Unit 1 Utilitarianism

UNIT 1
UTILITARIANISM
LEARNING OUTCOMES
AT THE END OF THE UNIT, THE LEARNERS WILL BE ABLE TO:
• Discussed the basic principles of utilitarian ethics;

• Distinguished between two utilitarian models: the quantitative
model of JeremyBentham and the qualitative model of John Stuart
Mill; and
• Applied utilitarianism in understanding and evaluating local and
international scenarios.
WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM?
• Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure
and the determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the
action's consequences.
PASTORESE
• Putting these ideas together, utilitarianism claims that one's actions and
behavior are good in as much as they are directed towards the experience
of the greatest pleasure over pain for the greatest number of persons.
PASTORESE
• Its root word is "utility" which refers to its usefulness of the
consequences of one's action and behavior. The two foremost utilitarian
thinkers are JeremyBentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-
1873).
PASTORESE
• Their system of ethics emphasizes the consequences of actions.
• Utilitarianism is consequentialist.
• For Bentham and Mill, utility refers to a way of understanding the results
of people's actions. Specifically they are interested on whether these
actions contribute or not to the total amount of resulting happiness in the
world.
• The utilitarian value pleasure and happiness
PASTORESE
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY
• Jeremy Bentham begins by arguing that our actions are governed by two
"sovereign masters"- which he calls pleasure and pain.
• The principle of utility is about our subjection to these sovereign masters:
pleasure and pain.
• The principle refers to the motivation of our actions as guided by our
avoidance of pain and our desire for pleasure.
MELGAR
• The principle also refers to pleasure, as goo if, and only if, they produce
more happiness that unhappiness.
• Mill supports Bentham's principle of utility by reiterating moral good as
happiness and, consequently, happiness as pleasure.
• What Bentham identified as the natural moral preferability of pleasure,
Mill refers to as a theory of life.
Bordon
• Felicific calculus is a common currency framework that calculates the
pleasure that some actions can produce.
CALEB K
• In this framework, an action can be evaluated on the basis of the
• (a) intensity or strength of pleasure;
• (b) duration or length of the experience of pleasure;
• (c) certainty, uncertainty, or the likelihood that pleasure will occur; and
• (d) propinquity, remoteness, or how soon there will be pleasure.
CALEB K
PRINCIPLE OF THE GREATEST
NUMBER
• Equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to describe the utilitarian
moral agent alone and independently from others.
• Utilitarianism cannot lead to selfish acts.
• It is neither about our pleasure nor happiness alone; it cannot be all about
us.
• utilitarianism is not dismissive of sacrifices that procure more happiness
for others.
PROVIDO
• utilitarianism is not at all separate from liberal social practices that aim to
improve the quality of life for all persons.
• Utilitarianism is interested with everyone's happiness, in fact, the greatest
happiness of the greatest number.
• utilitarianism maximizes the total amount of pleasure over displeasure for
the greatest number.
MAGULLADO
JUSTICE AND MORAL RIGHTS
• Mill understands justice as a respect for rights directed toward society's

pursuit for the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
• Utilitarianism argue that issues of justice carry a very strong emotional
import because the category of rights is directly associated with the
individual's most vital interests.
GASTIL
• Our participation in government ad social interactions can be explained
by the principle of utility.
• Mill understands that legal rights are neither inviolable nor natural but
rights are subject to some exceptions.
• Mill creates a distinction between legal rights and their justification.
GASTIL
• He points out that when legal rights are not morally justified in
accordance to the greatest happiness principle, then these rights need
neither be observed, nor be respected.
• Mill thinks that it is commendable to endure legal punishments for acts of
civil disobedience for the sake of promoting a higher moral good. At an
instance of conflict between moral and legal rights, Mill points out that
the former (moral rights) takes precedence over the latter (legal rights).
HUESCA
• Mill seems to provide circumstances in which some moral rights can be
overridden for the sake of the greater general happiness.
• One's right to privacy can be sacrificed for the sake of common good.
HUESCA
• He qualifies moral rights in this way:
• All persons are deemed to have a right to equality of treatment, except

when some recognized social expediency requires the reverse. And hence
all social inequalities which have ceased to be considered expedient,
assume the character not of simple in expediency, but of injustice, and
appear so tyrannical, that people are apt to wonder how they ever could
have been tolerated;
PARREÑO
• forgetful that they themselves perhaps tolerate other inequalities under an
equally mistaken notion of expediency, the correction of which would
make that which they approve seem quite as monstrous as what they have
at least learnt to condemn.
PARREÑO
• Mills moral rights and considerations of justice are not absolute, but are
only justified by their consequences to promote the greatest good of the
greatest number. For him, justice can be interpreted in terms of moral
rights because justice promotes the greater social good.
MONTALBAN
CONCLUSION
• Utilitarianism is considered one of the most powerful approaches to

normative ethics in philosophy. Act and rule utilitarianism are two main
sub-branches of utilitarianism, which differ in their focus. Hence, the
difference between act and rule utilitarianism is that act utilitarianism
emphasizes the consequences/results of action whereas rule utilitarianism
emphasizes the consequences from following a rule of conduct.
MONTALBAN
THANK YOU!
• MEMBERS:
Melgar
Parreno
Provido
Pastorese
Montalban
Huesca
Celab K.
Bordon
Magullado
Magbanua
Gastil

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UNIT 1

• Discussed the basic principles of utilitarian ethics;

• Mill understands justice as a respect for rights directed toward society's

• All persons are deemed to have a right to equality of treatment, except

• Utilitarianism is considered one of the most powerful approaches to

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