Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, Moore

1. AB – PhilosophyMoral Ethics August12, 2016
Utilitarianism
 Under the influence of Newton’s physics and the modern experimental science,
UTILITARIANISM emerged from a desire to construct a moral theory through the scientific
method.
 Moral theory was to be based on an empirical approach
 The method was to avoid purely speculative or metaphysical concepts.
 The right and wrong,goodand badwere to be convertible intoconcrete verifiable terms
which results for the betterment and happiness of the human community.
JEREMY BENTHAM(1748-1832)
 Man is motivated by two main drives:
 To seek pleasure
 To avoid pain
 Pleasure or happiness is not defined by a flight of metaphysical discourse
 Pleasure is the pleasantness or feeling of well-being that man derives from activities
such as eating and drinking, or reading a book or listening to music.
 “Utility”means“thatpropertyin any object whereby it tends to produce pleasure, good or
happiness to the party whose interest is considered”
 “THE GREATES HAPPINESS OF THE GREATEST NUMBER” – fundamental principle
 “Felicific Calculus”
 A way of balancing the pros and the cons of an envisaged act.
 A morally good act is that which lies at the point of intersection of maximum pleasure
and minimum pain.
 Seven Elements to be considered in the Felicific Calculus
 Intensity
 Duration
 Probability
 Proximity of the pleasure to be derived from the action
 Fecundity (or the capacity to engender further pleasures)
 Purity (or the relative absence of any admixture of painful countereffects)
 Extent (or the number of people affected, should also go into the balance)
 Man’s end and goal is to seek pleasure or happiness properly
 If he doesn’t seek pleasure properly or he seeks pleasure erratically then he comes to
grief and pain instead.
 Or he does not necessarily get the most pleasure that is possible in life.
 Example: Man must accept that others also seek happiness.
 Rule: “Everybody is to count for one, nobody for more that one”
o Man violates the rule and he eventually incurs pain and unhappinesss.
 So to help solve this problem, there are several sanctions the individual from seeking
happiness.
 Political (arrest, imprisonment)
 Social (public opinion)
 Religious (punishment in an afterlife)
 Physical (direct consequences of the action in one’s own self)
 Ethics for Bentham consists of method which shows how to attain pleasure and happiness
properly and effectively.
John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873)
 Mill’sfatherwasa ferventdisciple of Benthamandaccordinglyhe indoctrinated his son the
principles of Bentham’s utilitarianism.

2.  At the age of 20, young Mill went to a kind of mental crisis and saw other things than
Bentham’s “felicific calculus”
 Mill found Bentham’s view of human nature too narrow.
 He proposed that man’s end is not mere pleasure and absence of pain, but a more
generalized kind of happiness.
 It isnot to be soughtfor itself butwhichmanattainsbyseekingsome othergoal orideal
as an end in itself such as;
o Spiritual Perfection
o Knowledge
o Aesthetic Experience
o Creative Imagination
 In other words, there are higher and lower pleasures and different kinds of pleasures
and satisfactions.
 “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates
dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”
 For Mill, the ultimate end of all human desires remains happiness.
 All those soughtinthemselves are at the same time sought as “parts” or “elements” of
happiness.
 HappinessforHimisnot merelypleasure but ultimately the harmonious development
of the human person
 Man has a social nature which give him with a desire for unity with his fellowmen
o He cannot really be happy if others are suffering
 Happiness comes from the harmonious development of the human person.
Henry Sidgwick (1833-1900)
 He classifies all moral theories into three types
 “Egoism” or “Psychological Hedonism”
o That the good is the greatest happiness of the agent.
 “Intuitionism”
o Which hold that there are ultimate ends transcending mere utility such as
knowledge, virtue, beauty, or ultimate rules such as those of “benevolence”
(seek the good of others as well as one’s own)
 “Utilitarianism”
o are the theorieswhichholdthatthe good is the greatest happiness of all those
affected by the act under consideration.
 Both Benthamand Mill are classified by Sidgwick as “Egoists” or “Psychological Hedonists”
 Although they give regard to the happiness of others, Sidgwick feels that for both of
them,the happinessof othersissoughtonlyinsofaras it will ultimately redound to the
individual’s own happiness
 “Intuitionism”
 He says that such ends and rules proposed are based on:
o Intuition
o Common sense
o Social tradition
 By this ends and rules, certain actions are recognized as belonging to a class of actions
which have certain common features and which are “right” and “ought” to be done.
o However, such ends and rules are vague and eventually run into conflict with
one another.

3.  In the end, he holds that the good is that which promotes maximum and distributive
general happiness.
 “Utilitarianism”
 Arising from both “Egoism” and “intuitionism”
 “All men do seek their own happiness.
o To achieve his own happiness, the individual must eventually seek the
happiness of other
 Both egoismandintuitionismeventuallyleadtoutilitarianism or universal hedonism, It
holdsthatthe good is the happinessof the individual and of the community in general.
 Morality demands that the individual sacrifice his individual happiness for the sake of
that of the community
 Two possible solutions:
o Psychological,toshow thatthe bestwayto seekone’s ownhappiness is to seek
that of others
o Metaphysical,the belief inorthe postulate of a God who either in this life or in
an afterlife rewardsthose who sacrifice their own individual happiness for the
sake of others
 Sidgwick and Mill are considered to have paved the way for the shift from “act
utilitarianism” to “rule utilitarianism”
o Act utilitarianism –the rule of individualandgeneral happinessisapplied to the
particular act
o Rule utilitarianism – asks rather whether an act belongs to a type of acts which
by commonexperience andtraditionare likelytopromote general happiness or
its opposite.
George EdwardMoore (1873-1958)
 For him, "good is unanalyzable".
 It is unexplainable by or underivable from anything outside of the notion itself.
 We recognize the good by itself by direct apprehension or intuition.
 Rejects as a "natural fallacy" (the attempt to identify or define the good by something
other than what it is, such as by pleasure or benefit or happiness)
 Good is, therefore, are such things as found in the world.
 But theyare goodnot merelybytheirphysical qualities,but under some formal
aspect or order.
 For example:aesthetic enjoyment, personal affection (examples by which are
good in this sense.
 He is against egoistic utilitarianism.
 For good is good.
 The interest in one’s own good is a natural inclination, but it is not necessarily a
moral inclination
 He is also against the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
 To do the good is to do the good, regardless of whether it affects ten people or a
hundred.
 Moore remains utilitarianism.
 He considersthatthe act itself isnot good or bad, but is merely a means to the end
which is good or bad.
 He holds that the subjective intention or motive or attitude is irrelevant to the
rightness of the act.
o What determinesthe rightnessof the actisthe objective good produced by
the act.
o “I am morally bound to perform this action.” is identical to or logically
equivalent to “This action will produce the greatest possible amount of
good in the universe.”
 To have the intentionormotive toserve others may be praiseworthy, but if the act
itself objectively causes suffering in the world, then the act is morally wrong.