Topic 1a + 1b: Context of Bentham’s Moral Philosophy, Clarifying Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Holds that the principle of utility (PU) is the fundamental principle of morality

Principle of Utility

PU

Actions are right if they tend to maximize utility, actions are wrong if they tend to not maximize utility

Hedonism

The view that happiness is the only thing with intrinsic value

Bentham defended this view

Applying Bentham’s Utilitarianism: Maximization

Utilitarianism is impartial

The pleasure and pain of each individual matters equally

My pain and pleasure are weighted the same as your pain and pleasure

Looking at the pain and pleasure of everyone as a collective

Applying Bentham’s Utilitarianism: Aggregation

To determine whether action A or action B is the right thing to do

• identify how much pleasure and pain A and B will produce in the world

• Add all the pleasure caused by A, and subtract all the pain caused by B

• Add all the pleasure caused by B, and subtract all the pain caused by A

• The right thing to do is the action with the largest net sum of pleasure

Three fundamental convictions

Equality of persons → everyone is to count as one and no one for more than one

Pleasures of sentient creatures are the only ultimate goods → ultimate good = a good that is not derived or reducible to another good

Morality has to be based on firm principles → morality is not opinion

The principle of sympathy and antipathy (and the problems with it)

Use of our moral sense to intuit the right answer to moral dilemmas

Problems: unprincipled, easily biased

The principle of asceticism (and the problem with it)

Maximizing pain over pleasure

Problem: just a form of utilitarianism

Argument by elimination

Used by Bentham to defend the PU

A form of argument that defends a theory by showing that all competing theories are unsatisfactory

Two essential components of Bentham’s theory

Theory of the good: the good is what’s of intrinsic value, pleasure is the only thing with intrinsic value

Theory of the right: the right is what maximizes the good for everyone

Six properties to measure happiness

Intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness, fecundity, purity

Problems with measuring pleasure

Ordinal measurement → putting items in order from worst to best

Cardinal measurement → giving a numerical value to the pleasure

Pleasure can be given an ordinal measurement, but can it be given a cardinal measurement?

The problem of interpersonal comparisons

Utilitarianism requires that we make interpersonal comparisons of utility → it requires a measurement comparing happiness of one person to another.

To do this we need to be able to affix cardinal measurements of happiness.