Rule Utilitarianism

What is rule utilitarianism?

Rules based on utilitarian principles, followed individuals/society, each person counts as an individual irrespective of pleasure/pain

What are the concepts for rule utilitarianism?

- The harm principle

- Higher/lower pleasures

- Liberty + sovereignty of the individual

- Rules based on utilitarianism

What does rule utilitarianism establish?

The best overall rule by determining the course of action which, when pursued by the whole community, leads to the greatest result

Is rule utilitarianism qualitative or quantitative?

Qualitative

What is strong R.U?

One should not break one of these general rules to fit individual situations

What is weak R.U?

Pain and pleasure may take precedence over the general rule

What was Mill's belief about the greatest happiness principle?

If the principle was quantitative (based on number of people affected and amount of happiness) nothing would stop one person's pleasure being extinguished for the majority

What did Mill say about Bentham's act of utilitarianism?

He argues that there are two types of pleasure (higher and lower) and Bentham's idea is too simplistic -> aiming for something more complex

What did Mill change about Bentham's idea?

Replaced his quantitative measure + focused on qualitative pleasures

What does Mill's approach try to promote?

The common good, general happiness -> is universalistic in outlook

What did Mill say about high and low pleasures?

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied"

What does Mill's quote about high and low pleasures mean?

It is better to aim for high pleasures (Higher pleasures are qualitatively superior as they are more highly valued/long lasting even when limited in number)

What are high pleasures?

Pleasures of the mind (being intellectual), which is preferred -> often benefit you in the long run

What are low pleasures?

Pleasures of the body -> more short-term

What did Mill believe about high pleasures?

Everyone could learn to cultivate higher pleasures + live life in the best way

What did Warburton say about Mill's belief about high pleasures?

Not everyone has access to the same opportunities or have the time to "learn to cultivate higher pleasures" -> intellectual snobbery

What is the sovereignty of the individual?

"In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign"

-> everyone has authority over themself + freedom to do what they please (links to the harm principle)

What is the sovereignty of the individual also known as?

The liberty principle -> a society which guarantees freedom of choice in private life is a happy society (should only be limited if it causes pain)

What is the harm principle?

We can do anything as long as it doesn't compromise anyone else or cause harm except in the case of self-protection

What is the problem with the harm principle?

When we harm ourselves, are we necessarily just doing this? At what point does it start to hurt others? -> do we have an act that only truly harms us?

Who put forward the harm principle?

Mill

What are the strengths of rule utilitarianism?

- Nina Rosenstand -> the harm principle is the foundation of the principle of civil liberties -> is democratic + fair

- Sums up "love your neighbour"

- Secular + relevant in multicultural society

- Mill used to hand out leaflets about contraception -> prevents spread of STDs -> reduces harm

- Allows us to maintain integrity in order to make the best moral decisions -> Mill includes the harm principle, sovereignty of the individual + fairer rules based on utilitarian principles

What are the problems with the rule utilitarianism?

- It ensures that most people receive pleasure but it guarantees nothing for minorities -> Alasdair Macintyre argued that the Nazi policy of exterminating Jewish people could be considered good if the greater population thought it pleasurable

- Impractical -> WD Ross - we have more of a duty to our family and friends, Mackie - doubts that humans can act for the greatest good as we are often selfish, Hobbes - humanity without authority is "nasty, brutish and short"

- Problem of defining + ranking pleasure/happiness

- Ignores revelation (too reliant on reason)

- Doesn't protect sanctity of life (value of individual)

- Ignore intrinsic moral values (what's good/right)

- Mill doesn't adequately reconcile public + private interest -> should we sacrifice our own welfare for the greater good? (Barbet)

Mill quotes

- “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”

- “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse."

- "His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion."

- “The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race"

- "To bring a child into existence without a fair prospect of being able, not only to provide food for its body, but instruction and training for its mind, is a moral crime"

What it Singer's preference utilitarianism?

- Defines utility in terms of satisfying people's interests

- Prioritises the more achievable minimisation of pain

- Morally responsible for acts of omission as well as commission