Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a normative-consequentialist ethical theory in which the locus of right and wrong is solely determined by the consequences (outcomes) of choosing one action/policy over another. 

 

•    The underlying principle of utilitarianism is that an action is justified if it benefits the greatest number of people. According to this viewpoint, an action is morally right if the consequences are more favorable to everyone than unfavorable.

•    The idea of utilitarianism emerged in normative ethics from the writings of English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the 18th and 19th centuries.What does the term "utility" mean? The concept of utility is used in economics to demonstrate worth or value, but its application has changed significantly over time. Moral philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill coined the term as a measure of pleasure or satisfaction within the utilitarianism theory.

 

•    Utilitarianism refers to a group of consequentialist ethical theories that advocate for actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the majority of a population.

•    Although different types of utilitarianism have different definitions, the basic idea behind them all is to maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of well-being or other concepts.

•    For example, utilitarianism's founder, Jeremy Bentham, defined utility as "that property in any object that tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness...[or] to prevent mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered."

 

•    Utilitarianism is a universalistic form of Ethical Hedonism, in which Hedonism claims that pleasure is the highest good and the supreme ideal of life. Utilitarianism maintains that pleasure is the supreme ideal of life, not individual pleasure but universal or general happiness. Utilitarianism's slogan is "the greatest happiness of the greatest number."

•    Utilitarianism is a variant of consequentialism, which holds that the only criterion for right and wrong is the consequences of one's actions. Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as egoism and altruism, utilitarianism takes all beings' interests into account equally.

 

•    Several points of contention among utilitarian include whether actions should be chosen based on their likely outcomes (act utilitarianism) or whether agents should follow rules that maximize utility (rule utilitarianism). 

 

•    There's also debate over whether total (total utilitarianism), average (average utilitarianism), or minimum utility should be maximized.

 

•    Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill are two of the most important classical utilitarian (18061873). Both Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were important theorists and social reformers. Their theory has had a significant impact on moral philosophical work as well as economic, political, and social policy approaches. Despite the fact that utilitarianism has always had its detractors, many 21st century thinkers support it.

 

•    The philosopher whose name is most closely associated with the foundational era of the modern utilitarian tradition is Jeremy Bentham, a jurist and political reformer. Earlier moralists, such as John Gay, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Claude-Adrien Helvétius, and Cesare Beccaria, had articulated several of the core ideas and terminology of utilitarian philosophy, but it was Bentham who rendered the theory in its recognizably secular and systematic form and made it a critical tool of moral and legal philosophy as well as political and social improvement.

•    Human behavior, according to Jeremy Bentham, is hedonistic. He explained that pleasure and pain are natural motivators for humans.

 

•    All rational beings prefer to pursue what makes them happy and avoid what makes them unhappy. As a result, the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by the amount of pleasure and pain it causes, as well as the number of people who are affected by the pain or pleasure. 

 

•    To calculate pleasure and pain, Bentham devised the Hedonic Calculus. By focusing on seven things, one can calculate the pleasure and pain of flowing from an action in a given situation using this calculus. 

 

1.    Intensity: How powerful is it? 

2.    How long has it been going on? 

3.    Its probability: How likely is it? 

4.    Its proximity: When is it likely to arrive? 

5.    Its fecundity: What if it could bring you even more pleasure? 

6.    Its purity: How pain-free is it?

7.    The scope of the problem: How many people are affected?

 

•    By considering all of this, we can determine the best course of action to take in any given situation. The goal is to provide the greatest amount of pleasure to as many people as possible. Act utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham's viewpoint. Every action we take should benefit the greatest number of people. These are the appropriate life actions.

 

•    All pleasures, according to Bentham, are the same. There are no qualitative differences in pleasures. Pleasures only differ in terms of quantity, i.e. whether they are more or less. Bentham claims that, given the same quantity of pleasure, pushpin (a game) is as good as poetry (i.e. there is no qualitative difference). As a result, quantitative utilitarianism is a popular moniker for Benthamite utilitarianism.

