UTILITARIANISM

A THEORY OF HAPPINESS
 A THEORY OF HAPPINESS
 If Aristotle’s idea about a virtuous life is considered a theory
of human happiness, utilitarianism is also about happiness.
 Utilitarianism deals with something that is undoubtedly
important in human life, the promotion of happiness.
 However, whether both have the same meaning of
happiness is certainly a crucial question.
 Utilitarianism is a universal teleological system that calls for
the maximization of goodness in society—that is, the
greatest goodness for the greatest number—and not
merely the good of the agent.
 MOTIVE ACT CONSEQUENCES

 Utilitarianism and Egoism are forms of consequentialism – they

focus on the outcomes of the actions.
 But unlike egoism, utilitarianism focuses on the consequences for
all persons impacted by the action.
 The classical utilitarian moral theory:
When we evaluate human acts or practices, we consider neither the nature of
the acts or practices nor the motive for which people do what they do. Rather, we
consider the benefits and damages that their actions may bring.
 Practical Guide

 Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory because it mainly

counts the results of the actions in terms of whether they produce
happiness or not, i.e. unhappiness.
 Utilitarians point out that people actually practice utilitarian
principles even without recognizing that they do. Examples:
 The gov’t creates and implements policies that will produce benefits for
more people rather than just for a few.
 Some celebrities spend their birthday feeding less fortunate kids or people
because this will make more people happy.
 The driver bumped his jeepney to the post to avoid hitting the people in
the street. He must be thinking that his vehicle could be ruined & his 2
passengers could possibly be hurt, but not the 5 people on the street.
 ‘Oh Happiness! Our being’s end and aim.’
- Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle 4, 1. 1

 John Stuart Mill once pointed out that even

Jesus was also a utilitarian. He claimed that
“In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we
read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility.”
 It points to the fact that when the Christians
have to love their neighbors they wish and
practice this love for the welfare and
happiness of others.
Utilitarianism and Epicureanism,
hedonism
 Long before utilitarianism there was the classical theory that
has come to be known as HEDONISM (from hedon, the Greek
word for pleasure) or EPICUREANISM (named after Epicurus,
341–270 BCE).
 Epicurus was born on the Aegean island of Samos in 341 BC.
In the year 306 he settled in Athens, where he bought a house
and garden and established his philosophical school.
 He taught that we should live a simple life in accordance with
nature, and that we obey her when ‘we fulfil the necessary
desires and also the physical, if they bring no harm to us, but
sternly reject the harmful.’
Utilitarianism and Epicureanism

 Living well is living pleasantly, ‘for we recognize

pleasure as the first good innate in us, and from
pleasure we begin every act and avoidance, and to
pleasure we return again, using the feeling as the Epicurus
standard by which we judge every good.’ held that the good
 For Epicurus, the good life meant avoiding distress life was the pleasant
and desires for things beyond one’s basic needs. life.
 Bodily pleasure and mental delight and peace were “pleasure is the goal
the goods to be sought in life. This is Ataraxia. that nature has
Some words to describe this condition of Ataraxy is ordained for us; it is
also the standard by
calmness or tranquility of the soul (being free from which we judge
turmoil, distress.) everything good.”
Epicureanism capsulized in Carpe diem!

 The problem is in what manner we should ‘seize the day.’

 ‘The Ends of Good and Evils themselves, that is, pleasure and pain, are
not open to mistake; where people go wrong is in not knowing what
things are productive of pleasure and pain’ (Cicero 1931:59).
UTILITARIANISM
:A revolutionary idea
 The early advocates of utilitarianism considered it as a
revolutionary idea. Unlike theories in the past, this time the
theory makes no reference to:
1. to God, Religion, or Tradition
2. to abstract moral rules “written in the heavens”
 In this theory morality is not “a system of nasty puritanical
prohibitions . . . designed to stop people [from] having fun.”
[says, Peter Singer (1946–)]
 In utilitarianism what is only considered is whether the
consequence brings happiness or not.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) John Stuart Mill (1806 –1873)

