Utilitarianism

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Utilitarianism

• Winter term
• Lecture 1

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Relevance of ethics (I)

1. Was the development of capitalism in England a
   good thing?
2. Was enclosure justified?
3. Why have banks been subject to criticism for
   their role in the 2008 crisis?
4. What were the drawbacks of the Soviet system?
5. Is globalization beneficial to developing
   countries?

3
Relevance of ethics (II)

1. Are there ethical limits to the market?
2. Do we have a duty to obey the law?
3. Should York University pursue an affirmative
   action programme?
4. What should we be doing to help people in
   developing countries?
5. What is the right thing to do?

4
Utilitarianism

• Question What is the right action or best
  policy?
• Answer That which produces the greatest
  utility or has the best consequences.
• (Utility welfare or happiness)

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Utilitarianism

• 2 tenets
• Consequentialism actions are to be judged
  solely by their consequences.
• Egalitarianism everyones welfare (utility) is
  to count equally.

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Example

• Should city authorities give planning permission
  for a coal-fired power station near an urban
  community?
• The answer depends on the consequences
• Who gains?
• Who loses?
• Do the gains outweigh the losses?

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Potential problems

• Can we reliably assess the expected gains/ losses
  associated with the power station?
• What about other cases
• doubling student fees,
• funding a scientific research project,
• legalizing heroin consumption,
• bailing out the banking system?

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What Is utility?

• Can we measure happiness?
• Can we compare the happiness one person derives
  from different activities?
• Can we compare degrees of happiness
  interpersonally?

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A few Paradoxes

• Trolley-bus examples.
• Bernard Williams Jim.

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Persons

• Egalitarianism Do we have special obligations
  to some people but not to others?
• Do we have special obligations to ourselves?
• Is happiness the highest good (Nozicks pleasure
  machine)?

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Rights

• A negative right gives me the opportunity to do X
  if I wish. It imposes a duty on others not to
  prevent me from exercising my right to do X.
• A positive right entitles me to Y if I am unable
  to procure Y for myself. It imposes a duty on
  someone else to provide me with Y if I cannot
  provide it for myself.

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Utilitarianism rights

• Why does utilitarianism have difficulty
  accommodating rights?
• Examples
• Forced transplantation
• Expropriation of assets of the wealthiest
  individual in society.