 

•    This is an excellent method for resolving moral dilemmas. Assume you are on a boat and witness two people drowning in one area of the sea while one person drowns in another. You don't have time to visit both locations, but you can visit any of them. Which one are you going to pick? According to utilitarianism, you should go to the area of the sea where two people are drowning. According to utilitarianism, this is the most appropriate action because morality is based on consequences, and we should always choose actions that bring the greatest amount of pleasure to the greatest number of people.

 

•    Opponents of utilitarianism argue that it justifies all actions that benefit the greatest number of people, even if such actions may not benefit the minority. 

 

•    Furthermore, for utilitarian, a good action is one that provides pleasure while avoiding pain, so utilitarian can defend a grossly immoral act if it provides maximum pleasure to the greatest number of people. 

 

•    As a result, even the most violent action is moral for a utilitarian if it brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people. In addition, the Hedonic calculus is not very useful in emergency or emergent situations because all consequences cannot be anticipated all of the time. Simply put, when making quick moral decisions, you may not have the time to weigh all of the pleasures and pains of all of the people involved and apply the hedonic calculus. As a result, acting utilitarianism appears to be more impractical than practical.

 

•    John Stuart Mill, a generation later, became utilitarianism's most effective proponent. Mill was raised on strictly Benthamism principles by his father, philosopher James Mill, and devoted his life to the defense and promotion of the general welfare.

 

•    Mill became a powerful champion of lofty moral and social ideals with the help of his long-time companion Harriet Taylor.

 

•    John Stuart Mill was educated by his father, James Mill, who was a close friend of Jeremy Bentham, and was exposed to utilitarian thought at a young age. He claims in his autobiography that at the age of sixteen, he was the first to use the term "utilitarian" in the English language. Throughout his life, Mill remained a utilitarian.

 

•    Utilitarianism (1861) by John Stuart Mill is a detailed explanation of utilitarian moral theory. In response to criticisms of the doctrine, Mill not only argued in favor of Jeremy Bentham's basic principles, but also proposed several significant improvements to the doctrine's structure, meaning, and application.

 

•    Mill accepted Bentham's devotion to the principle of greatest happiness as the fundamental statement of utilitarian value: “. . . Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”

 

•    The Rule-Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill is a variant of utilitarianism. While he agreed with Bentham that the moral thing to do is to promote the greatest good for the greatest number, he also believed that there should be some basic rules in place to help us achieve this goal. 

 

•    Mill believed that the goal of utilitarianism is to promote happiness for as many people as possible, and that in order to do so, we must maximize pleasure and eliminate pain for as many people as possible. However, he disagreed that all differences in pleasures could be quantified. 

 

•    According to Mill, some types of pleasure experienced by humans differ qualitatively from one another, and only those who have experienced both types of pleasure are qualified to judge their relative quality. This establishes the moral value of promoting higher (largely intellectual) pleasures among sentient beings, even if their intensity may be less intense in the short term than alternative lower (largely bodily) pleasures.

 

•    “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”

 

•    Nonetheless, Mill acknowledged that achieving happiness is often difficult, so we are often justified morally in focusing on reducing the total amount of pain experienced by sentient beings affected by our actions. On Mill's view, pain—or even the sacrifice of pleasure—is justified only when it directly contributes to the greater good of all.

 

•    Mill provided a significant qualification to those who argue that the utilitarian theory unreasonably demands that individual agents devote their primary energies to the cold-hearted and interminable calculation of anticipated effects of their actions. 

 

•    We properly allow our actions to be guided by moral rules most of the time because we do not have the time to calculate accurately in every instance, he claimed. Mill pointed out that secondary moral principles, at the very least, provide ample guidance for everyday moral life, partly anticipating the later distinction between act and rule utilitarianism. 

 

•    Finally, he emphasized that the value of each specific action must be determined by reference to the principle of utility itself, especially in difficult or contentious cases.