Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Benthams utilitarianism is a relative, teleological and subjective theory.

Bentham was a social reformer of his day, controversially opposing the following: slavery, mistreatment of animals and the death penalty. He was in much support of: equal rights for women, the right to divorce and decriminisation of male homosexual acts

Bentham believed that human nature could be explained by the belief that we are all psychological hedonists.

• hedonism - the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self indulgence
• the theory that pleasure or happiness is the highest good and the aim of human life

Bentham took the aforementioned enlightenment notion and applied them to practical morality, creating a single, simple, principle (therefore avoiding the angst we felt when trying to assess the initial dilema).

Pain VS pleasure - "nature has placed mankind under the goverment of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do". Comments on this:

• no mention of good as inherent in an action
• he is a hedonist who dedicates his life to a search of pleasure
• Bentham is looking at the outcome to determine an action is good.

Benthams utilitarianism: actions are judged as a means to a pleasureable end. Benthams view is described as ACT UTILITARIANISM as the action is what is being prescribed as useful or not.

The seven elements of pleasure gave Bentham a method of testing whether an action is useful (utility) in bringing about happiness and is therefore morally good, in that if it was good it would result in the most pleasurable outcome. Whatever is good or bad can be measured in a quantifiable way.

Benthams Hedonic Calculus

seven elements of pleasure:

• the intensity of the pleasure (how deep)
• the duration of the pleasure caused (how long)
• the certainity of the pleasure (how certain OR uncertain)
• the remoteness of the pleasure (how near OR far)
• the chance of a succession of pleasures (how continious)
• the purity of the pleasure (how secure)
• the extent of the pleasure (how universal)

Weaknesses with Benthams Utilitarian Argument (Mill)

• Seeking pleasure could lead to animalistic instincts e.g. sex. But they shouldn't guide us.
• doesn't distinguish between different sorts of pleasures. We need to catergorize pleasures. We need to distinguish between higher order and lower order pleasures (we should do the higher order pleasures).
• doesn't give different pleasures a rank order
• Mill disagrees with the hedonistic calculator because its not practical, too many variables, too vague and offers too many options
• it relies on accurate predictions…