WEEK 7: UTILITARIANISM

This is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the determination of right behavior based on the usefulness or consequences of an action 

Utilitarianism 

Who are the 2 foremost utilitarian thinkers?

1. John Stuart Mill

2. Jeremy Bentham

Who proposed the doctrine of utilitarianism?

Jeremy Bentham

This doctrine is based on the idea that pleasure and pain are motivation for all human action

Doctrine of Utilitarianism

• He is known for proposing the doctrine of utilitarianism

• He spent a large part of his life advocating legal reforms

• Influenced the political reform in England through the reform bill of 1832

• Introduced the hedonistic utilitarianism 

Jeremy Bentham

He equates happiness with pleasure 

Jeremy Bentham 

• Deals with pleasure and pain 

• The right action depends on the pleasure it gives and the pain it prevents 

• Prioritizes pleasure 

Hedonistic Utilitarianism 

What are the 7 criteria in Bentham’s felicific calculus?

1. Duration

2. Intensity 

3. Propinquity

4. Extent 

5. Certainty 

6. Purity 

7. Fecundity 

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does duration mean?

How long will it last?

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does intensity mean?

How intense is it?

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does propinquity mean?

How near or remote?

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does extent mean?

How widely it covers

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does certainty mean?

How probable is it?

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does purity mean?

How free from pain is it?

In Bentham’s felicific calculus, what does fecundity mean?

Will it lead to further pleasure?

• He is Bentham’s godson

• Believed that happiness, not pleasure, should be the standard of utility 

• Rejected Bentham’s use of hedonic calculus 

• He believed that higher pleasures are intellectual but pleasures of the body or lower pleasures are considered as appetite

• Introduced the eudaimonistic utilitarianism 

John Stuart Mill 

• Quality is better than quantity 

• An excessive quantity of something pleasurable can lead to pain

• Crude bestial pleasures are degrading because we are humans and not animals

• Human pleasures are different from animal pleasures

Eudaimonistic Utilitarianism