Utilitarianism Lecture 3: Utilitarianism and justice

Equal consideration of interests The principle: One unit of happiness has the same value, no matter whose it is. This is implicit in the requirement to maximize total happiness

Example

Other principles of equality Equality of well-being (welfare, utility) Equality of resources Rights of democratic equality

Equality of well-being This principle would require making everyone equally happy Utilitarianism doesn’t care how happy anyone already is It just looks at making the biggest increase in the total amount of happiness

Equality of well-being (cont) Utilitarianism says to increase the inequality of well-being in this example

Equality of resources Utilitarianism is not in principle committed to this--it depends on the circumstances Example: putting money where it will make the biggest difference might increase inequality of wealth Example: regressive taxation that increases average welfare These cases might be exceptional

Marginal utility The marginal utility of a resource to a person is the difference in that person’s well being an additional unit of the resource would make Principle of declining marginal utility: The marginal utility of a resource for a person declines as the amount of the resource increases This principle steers utilitarianism toward equality of resources

Incentives If equality of resources would make people less productive, then a utilitarian might support inequalities because of their effect on incentives

Rights of democratic equality Civil and political liberties Equality of opportunity