it. Erysipelas A right is justifiable on utilitarian principles in as much as A more sophisticated form of utilitarianism they produce on overall happiness that is greater than the Concerned with quality of pleasure and quantity of people unhappiness resulting from their implementation. who enjoy it Mill creates a distinction between legal rights and their Recognized higher and lower types of human pleasure justification. He points out that when legal rights are not PRINCIPLE OF GREATEST NUMBER morally justified in accordance to the greatest happiness JUSTICE AND MORAL RIGHTS principle, then these rights need neither be observed, not Mill dissents from Bentham’s single scale of pleasure. He be respected. This is like saying that there are instances thinks that the principle of utility must distinguish when the law is not morally justified and, in this case, pleasures QUALITATIVELY and not merely quantitatively. even objectionable. ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 6: UTILITARIANISM 2  ETIC111 LESSON 6: THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM WEEK 7 I SECOND YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER - MIDTERMS | A.Y. 2023-2024 I COLLEGE OF NURSING - VALENZUELA CAMPUS PPT and Discussed by: PROF. FELICIA VICTOR Transcribed by: ASHLEY G. IGLESIAS, SN | BSN 2-Y1-4 I OLFU - VAL In short, Mill’s moral rights and considerations of justice are not absolute, but are only justified by their consequences to promote the greatest good of the greatest number. BETHAMITE MILLSIAN DEMOCRATIC UTILITARIANISM ELITE UTILITARIANISM No one pleasure is inherently Some pleasures are better better than any other. than others If drunken parties make you If you party and get drunk happy, then go for it! everyday, then you won’t be as happy as you otherwise might be. Reading poetry isn’t better Enjoying poetry is better than than watching The Bachelor, watching bad TV. and if you it’s just different. disagree, it is because you don’t understand quality. JEREMY BENTHAM “Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove.” JOHN STUART MILL “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” ETIC111: ETHICS LESSON 6: UTILITARIANISM 3