Utilitarianism

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Utilitarianism
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• 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
  the standards of right and wrong

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Case Intervention?

• The morally relevant aspects how will an
  intervention affect the suffering and utility of
  the peoples concerned?
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• A possible reasoning
• If one can estimate that the genocide and
  oppression in the long run implies more suffering
  then an intervention will do in the short run and
• If there is no other alternative that will imply
  less suffering
• then, an intervention is justified
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• What is right?
• Should I lie to save a person from a difficult
  situation?
• Should I kill a person to relieve her from severe
  suffering?
• Should I break a promise if this can help someone
  in real trouble?

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Consequentialism Teleological ethics (telos
goal)

• Def.
• The goal/the consequences determines the
  rightness of an action
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• Consequences for whom? (myself? My country right
  or wrong? )
• What consequences? (fame, knowledge, leisure,
  pleasure)

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Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832
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Utilitarianism

• Definition
• The moral end to be sought is the greatest
  possible balance of good over evil
• The greatest pleasure for the greatest number of
  persons

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Actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they tend to promote
the reverse of happiness John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873)
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For whom?

• Everyone counts for one, nobody for more than
  one (Bentham)
• The question is not Can they reason? nor Can
  they talk? but Can they suffer?

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What consequences?

• Good
• Pleasure
• Happiness  
• Hedonism pleasure is the only intrinsic value
  (value sought for itself)

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• Quantitative hedonism Benthams felicific
  calculus
• It is possible to quantify the amount of pleasure
  and pain (intensity, duration)

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• J S Mill 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, are of different
  opinion, it is because they only know their own
  side of the question. The other party of the
  comparison knows both sides

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C1 Is pleasure all that counts?The pleasure
machine

• Suppose there was an experience machine that
  would give you any experience you desired.
  Superduper neuroscientists could stimulate your
  brain so that you would think and feel you were
  writing a great novel, or making a friend, or
  reading an interesting book. All the time you
  would be floating in a tank, with electrodes
  attached to your brain. Should you plug into this
  machine for life, pre-programming your lifes
  experiences (Nozick, 1974)

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Preference utilitarianism

• The criterion of a right action is the amount of
  preferences satisfied
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• What preferences?
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• Interests
• Needs what is good for a person
• Capabilities (Sen and Nussbaum) what makes a
  person prosper

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Objections

• C 2, Can we foresee the consequences? 
• C1C2 Utilitarian answer this problem is common
  for all morality
• C2C2 The problem with Act-utilitarianism
• Rule-utilitarianism should be preferred to
  Act-utilitarianism, Def Rule utilitarianism
• Act according to the rule that has the greatest
  utility
• C3C2 Two levels of moral thinking (R M Hare)
• The prole and the archangel 
• Intuitive level - follow the rules and
  intuitions
• The critical level (with all information etc)
  determine the right action
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• C 3 Should we always treat persons equal? (Ones
  own children and others brats)
• C1C3 According to utilitarianism/universalism
  the best consequences follows from a rule saying
  that everyone has special obligations
• C2C3 Morality is demanding!
• www.thelifeyoucansave.com/

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• C 4 Can it be morally right to sacrifice a one or
  a few persons in the interest of the many?
• Dostoevskys question