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)
 born in 1748 to a wealthy family. A child prodigy,
his father sent him to study at Queen’s College,
Oxford University, aged 12.
 He also studied at Westminster School, which he
describe as “a wretched place for instruction.”
 Studied but did not practiced law, although wrote
books on law and legal reforms.
 A leader of a radical movement for social and
legal reform based on utilitarian principles.
 In 1776, anonymously published A Fragment on
Government.
 A Fragment on Government – stated the “fundamental
axiom:” “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number
that is the measure of right and wrong”, and “the obligation to
minister to general happiness, was an obligation paramount to
and inclusive of every other.”
 In 1781, he coined the term “utilitarian.”
 His primary published work was Introduction to the
Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789).
 While in Russia, he developed the idea of the
“panopticon” (Panopticon; Or, The Inspection House,
1791)
 Returning from Russia, he coined the term
“international.”
 His last will is that his body be anatomized in public,
and his mummified body & head be displayed at the
University College London (UCL).
 Utility and Justice

 Bentham’s first reference to the term

‘utility’ was to Horace.
 Horace: ‘utilitas, jiusti prope mater
et aequi’
 ‘utility, the mother of justice and
equity’
PLEASURE & PAIN

 Bentham says in the opening of his book, Introduction to the

Principles of Morals and Legislation:
 Nature has placed mankind under the governance 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.
Thus, for Bentham pleasure and pain are the only intrinsic
values; other things are considered valuable in relation to
these two.
PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS

 Utilitarians believe that pleasure or happiness is the

good to be produced.
 Happiness and pleasure are the only intrinsic goods—
that is, the only things good in themselves.
 As Bentham put it,

“Nature has placed mankind under the governance 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.”
PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS
 According to utilitarianism,
o we ought to decide which action or practice is best by
considering the likely or actual consequences of each
alternative.
 Utilitarians reject the idea that certain acts are intrinsically good
or evil (except, e.g., pleasure and pain).
 Classical utilitarianism is a pleasure or happiness theory,
meaning that it tends to reduce all other goods to some form of
pleasure or happiness.
The Principle of Utility
(from the words of Bentham)

 The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work:

… By the principle of utility is meant that principle which
approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever,
according to the tendency it appears to have to augment
or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in
question: or, what is the same thing in other words to
promote or to oppose that happiness.
Utility
(from the words of Bentham)

 By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it

tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or
happiness,… or … to prevent the happening of mischief,
pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is
considered: if that party be the community in general, then
the happiness of the community: if a particular individual,
then the happiness of that individual.
Utilitarian formula or slogan of right & wrong
 Bentham wrote in Fragment on Government (1776):
 ‘It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the
measure of right and wrong.’
 He attributed this formula “the greatest happiness of the greatest
number” to Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). – the coffee shop
incidence (1768)
 But there were many other utilitarians who had already
expressed same idea before or at the same time with Priestley.
 Claude-Adrien Helvétius and Cesare Beccaria
 Frances Hutcheson (1694–1746): “that action is best, which
procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.”
 David Hume (1711–1776), and Adam Smith (1723–1790).
 In common life, we may observe, that the
circumstance of utility is always appealed to;
nor is it supposed, that a greater eulogy can be
given to any man, than to display his usefulness
to the public, and enumerate the services,
which he has performed to mankind and
society (Hume, An Enquiry).
David Hume
Utilitarian formula or slogan of right &
wrong
 When reading David Hume’s Treatise of Human
Nature (1739–40)
 He “felt as if scales had fallen from my eyes”
 Bentham was the first to systematize utilitarianism.
 The Greatest Happiness
Principle

It is the greatest happiness of the

greatest number that is the measure of
right and wrong.
TWO FEATURES OF UTILITARIANISM

1. Consequentialist principle (teleological aspect) - states

that the rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by
the goodness or badness of the results that follow from it. It
is the end, not the means, that counts; the end justifies the
means.
2. Utility (or hedonist) principle - states that the only thing
that is good in itself is some specific type of state (pleasure
or happiness).
Theories Averse to Utility

1. Principle of Asceticism
 Constantly opposed to utility
 An inverse of the principle of utility
2. Principle of Sympathy or Antipathy
 Sometimes opposed, sometimes not
 It is mostly conducive to the government
 It frequently coincides with the principle of utility
HEDONIC CALCULUS

