Utilitarianism

Week 1: Utilitarianism

1. What is Utilitarianism?

Utilitarianism is a branch of consequentialism, which holds that the only relevant thing, morally speaking, is the consequences. Utilitarianism says that in acting as individuals and in governments choosing laws and policies, we should maximize people’s well-being. Historic developers: Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

The most famous formulation of the utilitarian principle is Mill’s: ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’. Within this claim we can see utilitarianism’s three basic claims:

1. Individuals’ well-being is what matters morally, and ultimately all that matters (see 3.)
2. We have moral and political duties to maximise the well-being of individuals who are affected by our actions (see 4.)
3. Maximising well-being involves assessing the future consequences of our actions.

Cf. Utilitarianism is usually contrasted with deontological views where we have duties to respect individuals, especially their rights, not maximise anything, and not look to the future.  

Utilitarianism offers both a theory of the good and a theory of the right.

• Theory of the Good – utility is the sole good.
• Theory of the Right – maximize the good.

1. The Appeal of Utilitarianism

• Individual well-being: self-evident and objective.
• No appeal to contested metaphysical claims (unlike human rights and theology).
• Egalitarianism: each person’s welfare counts the same, no more than other people’s.  
• Flexibility and sensitivity to circumstances, context and situation.
• It draws on facts and offers ‘determinate, no-nonsense advice on practical matters’ (Goodin).
• Utilitarianism vs. ‘common sense morality’. Counterintuitive, but is this good? (see Benatar’s anti-natalism).

1. Theories of Well-Being

i.  Hedonistic theories: our well-being is measured in terms of pleasure or happiness as a state of mind.

Bentham’s reductionist view and Mill’s qualitative distinctions between pleasures.

Problems: subjective; wrongful source of happiness; Nozick’s ‘experience machine’ thought experiment

ii. Preference Satisfaction theories: our well-being is measured by how far our preferences or desires are satisfied. Preferences are more easily measurable than happiness, at least for governments.

      Informed Preference theories: our well-being is measured by how far our preferences our met, if we had full information and insight into our preferences.

Problems: external preferences (limiting others’ liberty); adaptive preferences (people socialised into desiring their subordination).

iii. Interest-based/welfare/objective theories: our well-being consists of an objective account of our interests and how far they are realised, e.g. health, education, wealth, knowledge, freedom, relationships. Interest-based theories overcome the problems faced by hedonism and preference-satisfaction which result from their subjectivism.

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