Outline the main features of Jeremy Bentham's guide to making moral decisions.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Mandip Hare

19th September 2003

(Q1) Outline the main features of Jeremy Bentham’s guide to making moral decisions.

Jeremy Bentham set out the theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that looks to provide ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.’ It is based of the ‘Principle of Utility’, which is that in any situation that there is moral decision to be made, one should decide on the outcome which will produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number. The ‘Principle of Utility’ is a form of hedonistic utilitarianism. Bentham believed in this. The word hedonism originally comes from the Greek word hedone, which means pleasure. A hedonist believes that pleasure is the most important thing in life. Any action, which increases pleasure, is right and one that increases pain is wrong.

In Bentham’s utilitarianism the basic principle that judged goodness or badness of an action was an action that produced the greatest sum of pleasure and the least sum of pain. This formed a main feature of Bentham’s guide to making moral decisions. A way of measuring and defining pain was needed. Bentham formed the Hedonic calculus. This was supposedly a scientific measure of pain. He produced seven criteria to measure pleasure and pain. These were intensity, duration, certainty, extent, remoteness, richness and purity. Bentham believed that these factors should be taken into consideration when making a moral decision, which would affect the happiness of a community. If a Benthamite was put in position that involved making a moral decision they would most likely think that a good action was one which benefited society therefore a good action promoted pleasure over pain. They would then have to consider the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people before making a decision. To do this they would define their options and apply the hedonic calculus (seven criteria) to each option. They would act out the option, which produced the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

For Bentham an action is good or bad depending on the amount of pleasure shared by a number of people. He was clearly only concerned with quantity of pleasure. Bentham believed that all types of pleasure were equal; therefore quality was not an issue. He believed that no one pleasure was better than another. For example going to Paris for a long weekend over going to the Caribbean for a week. He believed that as long as the individuals are maximising their own participation in pleasure it is good. Bentham assessed pleasure of the basis of actions. He was not concerned with whether or not these actions abided by rules or the law; he was only interested in the happiness they generated. Bentham was also an egalitarian and believed that all are entitled to happiness.

This leads onto another main feature in Bentham’s guide to making moral decisions. Bentham believed in Act Utilitarianism. This was not based on rules and so right and wrong is relative to the circumstances. Actions are right or wrong on a privately circumstantial basis. He also believed in consequentialism. This meant judging rightness and wrongness of actions depended on our evaluation of the consequences. Therefore good and bad can only be judged after the event has taken place. This meant intention did not matter, only the result of the action did.

Bentham was also seen as a teleologist. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Bentham was also seen as a teleologist. A teleologist believes the teleological theory. It comes from the word Telos which means end point. It is the theory that every moral action is directed to the goal or telos of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, in other words every decision should have a purpose and that purpose should be to achieve the greatest pleasure for the greatest number. This was another main feature in his guide to making moral decisions.

To conclude Bentham’s guide to making moral decisions has seven main features. These are the teleological argument, the ‘principles of utility,’ consequentialism, quantative judgements, egalitarianism, the hedonic calculus and act utilitarianism. According to Bentham taking these into account should make any moral decision one which results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number. This is what Benthamite’s consider to be the most important thing in life.

Q2 “It was inevitable that Bentham’s ideas would be considered inadequate by religious believers and especially later utilitarians. His ethical theory had to be supersede.” – critically examine this view.

Some religious believers and some utilitarians can consider Bentham’s ideas inadequate.

A problem with Bentham’s theory and his hedonic calculus is that results are based on a quantative measure. For example, there are two emergencies in a hospital. One is a pregnant women who is expecting twins needs to be operated on immediately in order to save her life and her babies life and the other is an elderly women who has just had a stroke and will die unless she is seen to immediately. The only problem is that the hospital is extremely short staffed and only has one doctor available. Who should the doctor attend to? A Benthamite would have to apply the hedonic calculus. Attending to the mother would result in the greatest happiness, as three lives would be saved. There is also a greater richness and purity of saving a young ones life who has a likelihood of a long and happy life ahead. There is more pleasure generated as three peoples lives have been saved. There is a clear likelihood that the duration and extent of pleasure experienced by the mother and children will be greater than the pleasure of saving one elderly life. This is because duration of the elderly life is uncertain and also the women has lived the majority her life (‘the good innings argument’). The utilitarian doctor has decided to help the mother because there will be greater years of pleasure experienced by her and her children. But the question is, is it possible to measure pleasure in the number of years, and who will do the measuring? Another problem is that the hedonic calculus is relying on the doctors’ predictions. The mother and her twins may not be happy. The twins may be involved in a serious car crash, which results in them being severely disabled and reliant on hospital care. This will result in pain for the twin’s family and friends in the long term. Whereas the old man may only have had short life ahead of him, which would have, been pleasurable for him and those who knew him.

