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Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. By: Atty. Christine P. Carpio. References:. William F. Lawhead, Philosophical Questions (Classic and Contemporary Readings), 1 st Edition, McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2003.
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Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill By: Atty. Christine P. Carpio
References: • William F. Lawhead, Philosophical Questions (Classic and Contemporary Readings), 1st Edition, McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2003. • David Lyons, Rights, Welfare and Mill’s Moral Theory, Oxford University Press, 1994. • James Agarwal & David Cruise Malloy, “The role of existentialism in ethical business decision-making,” Business Ethics: A European Review, Vol. 9, Number 3, July 2000.
Biography: • (1806-1873), born in London. One of history’s greatest ethical and political thinkers. • made his living as an executive of a trading firm in London, writing philosophy on the side. • He was elected Parliament in 1865.
Biography: • His wife Harriet Taylor was a brilliant woman who had a deep influence on him and co-authored with him in many of his most important works. • While serving a term in Parliament, Mill unsuccessfully tried to amend the Reform Bill of 1867 to give women the vote.
Biography: • Furthermore, he published The Subjection of Women in 1869 in which he argued for the political empowerment of women on utilitarian grounds. • Mill died in Avignon, France, on May 8, 1873 where he was buried next to Harriet who had died earlier.
Introduction to the theory of utilitarianism and utilitarian ethics • It is based on the theory that the right action is the one that produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.
Summary of Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill • is an essay written to provide support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral theory, and to respond to misconceptions about it.
Summary of Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill • It defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness." • Mill defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain. He argues that pleasure can differ in quality and quantity, and that pleasures that are rooted in one's higher faculties (intellectual, moral and aesthetic faculties) should be weighted more heavily than pleasures of lower qualities (i.e. animal pleasures).
Summary of Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill • Furthermore, Mill argues that people's achievement of goals and ends, such as virtuous living, should be counted as part of their happiness. • If society were to embrace utilitarianism as an ethic, people would naturally internalize these standards as morally binding.
Summary of Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill • Mill argues that happiness is the sole basis of morality, and that people never desire anything but happiness. • He supports this claim by showing that all the other objects of people's desire are either means to happiness, or included in the definition of happiness.
Summary of Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill • Mill explains at length that the sentiment of justice is actually based on utility, and that rights exist only because they are necessary for human happiness.
Chapter 1 General Remarks • Very little progress has been made toward developing a set of standards by which to judge moral right and wrong. For more than two thousand years, people have been attempting to determine the basis of morality, but have not come any closer to consensus. • The essay will provide a foundation to identify morality as the concept of utility
Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is • Utility is the Greatest Happiness Principle. This principle holds that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” • Furthermore, Mill observes that even if the possession of a "noble character" brought less happiness to the individual, society would still benefit. Thus, because the greatest happiness principle considers the total amount of happiness, a noble character, even if it is less desirable for the individual, is still desirable by a utilitarian standard.
Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is • The major sources of unhappiness are selfishness and a lack of mental cultivation. • Thus, it is fully within most people's capabilities to be happy, if their education nurtures the appropriate values. Furthermore, most of the evils of the world, including poverty and disease, can be alleviated by a wise and energetic society devoted to their elimination.
Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is • Mill admits that the willingness to sacrifice one's happiness for others is the highest virtue. Furthermore, he says that to maintain an attitude of such willingness is actually the best chance of gaining happiness, because it will lead a person to be tranquil about his life and prospects. • However, sacrifice is not in itself good. It is good insofar as it promotes happiness, but is not a good if it does not promote happiness.
Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is • The utilitarian's standard for judging an act is the happiness of all people, not of the agent alone. Thus, a person must not value his own happiness over the happiness of others; and law and education must help to instill this generosity in individuals. • This does not mean that people's motives must only be to serve the greatest good; indeed, utilitarianism is not concerned with the motives behind an action; the morality of an action depends on the goodness of its result.
Chapter 3. Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility • Utilitarianism has or can impose all the sanctions that other moral systems can. Mill notes that there exist both external and internal sanctions. External sanctions exist externally to the human agent as an individual (i.e. peer pressure, the fear of their disapproval, the fear of his wrath. The second type of sanction, internal sanctions, stems from one's conscience; these consist of feelings in one's own mind which create discomfort when one violates duty.
Chapter 3. Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility • Internal sanctions provide the strongest influence over people's actions, hence utilitarianism must appeal to people's inner sentiments in order to exercise a binding force on them. • Thus, Mill argues that once general happiness becomes recognized as the moral standard, natural sentiment will nurture feelings that promote utilitarianism.
Chapter 3. Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility • Mill argues that society could and should nourish this natural sentiment through education and law.
Chapter 4. Of What Sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible • People only desire things that are part of happiness or a means to happiness. • The only possible refutation that could legitimately be made is that the moral will is something different than physical or emotional desire; virtuous people carry out actions without thought of such pleasures.
Chapter 4. Of What Sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible • However, will originates in desire; • Mill then says that it leaves it to the "thoughtful reader" whether what he has said is true.
Chapter 5. On the Connection Between Justice and Utility • Meaning of justice: Situations (violation of legal rights, moral rights, obtaining something which he does not deserve, violating an agreement with someone, showing favoritism in appropriate circumstances) • Justice is actually grounded on utility.
Chapter 5. On the Connection Between Justice and Utility • The sentiment of retribution becomes a moral one if it occurs when not only an individual is wronged, but when society in general is wronged. • Rights represent the most basic social utilities necessary for human well-being; human culture cannot flourish if society does not protect individual rights. Thus, rights are fundamental to the greatest happiness principle (utility), since they must be protected for people to be able to enjoy anything else.
Chapter 5. On the Connection Between Justice and Utility • As Mill admits, grounding rights in utility implies that if there are more pressing utility concern, rights could be violated. • However, since utilitarianism is concerned with total happiness, it does seem possible that there is room for violation of the rights of an individual in the interest of aggregate good.
Chapter 5. On the Connection Between Justice and Utility • One must thus ask whether utility provides sufficient protection for the individual. Mill would argue that the protection the theory does provide, small as it may be, is the only protection that can be justified.
Use of Utilitarian Theory in Ethical Decision-making process • Identification of the problem; • The generation of alternatives; • The quantitative evaluation of alternatives; • Selection and implementation of the “best alternative.” • Evaluation of the decision.
Comment: • The impact of utilitarian decisions upon the individual or minority presents a further problem. • If the greatest good for the greatest number results in the obfuscation or outright denial of individual rights, the use of the utilitarianism as an exclusive theoretical outlook may not be acceptable to whose rights are denied.
Resolution: • Existentialism as a school of thought may be utilized together with the utilitarian theory to solve the dilemma in the ethical decision-making process; • Existentialism is defined as the belief in the freedom of the individual to create his or her “essence.” The individual’s existence precedes from essence. This implies that we first exist as humans and then become whom we decide to be through our free will or choice.
Use of Utilitarian Theory and Existentialism in Ethical Decision-making process: • Identification of the problem; • The generation of alternatives; • The quantitative evaluation of alternatives; • Selection and implementation of the “best alternative.” • Evaluation of the performance of this decision. This represents commitment and personal accountability
Use of Utilitarian Theory and Existentialism in Ethical Decision-making process: • Regardless of the evaluation of the decision, the experience of decision making and the subsequent existential and teleological analysis of behavior contributes to the sum of experience that makes up an individual’s essence.
