Utilitarianism

• Human beings share a common interest in the variety of utilitarian strands that have developed historically e.g. 
• David Hume - Benevolence and sympathy 
• Bentham and Mill - Pleasure and Happiness
• Peter Singer - Preferences
• R.M. Hare - People's wefare 
• G.M Moore - Pleasure, friendship, aesthetic appreciation 

• Bentham's Hedonic Calculus - "Everybody is to count for one and nobody for more than" - no person's pleasure greater than another's 
• Historically - radically challenged elitist, aristocratic system 
• Instead emphasising Rousseau's battle-cry of the French Revolution: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
• Application to social developments of 19th Century - Bentham known for his penal and Parliamentary reform 
• Compatible with Marxist democracy in giving the proletariat their just rewards for their labour and the authority and power to determine their future.

• Post-Enlightenment World 
• Challenge to metaphysical and theistic foundations 
• High regard for individual autonomy 
• Importance of pleasure and happiness is people's lives, here and now, something governments take seriously 
• E.g. Peter Singer's Preference Utilitarianism - recognises respecting people's desires when assessing moral dilemmas 
• Siginifcantly - replace SHLP wth  criteria of personhood
• Due to advances in scientific technology - possible to maintain life with minimal quaility e.g. life support machines, in latter stages of Motor Neurone Disease 
• Respects dignity and preferences of person involved + cost effective - in a world of limited resources - more sensible to respect a patient's wish to die - funds spent elsewhere 

• Bentham's Principle of Utility compared to Jesus' Golden Rule - "Love your neighbour as yourself" 

• Rationale behind Christian teaching of redemption may be understood in a utilitarian manner: 
• Vicarious suffering by Jesus on the cross 
• To redeem humanity 
• Self-sacrifice of the one for the needs of the many 

• Thus - Utilitariansism upholds the message of a benevolent God showing interest for the well-being of humanity
• Perhaps ironically - rejects belief in the existence of such a metaphysical deity

• Bentham + Mill's political and social reforms - significant impacts on public policy

• E.g. Penal reform, greater rights for women and children 
• Hedonic Calculus  - philosophy behind Whig government's Social Reform of the New Poor Law 1834 
• Stated life inside workhouse must be less pleasant than life as an independent labourer 

• More recently - Labour government of Blair's administration - taken seriously its duty and commitment to promote the quality of life for the overwhelming majority of its electorate 
• focusing on a social policy programme of Education Health, and Law and Order reform 

• G.E. Moore famously argued "one cannot deduce an ought from an is" (Principia Ethica 1903)
• Mere statement of phychological fact that people actually desire happiness for its own sake 
• Cannot deduce the evaluative conclusion that pleasure is desirable i.e. that it ought to be desired
• E.g. May desire something you ought not the desire 
• E.g. Take hard drugs as it produces pleasure - but is taking hard drugs good? 

• When making moral decisions in the heat of the moment, lacking reflection 
• E.g. you're on the top of a burning building - what do you do? 
• Adding up 'pleasure units' - dubious exercise and difficult to measure accurately 

• Equally - assessing different varieties and intensities of pleasue is too subjective 
• Important development - J.S. Mill - instead of hedonic calculus people should come up with general principles which over the passage of time have promoted greatest happiness
• as a result Individual judgements supported by past events - thus less pressurised and less subjective
• Mill - weak rule utilitarian - advocated following such rules 

• E.g. International Example - State indoctrination by Chinese Government witnessed in 1989
• Suppressed student uprising in Tiananmen Square
• Communist government claimed the state, not the educated students, knew what was in the people's best interests
• Giving students civil liberty to protest in their desire for greater autonomy - not deemed acceptable 
• Central importance - who should have authority to determine what is regarded to be of utility and why? 

• Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - John, the Savage, rejects a life of artificial drug induced happiness.
• A life of depth and meaning is one which embraces and learns from hardships and sorrow
• Richness comes from pain and sacrifce 
• Greater appreciation and ultimately purpose - moral growth 
• Compatible with tthinking Professor John Hick 
• Irenaean Theodicy - "Virtues are better hard won than ready made" 

• Even if one were to accept Bentham's psychological hedonism (people are motivated by pleasure/pain) and thus one should aim at his or her own happiness 
• Does not logically follow that an individual wills the pleasure / happiness of the greatest number 
• Jumping from an egotistical position to that of altruism 
• Particularly when such altruism could come at the expense of personal gain 

• Bentham's original philosophy reagrded scoety as a collection of individuals who work together for the common good, however in practice serious flaws: 
• E.g. Global poverty remains a perennial stain on 21st century humanity
• E.g. Government leaders - fall foul of putting altrusim into government polciy - e.g. George Bush, shortly after being elected withdrew America from its obligations of the Kyoto Agreement 

• E.g. Majority of UK public - in favour of legalising voluntary euthanasia (2001: 82% opinion poll) 
• Easily manipulated by the media 
• All too often follow desires and inclinations failing to think through the implications of their decision
• e.g. How might ethos of society change, affecting weak and vunerable people such as the elderly? 