John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian and was inspired by Bentham. He understood the problems with some of Bentham’s ideas. He believed that it was desirable for people to have pleasure. He disagreed with Bentham’s ideas that all pleasures were of the same quality. Mill distinguished between higher pleasures and lower pleasures. He believed that higher pleasures were those related to the mind and lower pleasures were those related to the body. Mill believed that engaging in things that made the mind think and were difficult could attain more pleasure once they were understood rather than something that was pleasurable for while but had no real relevance to the intellectual mind. For example, Mill believed there was more value in ‘Pushpin than poetry.’ However Henry Sidgwick disagreed with Mill. He pointed out that it was difficult to find differences between higher and lower pleasures. How would you differentiate between one higher pleasure from another? If everything provided the same amount of pleasure there would be no need to choose. Sigwick could see that every activity was both quantitatively and qualitatively different.

Mill believed in eudemonistic (happiness) utilitarianism rather than Bentham’s hedonistic utilitarianism. Mill saw happiness as a more long lasting thing than pleasure. Pleasure satisfies the body, whereas happiness satisfies the mind, body and spirit. Mills feelings are summed up in his quotation, ‘it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.’ In this he is talking about quality rather than Bentham’s view of quantity. Even if something brings less pleasure than a good thing is, it is better because it is of a higher quality and therefore has more value (a human life greater value than a pigs’ life.)

Mill also saw Bentham’s view of Act utilitarianism as inadequate. Mill believes that rule utilitarianism is more adequate. Society needs a rule that means lying is prohibited in order to have the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Although telling a lie can result in short term happiness it often results in long-term pain. If telling a lie was acceptable as long it provided greatest happiness for the greatest number religious believers would have a problem with it a lying would be unacceptable. Rules are needed in society because without them society is unpredictable and there is no sense of consistency. Strong rule utilitarians hold that any given rule is shown to produce good and should be followed. Weak rule utilitarianism argues that rules should be accepted and appreciated, but they do not have to be followed if they will not produce a good outcome. Without rules people would do what they wished and say they did it due to consequentialism. This is when right and wrong is posteriori in their determination. For example murder. Religious believers would always see it as wrong. A utilitarian may justify it.

Another Bentham idea that is considered inadequate is the fact that pleasure is very broad. Different people have different ideas of pleasure. What may be pleasure for one person may be pain for another.

However some believers feel that Bentham’s ideas were perfectly adequate. He believed in Egalitarianism- all are entitled to happiness. This is a key aspect of utilitarianism. Another key aspect of utilitarianism is the teleological theory. This is a central part of utilitarianism and there would be no improvements needed. Religious believers would favour utilitarianism because Jesus’ teachings by claiming that to love your neighbour as yourself constitutes ‘the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.’

To conclude it is inevitable that religious believers and utilitarianism would consider Bentham’s ideas inadequate because he had lost the idea that certain pleasures did not always stay pleasurable. Utilitarianism depends our ability to know what gives other people happiness. This is changing constantly. Others may find the whole idea of utilitarianism inadequate to some extent. Greatest happiness for the greatest number is the core for utilitarianism thought, but as philosopher W.D Ross pointed out we cannot rely on just one equation for every situation, ‘life’s ethical dilemmas cannot be reduced to a pre packaged, predictive calculus which balances outcomes.’ For example, if you were a doctor and had to save one person out of your daughter or another doctor who had the cure to AIDS, who would you save? According to the greatest happiness for the greatest number you would save the doctor. Personally however you would want to save your daughter, after all she is your own flesh and blood. Ross believes in the prima-facie duty, which are the most important duties and the ones that should be carried out.