PHI2600 - 3.1 Utilitarianism, The Theory

Net utility is...

The amount of happiness produced by the action minus the amount of unhappiness produced by the action. Whichever action produces the most net utility is the action that I ought to do.

Consequentialism

The morally right action for an agent to perform is the one that has the best consequences or that results in the most good. (Shaw, 28).

Net utility (as opposed to utility more generally) is...

just the amount of happiness produced by the action minus the amount of unhappiness produced by the action. Whichever action produces the most net utility is the action that I ought to do. (Consider, again, the Trolley Problem)

An action is the right action if...

that action produces good consequences

Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, believed...

that an action is right if and only if that action is the one that promotes that greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people.

Objections to Utilitarianism

1. Doctrine of the Swine & Mill's Response 2. Utilitarianism Misidentifies the Moral Value of Actions 3. Utilitarianism is Too Demanding

Shaw points out three important features of a utilitarian theory of value:

1. The good attaches only to particular individuals. So something can only be good or bad in virtue of its effect on the lives of individuals (pp. 30-31). 2. The good is additive. You can add up the total happiness of individuals and subtract any unhappiness that an action produces, thereby discovering what the net happiness is of a particular action (p. 31) 3. Everyone counts equally. No one's pleasure or pain is more important than anyone else's. According to Bentham, "each person counts as one, and no one as more than one" (p. 31).

Remember, there are two goals of a normative ethical theory:

1. The practical aim of providing a decision procedure that will help an individual make the right decision when faced with a moral dilemma. 2. The theoretical aim of discovering the features of an action or person that makes that individual or action right or wrong, good or evil.

Utilitarianism Misidentifies the Moral Value of Actions

According to a consequentialist theory of morality - like utilitarianism -the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its consequences. But this means that just about any action could be the right thing to do if it brings about the best consequences. (As we read, act utilitarianism could, arguably, entail that we harvest the organs of a healthy patient for the sake of those who need transplants. This seems to be something seriously wrong, intuitively.)

Utilitarianism is Too Demanding

Another objection to utilitarianism is that its moral demands are too high. We could at any point be acting in a way that would produce better consequences - more happiness - than we are at present. (Hence, I am violating my duty by writing this lecture right now. I could be spending time with my children - which would make them happy - or I could be volunteering with needy children across the world. If there are alternative actions to my writing this lecture or playing video games or watching Game of Thrones that would produce more overall happiness, then - according to utilitarianism - I ought to be doing those things.)

Doctrine of Swine Objection

Bentham did not believe that there were any qualitative differences to the pleasures considered in a utilitarian calculation, philosophers at the time criticized him for what they considered to be an extremely unintuitive outcome of his theory: sensual pleasures would be considered to be just as valuable as intellectual pleasures, and the happiness or pleasure of humans would not be considered any more valuable than the happiness or pleasure of animals. (Eg. one might think that while harming a human and a dog are both wrong, harming the human is more wrong. However, Bentham's version of utilitarianism would rank the pain resulting from those actions in the same way.)

Trolley Problem (Module 1)

Imagine a runaway trolley hurtling toward five workers on the track. The driver must choose between staying on his or her current track, which would result in the death of the five workers or diverting the trolley to an alternate track leading off to the right where just one worker on the track would be killed (Foot, 1978).

Act utilitarianism

In determining whether an action is right or wrong, we should consider the net utility produced by each individual action.

Act utilitarianism: (Bentham)

In determining whether an action is right or wrong, we should consider the net utility produced by each individual action.

Rule Utilitarianism

In determining whether an action is right or wrong, we should consider the net utility produced by the moral rules that we adopt.

Rule Utilitarianism: (Mill)

In determining whether an action is right or wrong, we should consider the net utility produced by the moral rules that we adopt.

How do I determine whether to do act x or act y, according to Utilitarianism? How should Sam figure out what to do when discovering that Jon stole Sansa's work?

John Stuart Mill (1863) states the following: The doctrine that the basis of morals is utility, or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong in proportion as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By 'happiness' is meant pleasure and the absence of pain; by 'unhappiness' is meant pain and the lack of pleasure (Mill, Chapter Two).

Mill's Response

Mill argues that one needs to consider the quality of pleasures when performing a utilitarian calculation as well as the quantity of pleasure. Mill argues that intellectual pleasures are better in kind than sensual pleasures. (His argument is, basically, that no one would choose to experience lower pleasures (sensual) over higher pleasures (intellectual, artistic, etc.)

Calculations can get quite complicated. Any action has the potential to cause some happiness and some unhappiness. How will Jon decide what to do under those circumstances?

Mill would suggest calculating net utility.

Act vs. Rule Utilitarianism

One major difference between Bentham's version of utilitarianism and Mill's later version is that Bentham can be considered to be an act utilitarianism, while Mill is considered a rule-utilitarian.

A normative theory is a

consequentialist theory if it analyzes whether an action is right or wrong solely in terms of an action's consequences.

An action is right if...

if and only if that action is the one that promotes that greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people.

If utilitarianism - or other forms of maximizing consequentialism - entails that morality is much more demanding than we think,

that does not mean that the theory is wrong. We must reconsider our ideas of what is right and/or wrong and what is "too much to ask." Additionally, utilitarianism would advocate for that action that is more likely to be carried out - for example, if attempting to enforce a demanding moral norm... (e.g. we must give all of our expendable income to people in need) ...will result in less people acting ethically, utilitarianism might entail that a less demanding moral norm be followed (e.g. we must give 10% of our expendable income to people in need), as that would have better consequences overall.

According to utilitarianism,

the only thing that can be considered intrinsically good - valuable for its own sake - is happiness of well-being. Anything else that we consider to be valuable - e.g. friendship, love, knowledge - is only good insofar as it leads to happiness or improving an individual's well-being.