2. Utilitarianism
What is Utilitarianism ?
“Actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of happiness." (John
Stuart Mill's Greatest Happiness Principle)
In other words, judge an action by the total
amount of happiness and unhappiness it
creates
3. Examples
Say there is a train coming toward a group of 5 people
tied to the tracks
you're standing by the lever to make the train go
onto a different path that is heading towards
yourself.
4. Examples
A utilitarian would pull the lever to make the train head
in his/her direction. Killing one person creates a greater
amount of good than killing 5 people.
5. Examples
A large group of people is stuck in a cave because a
fat man (no put down intended) is stuck in the only
exit of this cave.
BOOM
The only way to free themselves would to
dynamite their way out, therefore sacrificing the
fat man. Otherwise they will all die.
6. Theory 1:Teleological Theories
Defining characteristics
moral goodness is dependent upon non moral
values
justification of actions based on ends: “ends
justify the means”
greatest balance of good over evil
7. Example
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings on President
Truman‟s orders in 1945 during World War II
1. Two populous Japanese cities destroyed
2. 200,000 Japanese civilians killed
3. Japan Surrendered
4. This Option was better as it avoided the land
Invasion of Japan which had an estimated death
toll of 1 million.
8. Strengths
compatible with our own moral reasoning (all
done to promote oneself)
a prudential morality based on the assumption
that others will take advantage
human nature to be self-interested (psychological
egoism)
9. Weaknesses
an ethical theory must be „universalized‟ -- able to
be adopted by others
human experience shows that we have a wide
variety of motivations including doing things for
others for its own sake
10. Theory 2:Deontological Ethics
Actions or rules are valuable in themselves without any appeal to
consequences
Rule deontological theories are very conducive to „role‟ morality:
duties and obligations
Duties are self-evidently true
lying, bribery, respect for others
Example - The Lockheed case in Japan.
11. Example – Ross‟s System
Duties of Fidelity – To keep promises.
Duties of Reparation – To compensate people for injury
that we wrongfully inflict on them.
Duties of Gratitude – To return favors that others do for
us.
Duties of Justice – To ensure that goods are distributed
according to the merits of the individuals.
Duties of Beneficence – To improve conditions of others.
Duties of Self-Improvement – Self-Improvisation with
respect to virtue and intelligence.
Duties of Non-Maleficence – Avoiding injury to others.
12. Strengths
intuitively,
many of the duties are plausible
focuses on the treatment of individuals
Weaknesses
difficult to determine „rightness‟
prioritizing rules when in conflict is problematic
14. Jeremy Bentham‟s version
Defining Characteristics
1. This principle approves or disapproves of every
action on the basis whether the action has a
tendency to:-
1. Augment or increase
2. Diminish or decrease
the happiness of the party whose interest is in
question.
15. ACTION
S
Consequences
Tendency
?
Increase Decrease
happiness happiness
Action Action
approve disapprove
d d
16. The Hedonistic calculus
Bentham assumed that a precise quantitative
measurement of pleasure and pain was possible
and outlined a procedure that he called hedonistic
calculus. It states that :-
17. Reaction to Hedonism
Critics at that time complained that pleasure is
too low to constitute the good for human
beings and pointed out that even pigs are
capable of pleasure, which led to the charge
that utilitarianism is a “PIG PHILOSOPHY”.
18. John Stuart Mill‟s version
He developed a more defensible version of
utilitarian position :-
“actions are right in proportion as they tend
to promote happiness , wrong as they tend
to produce reverse of happiness.”
20. John Stuart Mill‟s version
Mill departed from Bentham‟s strict quantitative treatment of
pleasure by introducing the idea that pleasures also differ in quality.
However Mill‟s insight does not succeed in saving the thesis of
hedonism or the utilitarian principle that we ought to produce the
greatest possible amount of pleasure . For example
TV Viewer Pie Chart
% of ppl
preferring
trashy TV
shows
% of ppl
preferring fine
dramas
21. John Stuart Mill‟s version
Mill departed from Bentham‟s strict quantitative treatment of
pleasure by introducing the idea that pleasures also differ in quality.