• Mill - aware of this criticism - In On Liberty drew an important distinction between private and public acts 
• "Your freedom to punch me ends where my nose begins"
• Any law which has a serious detrimental effect on the qualitative well being of otheers is wrong

• Not simply the amount of pleasure produced, but how that pleasure is distributed
• Intuitionist W.D. Ross - serious objection to Bentham's utilitarianism 
• Inadequate to focus purely on the amount of pleasure
• Ignores demands of justice - justice not concerned simply with amount of pleasure but how and on what basis it is distributed 
• Important question: Do these people deserve to receive pleasure? 

• Implicitly unjust to raise the quantitiy of pleasure for the greatest number by a small amount at expense of severe suffering of a minority group - Bentham's Utilitarianism justifies this 

• W.D. Ross Criticism 
• Ignores intrinsic goods that are contrary to our intuitive, innate sense of right and wrong 
• e.g. even if it could be shown that happiness was greatest by lying to people 
• Something simpy wrong about lying and deception - would make people reject such an ethic 

• Consequential, Instrumental morality - lacks intrinsic goods 
• e.g. trust, honesty, dignity 
• Creates ethos of uncertainty - people never really sure if they are valued
• E.g. early 1980s many middle-aged business men - shown great loyalty accuring high profits for their companies - sacked overnight
• replaced by YUPPIES (Young Urban Professional People) - cheaper and younger 

• In Order for Greatest Happiness Principle to work
• Professor Alasdair MacIntyre - non-utilitarian framework required 
• where intrinsic, deontological values enable people to flourish
• E.g. Happiness may be promoted in a society that upholds intrinsic values of justice, liberty and honesty

Consequences are difficult to predict

• Act - no guidelines aside from Hedonic Calculus 
• Too impractical 
• Rule - benefit of receiving guidance from past rules which have shown to produce greatest happiness for greatest number 
• Better position to accurately predict consequences 
• Act - suffers from Bounded Rationality more than rule  - someone is unaware of  full facts or as Professor John Rawles states acting under a "veil of ignorance" - no guidelines from which it may predict outcomes which have occured in similar past situations 

Act Utilitarianism is Self-Defeating

• Peter Singer 
• Illustrates problem with example of promise keeping 
• Promises - made on understanding that they will be kept - rule utilitarian recognises as promoting happiness 
• However, Act utilitarian may make a promise is one situation - no guarantee that they will always uphold promise keeping 
• Thus one can never take seriously a promise from them - no confidence they will keep their promise 

Act Utilitarianism is, by definition, an inconsistent philosophy

• Make decisions following only the principle of utility 
• If everyone followed Act Utilitarianism  - impossible to predict consequences 
• So, by definiton, one could not will that everyone follow it, as if they did, the ethical theory would not work

• Rule utilitarians - recommend following rules, which in past have promoted happiness - apporach can be universally applied + consequences predicted
• Avoiding inconsistency of Act Utilitarianism 

Does not take account of professional obligations 

• Society functions by people recognising their obligations - once signed a contract 

• E.g. Doctor - obligation to uphold patient's medical confidentiality
• Act Utilitarian doctor - might report her patient's condition e.g. teenage pregnancy to girl's parents (thinking it would produce greatest happiness) - breaking trust and code of medical profession 
• Rule Utilitarian - recommend following professional code - in past, such a code has promoted greatest happiness i.e. teenagers are happy to go to doctors for help as opposed to dealing with situation on their own 

Does not take into account family relationships

• Accused of undermining family relationships 
• as it adopts an impartial approach 
• "Everybody is to count for one and nobody for more than one" 
• Overall happiness for greatest number - all that matters 
• Implication: mum's birthday - better to donate money to Oxfam than buy her a present 

• Whereas Rule Utilitarianism - spirit of utilitarianism is to be impartial 
• Past experience  teaches that when preferential treatment is offered those who are close - those societies function well - producing greatest happiness