 Bentham invented utility calculus or hedonic calculus

 It
is the system for measuring pleasure and pain of the
act or decision.
 The score for any pleasure or pain experienced is
obtained by adding up the seven aspects of a
pleasurable or painful experience: its intensity, duration,
certainty, nearness, fruitfulness, purity, and extent.
Calculation: seven elements
 In addition to counting each person equally, Bentham and his followers
identified 7 elements that are used to calculate the greatest amount of
happiness:
1. Purity or the net amount of pleasure or happiness,
2. its intensity,
3. its duration,
4. Fecundity or its fruitfulness
5. Certainty or uncertainty: the likelihood that pleasure will occur
6. Remoteness or propinquity
7. Extent
Intensity: Pleasure minus pain

 Pain is intrinsically bad, and pleasure is intrinsically good.

 What is the probability that it is also followed by pain? Something that
produces pain may be accepted, but only if it causes more pleasure
overall.
 The following simplified equation indicates how the net utility for two acts,
A and B, might be determined. We can think of the units as either happy
persons or days of happiness:
o Act A produces twelve units of happiness and six of unhappiness (12 - 6 = 6
units of happiness).
o Act B produces ten units of happiness and one of unhappiness (10 - 1 = 9 units
of happiness).
Intensity

 How strong is the pleasure?

 All else being equal, the more intense the pleasure, the
better.

o Act A gives forty people each mild pleasure (40 x 2 = 80 degrees

of pleasure).
o Act B gives ten people each intense pleasure (10 x 10 = 100
degrees of pleasure).
Duration

 How long does the pleasure last?

 The longer lasting the pleasure, the better, all else being
equal. Thus, in the following scenario, Act A is better than Act
B.
o Act A gives three people each eight days of happiness (3 x 8 = 24
days of happiness).
o Act B gives six people each two days of happiness (6 x 2 = 12 days
of happiness).
Fecundity or Fruitfulness

 What kind of sensation or pleasure is produced?

 A more serene pleasure from contemplating nature may or may not be
more fruitful than an exciting pleasure.
 The fruitfulness of experiencing pleasure depends on whether it makes
us more capable of experiencing similar or other pleasures.
 For example, the relaxing event may make one person more capable of
experiencing other pleasures of friendship or understanding.
 Indulging in immediate pleasure may bring pain later on; so also the
pain today may be the only way to prevent more pain tomorrow.
Certainty or uncertainty: Likelihood

 If before acting we are attempting to decide between two available

alternative actions, we must estimate the likely results of each before
we compare their net utility.
 If we are considering whether to go out for some sports competition, for
example, we should consider our chances of doing well.
A. Act A has a 90 percent chance of giving eight people each five days of pleasure
(40 days x 0.90 = 36 days of pleasure).
B. Act B has a 40 percent chance of giving ten people each seven days of pleasure
(70 days x 0.40 = 28 days of pleasure).
Propinquity or remoteness

 How soon does the pleasure

occur?
Extent

 How many people are affected?

PROBLEMS WITH CALCULATING UTILITY

1. Bentham does not explain how do we go about measuring things

like the ‘intensity’ or remoteness’ of the pleasure or pain.
 By questionnaire, or by kind of biometric device?
2. We wonder whether there is any single experience called
‘pleasure’ that can actually be measured.
Aristotle suggests that the word ‘pleasure’ doesn’t refer to one
single sensation. There are as many different pleasures as there
are pleasurable activities,
PROBLEMS WITH CALCULATING UTILITY

Pleasures cannot be compared with one another

Technically, they are called ‘incommensurable’, e.g., tea-
drinking vs winning in lotto
3. Thus, there is no such thing as a single unit, as Bentham
suggested.
4. Lastly, are we going to consider all consequences of our
actions?
Simplistic & complicated

