Both Utilitarians said that their work was ‘an attempt to lay down an objective principle to determine when a given action was right or wrong.’ This was called the Prinicple of Utility which means that the action is right if it provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number, for example, a set of traffic lights help the greatest number to keep them, and others out of harm’s way. They both identified happiness with pleasure so if it was interpreted in this way, if the action did not increase the happiness or please of the greatest number, the action was wrong.
Utilitarianism is based on the consequences of the actions taken by a person. Act Utilitarianism does not take into account any of the moral issues associated with the action. Each action is assessed on the consequence alone, so for example they feel it is acceptable to lie if it would be for the greatest good of the other people, however they do not consider the moral reasons behind the importance of not lying. ‘An act should be considered good if, on balance, it produces enough happiness.’ Therefore, it is necessary to lie if it concerns the happiness of the person involved.
‘An act is right from an ethical point of view if, and only if, the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total utilities produced by another act the agent could have performed in its place.’ Jeremy Bentham explains that if the lie that is told overrules the amount of pain that the truth would have caused, it is satisfactory to tell the person the lie. This, however is not morally right and can cause even more pain if it the lie is found out not to be true as it gives out false hope.
Rule Utilitarianism is the theory that takes into account the results of obeying general rules of conduct. They can be broken in several exceptional circumstances, however they must be done in evaluation of the results of the action. Mill gives two examples where it is not acceptable to tell the truth and therefore the rules can be broken. If someone were to use the information given for an evil purpose or if someone was withholding information from someone that is terminally ill or dying for fear of causing him or her harm. Mill considered the feelings of mankind and preferred not to hurt any feelings or cause any more pain through telling lies or sometimes, the truth for the greater good. There is two aspects of Rule Utilitarianism however and they are Strong Rule and Weak Rule. The strong rule Utilitarianism referrers to the fact that one should never break a rule that is established on Utilitarianism principles as it is there for the greater good of man, e.g. no smoking in public areas. However, weak rule refers to the fact that some rules can be broken to protect people from something that may cause them pain later on. The philosopher Kant sticks by the Deontological argument which is 100% rule based and the rules are there for a reason and if they were all followed there would be much less pain. J.S. Mill mostly follows the Act Utilitarianism and Henry Sidgwick and Bentham mostly follow the Rule Utilitarianism aspect.
Preference Utilitarianism means to take into account the preferences of the individuals except when those principles come into direct conflict with others. So, therefore it means that one can do what they want to increase pleasure or happiness as long as it doesn’t cause harm to others. 'Good' is described as the satisfaction pleasure of each person's preferences, and a right action is that which leads to the pleasure. What is good depends on individual preferences, so there can be nothing that is just good or bad as it depends of the view of the person.
Negative Utilitarianism means to promote the least amount of evil or harm, or to decrease the greatest amount of for the greatest number. ‘Aim to decrease pain, not increase pleasure.’ So if you decrease pain, the amount of pleasure wont necessarily go up but the amount of suffering may be less.
Some of the strengths included in Utilitarianism are that it encourages a democratic approach to decision making as the majority’s opinions is always considered and a very small minority is not allowed to have power over the final decision.
Utilitarian theories hold with the general agreement that the well-being of any human is good and the actions made by a person should be assessed depending on the effect the action may have so it is all about doing what is best for yourself and the people around you. Jesus also preached an ethic of love, saying that man should work for the happiness and pleasure of others. ‘Do onto others as you would have them do to you’ or ‘Love thy neighbor’ are good examples of this. It is also an approach that asks that we consider other people and what the consequences might be even if it seems morally good to do to begin with.
2) Identify the main problems of Utilitarianism. To what extent do these make Utilitarianism unacceptable?
There are many problems with the Utilitarian approach. The first of which is the fact that no one can be completely happy all the time, even with the principle. This can be true, however, this completely depends on the individuals view of happiness and how they come about this happiness. It may be something as simple as chocolate or a hug from a loved one. Another criticism is that people aren’t going to be happy with a little less than total happiness, but then again, people may be unaware of what total happiness is and there is also many things that make people happy depending on the person. Others say that we shouldn’t have to care about other people’s happiness and we should just live for ourselves. This may seem harsh and the objections are that we should treat others as equals and as how we would like to be treated. If we treat other people with respect and care for them, you expect them to do the same for you.
“The validity of using the mechanism of utilitarianism seems obvious in some case, but not in others.” This quote refers to the fact that sometimes it is unclear of when and where to use utilitarianism as in some cases it is hard to decipher whether to use it or not, for example, for the price of one persons operation, many other people’s lives could be benefited or even saved. Neitzsche believed that “some people are more important than others” and that their happiness or unhappiness counted for more than that of an average person. Many people shared this view and opposed to the opinion that if an action causes more happiness than unhappiness it is morally good.
“Utilitarianism is based on the majority of people being happy (known as the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number)” , therefore even though there is a majority of people that are happy, there is still a small minority. Therefore Utilitarianism does not ensure 100% of people being happy, however, it is considered that it is not possible to ensure complete world happiness, as stated before, everyone has different views of happiness and some ideas of happiness would contradict others, therefore, everyone will still not be totally happy.
Finally, there is the actual misunderstanding of utilitarianism itself. The original creator of the theory, Bentham, his theories can be very misleading and often hard to understand.
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‘Philosophy’ By Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll.
‘Philosophy’ By Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll.
‘Philosophy’ By Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll.
‘Philosophy’ By Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll.
‘Ethical Theory’ by Mel Thompson.
‘Ethical Theory’ By Mel Thompson
‘Philosophy’ By Richard H. Popkin and Avrum Stroll.
‘A History of western philosophy’ By Bertrand Russel.