Utilitarianism

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Utilitarianism
Leadership and Ethics

• Lesson 4

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Utilitarianism

• What is Utilitarianism?

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Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism
• The moral philosophy that actions derive their
  moral quality from their usefulness as means to
  some end, especially as means productive of
  happiness or unhappiness.
• Applied to civics and politics, the greatest
  happiness of the greatest number should be the
  sole end and criterion of all public action.

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Utilitarianism

• Who was Jeremy Bentham?

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Utilitarianism
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Utilitarianism

• Jeremy Benthams Utilitarianism
• Recognized as Act Utilitarian
• Right actions result in good or pleasure, wrong
  actions result in pain or absence of pleasure.
• Max pleasure/min suffering morality criticized
  as pig-philosophy
• Hedonic Calculus

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Utilitarianism

• Some have argued lecture, that the ends cannot
  justify the means in moral choices.
• Would a utilitarian say that the ends can justify
  the means?

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Utilitarianism

• Hedonic Calculus measuring pleasure and pain
  using what amounts to a formula
• (for a group, it measures intensity, duration,
  certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and
  extent.). This calculation allows a utility
  based decision to be made on virtually any
  subject.
• Is this useful?

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Utilitarianism

• Hedonic Calculus Exercise

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Problems with Utilitarianism

• Dont always know the consequences of our actions
• Difficulty in measuring pleasure and happiness
• May be counterintuitive sacrifice one to save
  many
• Concerned only with ends only the bottom line
  matters
• Does not take moral significance of individuals
  seriously enough, we are mere conduits of utility

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Utilitarianism

• Who was John Stuart Mill?

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Utilitarianism

• John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism
• A more sophisticated form of Utilitarianism.
• Concerned with quality of pleasure and quantity
  of people who enjoy it.
• Recognized higher and lower types of human
  pleasure.

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Utilitarianism

• John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism
• Lower pleasures eating, drinking, sexuality,
  etc.
• Higher pleasures intellectuality, creativity and
  spirituality.
• Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool
  satisfied
• Rule Utilitarian?

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Utilitarianism
Act (Contemporary) Utilitarianism An act is
right if and only if it results in as much good
as any available alternative.
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Utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism An act is right if and only
if it is required by a rule that is itself a
member of a set of rules whose acceptance would
lead to greater utility for society than any
available alternative.
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Utilitarianism

• Rule Utilitarianism
• Debated as a valid form of Utilitarianism
• Exceptions to the rules can often be found!
• Three levels of rules suggested

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Utilitarianism

• Rule Utilitarianism Levels of Rules
• Rules of thumb always to be followed unless in
  conflict with another rule.
• Higher level rules which override thumb rules.
• No rules apply do your best!

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UtilitarianismSociety and the Bomb

• Who was Henry L. Stimson?
• Why did he advise President Truman to drop the
  bomb?

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UtilitarianismSociety and the Bomb

• Is killing the innocent always wrong, no matter
  what the consequences?
• Would you have advised President Truman to drop
  the bomb?

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Questions? Next Kantian Ethics
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Medical Triage
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Utilitarianism

• Your military strategists have targeted a
  significant munitions factory located next to a
  childrens hospital. Obliterating the factory is
  crucial to the success of your overall
  campaigning. Any hit on the factory will impact
  the hospital.
• How would you decide what to do using Utilitarian
  principles?
• Do you find the Utilitarian recommendations
  morally satisfactory?

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Utilitarianism

• The Chief Executive Officer of large corporations
  often earn from 18 to 30 times more per year as
  the average employee in those corporations.
• Can you think of a Utilitarian defense for this
  salary pyramid?
• Can your think of some objections that a
  Utilitarian might raise to this radically unequal
  distribution of economic benefits?

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Utilitarianism

• Do you think that Mills version of
  utilitarianism is an improvement of Benthams?
• What is the chief difference?
• Can you think of situations in which an action
  that wold maximize happiness would, nonetheless,
  be a wrong act?
• Give some examples and explain them?

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Utilitarianism

• Exercise
• Directions You are a group of survivors from a
  ship which is rapidly sinking. A lifeboat is
  near at hand but it can only hold ten people.
  The waters outside of the boat are dangerous,
  insuring death for those who do not make it
  aboard the life boat. How long they will survive
  in the frigid, shark infested waters is unclear -
  just that they will indeed die.

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Utilitarianism

• Questions
• How was the decision made? Did a leader
  naturally emerge from the group?
• Were the rights of the less fortunate considered?
• Did the survivors feel remorse for the shipmates
  they consigned to death?
• Was there a consistent theory (or philosophy)
  which guided the decision making?

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UtilitarianismSociety and the Bomb

• Do you agree that in some circumstances the use
  of nuclear weapons is morally permissible?
• A tenet of Utilitarianism is that each person
  counts for one and only one. On this view then
  is there a difference between the moral worth of
  the lives of a civilian and a combatant? In
  light of this, ought there to be a difference?