 Bentham’s utilitarian theory is simple because there’s only the

principle to apply: maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
 But on same reason, it is simplistic bec. there are other values than
pleasure and pain.
 The hedonic calculus is very complicated bec. it treats happiness and
pain as if they are clearly quantifiable. It involves too many variables
and assigning scores is problematic.
 His theory is considered as “pig philosophy” since a pig enjoying his
life would constitute a higher moral state than a slightly dissatisfied
Socrates.
John Stuart Mill
(1806–1873)
 Born on May 1806 in northern London.
 John’s father, JAMES Mill, was an associate of
Bentham’s and a supporter of his views.
 James Mill had a definite plan or ambition for
his son:
John had to become a utilitarian and empiricist,
and a leader of the next generation of
radicalism.
 So, James tutored his son under strict program
and supervision, learning Greek, Latin, Algebra,
Geometry, Logic, Calculus, History, etc.
 John Stuart Mill
 System of Logic (1843)
 Principles of Political Economy (1848)
 Mill married Harriet Taylor, a beautiful and brilliant woman. Before she
died, she made a list of things to work on – which became the basis
of Mill’s works instead. 3 items: ‘Foundations of morals,’ ‘Liberty’ and
‘Family.’
 On Liberty (1859)- a strong supporter of personal liberty, and in this
essay, he argued that the only reason for society to interfere in a
person’s life was to prevent him or her from doing harm to others.
 Utilitirianism (1863 as a book)– his short work where he sought to
dispel the misconception that morality has nothing to do with
usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure.
 The Subjection of Women (1869)
 Mill also served in the British Parliament from 1865 to 1868. After
this he retired in Avignon until his death in 1873.
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY

 “The utilitarian doctrine is that happiness is desirable, and the

only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only
desirable as means to that end.”
 The basic moral principle of utilitarianism is called the
principle of utility or the greatest happiness principle.
As John Stuart Mill explains:
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the
Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion
as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the
reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the
absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.
Outcome matters more than motive of duty.
As Mill puts it:
“He who saves a fellow creature from drowning does
what is morally right, whether his motive be duty or the
hope of being paid for his trouble.”
Eudaimonistic Utilitarianism: Ultimate End

 HAPPINESS is the highest goal of humans and it is the sole basis of

morality.
 The ultimate end … is an existence exempt as far as possible
from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in
point of quantity and quality…”
 The end of human action, is necessarily also the standard of
morality…”
 By the observance of which an existence … to the greatest
extent possible, secured to all mankind; … but, so far as the
nature of things admits, to the whole sentient creation. . . .”
Higher and Lower types

 Happiness is defined in terms of higher and lower types.

1. Higher-order pleasures or satisfactions
 intellectual, aesthetic, social enjoyments, etc.
2. Lower, or elementary, pleasures
 include eating, drinking, sexuality, resting, and sensuous titillation
 The lower pleasures are more intensely gratifying, but they also
lead to pain when overindulged in.
 The higher pleasures tend to be more long term, continuous, and
gradual.
HIGHER AND LOWER FORMS OF
PLEASURE
 For Mill, one can observe that people would prefer a
certain type of pleasure over others regardless whether
many or less would benefit from it.
 He argues that the higher, or more refined, pleasures are
superior to the lower ones. Some pleasures are more
befitting of a human being than others.
 Mill says that the pleasure of a higher quality are those that
employ our distinctively human faculties, such as the
intellect.
 Which act has more quality than the
other?
 Playing online games all day for  Studying 3 hours a day for a week
a week.  Tedious, yet allows one to develop her
• Immediately satisfies one’s intellect & virtue of perseverance in
search for fun and excitement learning impt lessons for school
• Allows one to hangout with  The discipline of focusing on relevant
friends tasks related to one’s education can go
• Lets one enjoy oneself while a long way in one’s future endeavors
escaping the everyday pressures  Relatively solitary
of daily tasks  Has the potential to bring pleasure to
• Essentially satisfies one and one’s one’s family by showing one’s gratitude
gaming friends immediately for their gift of education
Mill’s criticism of other views of
utilitarianism
 “The comparison of the Epicurean life to that of beasts is
felt as degrading, precisely because a beast’s pleasures
do not satisfy a human being’s conceptions of happiness.
Human beings have faculties more elevated than the
animal appetites and, when once made conscious of
them, do not regard anything as happiness which does not
include their gratification.”
 “It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to
recognize the fact that some kinds of pleasure are more
desirable and more valuable than others.”
Mill opposed Bentham on the notion of pleasure:
Some pleasures are preferred more than others

