1. Bentham & Mill THE CLASSICAL UTILITARIANS

2. JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832)  Founder of Utilitarianism.  British philosopher.  Jurist.  Social reformer.

3. BENTHAM’S THEORY CAN BE DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS: 1.Hedonistic Utilitarianism 2.The Principle of Utility 3.The Utility or Hedonic Calculus

4. A utilitarian theory which assumes that the rightness of an action depends entirely on the amount of pleasure it tends to produce and the amount of pain it tends to prevent. Bentham's utilitarianism is hedonistic. Although he describes the good not only as pleasure, but also as happiness, benefit, advantage, etc., he treats these concepts as more or less synonymous, and seems to think of them as reducible to pleasure.

5.  States that actions or behaviors are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness or pain.  Bentham thought that the principle of utility could apply to our treatment of animals. The question is not whether they can talk or reason, but whether they can suffer. As such, that suffering should be taken into account in our treatment of them. Here we can see a moral ground for laws that aim at the "prevention of cruelty to animals" (and such cruelty was often witnessed in Bentham's day).

6. The Tools How to calculate the tendency of any act or event? 1.Its Intensity: How strong/intense/powerful is the pleasure? 2.Its Duration: How long will the pleasure last? 3.Its Certainty/Uncertainty: What is the probability that the pleasure will occur? How likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur? How certain will pleasure be? 4.Its Propinquity/Remoteness/Nearness : How far off in the future is the pleasure? How soon will the pleasure occur? How near in place and time is that pleasure? 5.Its Fecundity: What is the probability that the pleasure will lead to other pleasures? How much more pleasure will grow out from this pleasure? Will I generate more pleasure after itself? (The chances of the act being followed by sensation of the same) 6.Its Purity: How free from pain is this pleasure? (The chances of the act being followed by opposite sensation) 7.Its Extent: How many more people will receive pleasure from this action or activity? How many people are affected by the pleasure?

7. Hedonic Calculus How to calculate the tendency of any act or event? This calculation can be used for any dilemma like choosing what school to attend? What kind of car to buy? Or even if you are really patient and you are passionate about this you can even calculate which flavor of ice cream you want? Whatever you want you can plug into this scale. To be fast at this calculation like when faced with a moral dilemma you need practice, the more you do it the faster you get. Another positive aspect this can be used on yourself or a large society and the majority rules. By taking this calculation to extremes we can constitute morality. There is 6 steps for the application: 1.Take an account of the value of each the value of each distinguishable pleasure which appears to be generated in the first instance. 2.Take an account of the value of each pain which appears to be produced in the first instance. 3.Take an account of the value of each pleasure which appears to be created by it after the first pleasure.(fecundity of the first pleasure and purity of the first pain) 4.Take an account of the value of each pain which appears to be shaped by it after the first pain.(fecundity of the first pain and impurity of the first pleasure) 5.Sum up all the values for both pleasures and pains, each of them on one side.(simple tendencies. The balance, if it be on the side of pleasure, will give the good tendency of the act upon the whole, with respect to the interests of that individual person; if on the side of pain, the bad tendency of it upon the whole) 6.Repeat the same for each person involved.(general tendency)

8. How to calculate the tendency of any act or event? Consider a 15 year old girl who gets pregnant: Calculus:Have abortionDon't have abortion PropinquityThe relief is immediate Any benefits/pleasures are a long way away Purity May lead to regret; possibly inability to have children in the future Could fail exams - not get a good job - have a poor quality of life (mother and baby) Fecundity More choices and freedom in life Joy of being a mother; many joys experienced by the baby Intensity You might argue that a person without a child can enjoy a wide range of intense pleasures Having a child might bring intense feelings of joy repeatedly; the child itself may experience intense pleasure throughout its life; the child may cause equally intense pain Certainty The freedom from the pain of an unwanted child is certain It is uncertain what pleasures continuing with the pregnancy might bring Extent The mother and her immediate family are most directly affected Having the baby will affect a vast number of people, but many cancel each other out as each life brings pleasure and pain Duration The freeedom might last a long time (even for the rest of the girl's life, although if she were to get pregnant again, it may be wrong to consider her free) The child will bring pleasure (and pain) for a lifetime Parameters: Action 1/ Drinking Action 2/ Reading Intensity85 Duration2030 Certainty50 Propinquity76 Fecundity025 Purity-150 Totals:3566

9. Bentham once said that “quantity of pleasure being equal, push-pin (a simple child’s game) is as good as poetry.” PLEASURE All types of pleasure and pain can be measured on the same scale What is good and bad for each person is a matter for each person to decide by following the hedonic (felicific) calculus Pleasures can be compared quantitatively because there is no difference between them

10.  British philosopher (most influenced English-speaking philosopher of 19 th century)  Economist  Moral and political theorist  Spoke Latin, Greek, English and French.  HIGHLY influenced by Bentham.

11. CHP 3. OF THE ULTIMATE SANCTION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY What is sanction? Sanction : 1. a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule. 2. official permission or approval for an action.

12. Disturbance of conscience. (consist of feelings in one's own mind that create discomfort when one violates duty.) Fear of disapproval from others. Fear of God and facing His wrath. TYPES OF SANCTIONS External Internal

13. INTERNAL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE!

14. MILL’S VIEWS Mill agreed with Bentham in emphasizing that a persons’ well being is of the greatest importance. Mill agreed with the utility principle but had an issue with the quantitative element. Mill developed a system of higher and lower pleasures. To pursue pleasures of the intellect were ‘higher ’ than, say, the pursuits of pleasures of the body.