However Mill‟s insight does not succeed in saving the thesis of
hedonism or the utilitarian principle that we ought to produce the
greatest possible amount of pleasure . For example
OH GOD!! No
more of Ekta
Kapoor daily
soaps
A Utilitarian Decision maker
22. Other Forms Of Utilitarianism
The utilitarian principle involves 4 distinct
theses :-
I. Maximalism : a right action is one that
has not merely some good consequences
, but also the greatest amount of good
consequences possible when the bad
consequences are also taken into
consideration.
II. Universalism : the consequences to be
23. Act Utilitarianism
“It states that an action is right if and only if it
produces the greatest balance of pleasure over
pain for everyone.”
24. The Case of Lockheed , 1972
, Japan
Carl Kotchian ,then president of
Lockheed had to offer $12.5 million in
bribes and commissions to sell 21 tristar
planes in Japan
Thousands of Stock Holders
jobs were saved were saved
25. Rule Utilitarianism
“It states that an action is right if and only if it
conforms to a set of rules the general
acceptance of which would produce the greatest
balance of pleasure over pain for everyone. In it
the consequence of following the relevant rule is
considered. “
26. Example of Rule Utilitarianism
Examples:-
1. Working hard for examinations
2. Always stopping when traffic signal is
red
3. Wearing a helmet while driving
4. Recycling waste
Editor's Notes
A good example of utilitarianism is: Say there is a train coming toward a group of 5 people tied to the tracks and you're standing by the lever to make the train go onto a different path that is heading towards yourself. A utilitarian would pull the lever to make the train head in his/her direction. Killing one person creates a greater amount of good than killing 5 people. A large group of people is stuck in a cave because a fat man (no put down intended) is stuck in the only exit of this cave. The only way to free themsleves would to dynamite their way out, therefore sacrificing the fat man. Do they all free themselves at the cost of one life or do they not kill him and all die?This situation is quite similar to the one in the movie "Abandon ship", in which the captain of a sunken ship finds himself in the middle of the ocean with only one rescue raft and twice as many surviving passengers as it can possibly take. Even though many of them manage to stay in the water clinging to the boat, the raft is about to sink... The heart of the matter being that he chooses to keep only the correct amount of passengers -setting the others at large-, so that all the ones on the raft can survive the upcoming storm.
President Harry Truman had a difficult decision to make in 1945, near the close of World War II. The Japanese military refused to surrender even though it was quite clear that their defeat was inevitable. Truman's military advisors, however, were estimating that a land invasion of Japan might result in the deaths of as upwards of 1,000,000 American service men and prisoners of war, as well as many thousands of Japanese casualties, both civilian and military. There was another option: drop the atomic bomb on a Japanese city. Estimates of the deaths and injuries for such a drop were high, but not as high as the the estimates for land invasion. Truman, of course, made the choice to drop the bomb, first on Hiroshima, and then, when an offer of surrender did not materialize, a second bomb on Nagasaki. The gamble worked: the Japanese surrendered. But the cost was indeed horrific: two populous Japanese cities destroyed, with upwards of 200,000 Japanese civilians killed either immediately or by radiation poisoning. The case of Truman's difficult decision reveals something important about the manner in which we make moral judgments in many situations: our judgments often boil down to thinking through the consequences of our actions, and doing what in the end we believe will bring about the greater good. Ethicists commonly call this approach to moral judgment "teleological ethics" (from the Greek roots telos = end or aim + logos = reason), or "consequentialism."
For example The case of Lockheed in Japan in 1972 where Carl Kotchian ,then president of Lockheed had to offer $12.5 million in bribes and commissions to sell 21 tristars plane in Japan. However the above action was had the following positive consequences:-Thousands of jobs were saved , thereby benefitting Lockheed workers , their families and the communities in which they lived.Stock holders were saved from the loss that would have resulted from the collapse of the company.