 Few human creatures would consent to be changed into

any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest
allowance of a beast’s pleasures;
 no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool,
 no instructed person would be an ignoramus,
 no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish
and base, even though they should be persuaded that
the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with
his lot than they are with theirs.
Mill opposed Bentham on the notion of
pleasure
 “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool
satisfied. And if the fool or the pig is of a different opinion, it
is because they only know their own side of the question.”
 Meaning: Happiness must be pursued in direct proportion
to the form of the being which desires it. Not all pleasures
are of same type.
A pig prefers pleasures befitting of its nature and would
be clueless to the possibility of higher forms .
Consult with competent judges

 A person, however, has the capacity to realize a higher

form of happiness because her nature as a rational being
permits her to do so.
 Pleasures of the mind are considered higher than the
pleasures of the flesh.
 When there is a problem about which forms of pleasure are
to be regarded as higher than others, Mill points to the
opinions of competent judges who have both knowledge
and experience of a wide spectrum of pleasure.
2 TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM

1. ACT UTILITARIANISM
- An act is right if and only if it results in as much good as
any available alternative.

2. 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.
ACT UTILITARIANISM

 Holds that we should appeal directly to the ‘principle of utility’ in

order to judge what is right in any particular situation.
 We must ask what effect this act will have in this situation.
 We must calculate the effects of each action on its own merits.
 If telling a lie – in this individual instance – would yield the
maximum balance of pleasure over pain, then telling a lie is
morally right.
RULE UTILITARIANISM

 Believes that in order to determine what really maximises pleasure

and minimizes suffering, we must look more deeply at societal
practices and institutions.
 Involves secondary principles, or rules. “Everyone should always
establish and follow that rule or those rules that will bring about the
greatest good for all concerned.”
 It is only by our acting for the most part according to rules that the
greatest good is served. Thus, we need to set up a series of rules
that, when followed, will yield the greatest good for all humanity.
The Strengths of Utilitarianism:
3 positive features
1. First, it is a single principle, an absolute system with a
potential answer for every situation: Do what will promote
the most utility!
It’s good to have a simple, action-guiding principle that is
applicable to every occasion—even if it may be difficult to
apply (life’s not simple).
2. Second is that utilitarianism seems to get to the substance
of morality. It is not merely a formal system that simply sets
forth broad guidelines for choosing principles.
It has a material core: We should promote human (and
possibly animal) flourishing and reduce suffering.
It seems commonsensical.
3. It is particularly well suited to address the problem of
posterity.
The problem of posterity: “Why should I care about
posterity; what has posterity ever done for me?”
Utilitarianism has an answer (but egoism fails on this
question): to maximize general happiness.
- Meaning, “we should care for the future generations
because it is part of following the greatest happiness
principle.
CRITICISM OF UTILITARIANISM

1. Problems with Formulating Utilitarianism

 The very formulation of utilitarianism: “The greatest happiness for
the greatest number” contains two “greatest”: “happiness” and
“number.” – Which has priority when there’s a conflict.
 Example of a similar case:
 I am offering a P10,000 prize to the person who runs the longest distance in
the shortest amount of time. Three people participate: Danny runs 5 miles in
31 minutes, Gino runs 7 miles in 50 minutes, and Mika runs 1 mile in 6 minutes.
Who should get the prize? Gino or Mika?
CRITICISM OF UTILITARIANISM

2. The Comparative Consequences Objection

 To determine the results of the action it seems to require
a superhuman ability to look into the future and survey a
mind-boggling array of the consequences.
 Solution: following C. I. Lewis, utilitarians distinguish two
kinds of consequences:
 (1)
actual consequences of an act and (2) consequences that
could reasonably have been expected to occur.
A. As per consequence 1: An act is absolutely right if it has
the best actual consequences.
B. As per consequence 2: An act is objectively right if it is
reasonable to expect that it will have the best
consequences.
3. Bernard Williams’s words: it has ‘too few thoughts and
feelings to match the world as it really is.’