15. Mill wanted to reformulate the utilitarian theory to reflect the fact that pleasures are not all of equal value. He also wanted to take human nature into account. He states how a utilitarian believes that God’s revealed truths about morality will fit with utilitarian principles.

16. PLEASURE IS NOT THE SAME AS HAPPINESS! There are two main differences between pleasure and happiness. PLEASURE Gratification PLEASURE Pursued as an end in its own right HAPPINESS Satisfaction HAPPINESS AN indirect by-product of another activity

17. FOR EXAMPLE… A divorced, wealthy, young man seek pleasure from drugs, alcohol and an active lie with many partners, but lack the happiness of true friendship and the love off his family.

18. Mill’s utilitarianism has been referred to as being eudemonistic (human well being) utilitarianism, as opposed to Bentham’s hedonistic (pleasure) utilitarianism. Eudemonia is found in the writings of Aristotle.

19. Aristotle distinguished between pleasure and happiness For Mill the difference in happiness over pleasure is significant; happiness having a higher qualitative edge over the quantity of lower bestial (base) pleasures.

20. MILL DEFINES UTILITARIANISM AS… “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utilitarianism, or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and absence of pain: by unhappiness pain and privation of pleasure.”

22. HIGHER AND LOWER PLEASURES

23. Act utilitarianism Looks at the consequences of each individual act and calculates utility each time the act is performed Rule utilitarianism Looks at the consequences of having everyone follow a particular rule and calculates the overall utility of accepting or rejecting the rule ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM

24. AN EXAMPLE Imagine the following scenario. A prominent and much-loved leader has been rushed to the hospital, grievously wounded by an assassin’s bullet. He needs a heart and lung transplant immediately to survive. No suitable donors are available, but there is a homeless person in the emergency room who is being kept alive on a respirator, who probably has only a few days to live, and who is a perfect donor. Without the transplant, the leader will die; the homeless person will die in a few days anyway. Security at the hospital is very well controlled. The transplant team could hasten the death of the homeless person and carry out the transplant without the public ever knowing that they killed the homeless person for his organs. What should they do?

25. For act utilitarians, the situation is more complex. If secrecy were guaranteed, the overall consequences might be such that in this particular instance greater utility is produced by hastening the death of the homeless person and using his organs for the transplant. For rule utilitarians, this is an easy choice. No one could approve a general rule that lets hospitals kill patients for their organs when they are going to die anyway. The consequences of adopting such a general rule would be highly negative and would certainly undermine public trust in the medical establishment. Rule Utilitarians Act utilitarians

26.  Mill maintained that pleasures of the mind were higher than those of the body.  To pursue bodily pleasures – food, drink, drugs and sex – was not as high an objective as those that are intellectually demanding.

27. JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE  Justice - Mill looks at the history of usage of the word and finds the idea of justice tied to the idea of conformity to law, at least law as it ought to be.  Mill states, "Justice implies something which it is not only right to do, and wrong not to do, but which some individual person can claim from us as his moral right”  Mill’s conception of rights can include both positive rights (for public education, food, shelter, medical assistance, etc.) and negative rights (to be allowed to say what we want, to be allowed to have any religion, etc.) Both of these sorts of rights can potentially help people have greater well being.

28. JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE AND UTILITY The Origin of Justice: A Primitive Instinct  The origin of justice is a primitive instinct. Mill claims that the desire to punish someone who harms a person grows out of two primitive sentiments--the instinct of self-defense and the feeling of sympathy. Punishment results from a combination of revenge and collective social sympathy As a single entity, revenge has no moral component, and collective social sympathy is equal to social utility. Justice: An Ambiguous Oracle  Justice is an ambiguous oracle. Injustice occurs when there is a violation of some person's right. When someone has a right to something, he has "a valid claim on society to defend him in the possession of it”. If we wish to respect and protect people's rights, how can we decide what people's rights are? Mill says only utility can reasonably resolve these conflicting claims. The rights claim that is valid is the one protection of which best promotes the general happiness.

29. JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE AND UTILITY Justice and Utility conflict Utilitarianism says that the morally right thing to do is always to maximize utility (basically happiness) for the greatest number. Justice, traditionally, demands that there be balance and order, and nowadays in particular justice is typically construed as fairness. The problem for utilitarianism is that it is sometimes acceptable to sacrifice a certain group or individual for the sake of maximizing the greatest happiness for the greatest number. That group or individual, then, would be treated unfairly or differently from the majority, which is precisely the situation most people nowadays consider unjust.

30. JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE AND UTILITY JUSTICE AND UTILITY CONFLICT Examples: 1.Recent polls of the Western Europe population suggest that over 50% want the death penalty reintroduced for murder. If such a law were introduced, it would make the majority of people happier (increased utility) but would clash with those criminals' right to life. 2.Suppose there have been a string of murders in a town and the citizens demand justice. However, the criminals have been able to elude police. This goes on for a year and murders to do not decrease. Finally, the police frame a known petty criminal for the murders to quell the crowd. The crowd believes justice has been done, but in reality, it hasn't. Just because the crowd or masses are satisfied, does not mean justice has been done.

31. CRITICISMS OF UTILITARIANISM It’s too difficult to apply People care about more than just pleasure We can not reduce all human goods into quantifiable units which can be aggregated and compared There is no non-arbitrary limit to how far into the future we should consider consequences Intention is important for determining the moral status of actions, but no room for this in utilitarianism Justifies acts that seem to be plainly wrong like murder and rape

32. Presented by the Philosophers: Alexia Jeff Batoul Zo Salta