1. Ethical Judgments
Ethical philosophy differs from the sciences because it is normative or prescriptive, rather than descriptive.
In other words, ethics tell us how we ought to act or what we should do, while the sciences are more likely to observe how things are in nature or society.

2. Making Ethical Judgments

3. Making Ethical Judgments in Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism says that the Result or the Consequence of an Act is the real measure of whether it is good or bad.
This theory emphasizes Ends over Means.
Theories, like this one, that emphasize the results or consequences are called teleological or consequentialist.

4. Utilitarianism
The originator of modern Utilitarianism was Jeremy Bentham.
18th Century English philosopher.
Sought to make ethics quantitative, as Sir Isaac Newton had made science.

5. The Fundamentals of Utilitarianism
All humans by nature seek to attain pleasure and avoid pain.
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand, the standard of right and wrong, on the other, the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne.

6. Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation
“They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: Every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: But, in reality, he will remain subject to it all the while.”
Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation
In taking this view of human nature, Bentham follows Thomas Hobbes and David Hume, as well as the ancient Cyrenaics and Epicureans

7. Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation
All humans, by nature, seek utility.
Utility: A balance of pleasure over pain.
“By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered ”
Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation

8. Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation
Egalitarianism: Every individual’s utility counts the same as every other individual’s utility.
Thus, the proper goal of morality is to achieve the most overall utility.
“The community is a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members. The interest of the community then is what? — the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.”
Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation

9. Jeremy Bentham, The Rationale of Reward
For Bentham, utility is judged quantitatively only.
There is no accounting for the alleged quality of utility.
“Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music an poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more [utility], it is more valuable than either.”
Jeremy Bentham, The Rationale of Reward

10. Bentham’s Seven Quantitative Utilitarian Criteria
Intensity
How strong is it?
Duration
How long does it last?
Certainty
How likely is it to happen?
Propinquity
How near at hand is it?

11. Fecundity
How likely is it to produce more?
Purity
How free of pain is it?
Extent
The number of people affected by it.

12. How to make a utilitarian moral choice
Determine who is affected by your choice.
Determine your alternatives.
Using the seven criteria, determine the utility for each affected individual for each alternative.
Sum up the total utilities for each alternative.
Choose the alternative that yields the most overall utility.

13. Rule Utilitarianism
Doing a utilitarian analysis for every moral choice is virtually impossible.
Thus, most contemporary utilitarians prefer rule utilitarianism.
Rule Utilitarianism: Follow the rules that, in the long run, produce the most overall utility.
With rule utilitarianism, the utilitarian analysis is done only once, when deciding which rules to follow.
After that, moral choice is just a matter of following the rules.

14. Objections to Utilitarianism
“It’s a pig morality.”
Humans are too noble for a morality that only seeks to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
Bentham’s response:
Get over it!
Humans are nothing more than pleasure seekers and pain avoiders.

15. John Stuart Mill’s Response
19th Century English philosopher
Bentham’s godson
Tried to reform utilitarianism so that quality, not just quantity, matters, when evaluating utility.
“If one of two [pleasures] is, by those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though knowing it

16. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
“to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity of the other pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality, so far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small account.”
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

17. But what does this really prove?
Later on, Mill shows his elitist biases.
“Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast’s pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus,

18. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And, if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.”
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

19. What it boils down to is this:
Mill is saying, if you want to know what pleasures are qualitatively better, ask a person of culture and refined taste.
In other words, ask a person that thinks like I do.
Mill’s attempt to introduce a qualitative element into utilitarianism is generally considered a failure.

20. “The good of the many outweighs the good of the one.”
Utilitarianism seems to allow sacrificing the individual for the good (utility) of the group.
Is this just?
This consequence is contrary to the intuition that each human person has an inherent dignity that should not be sacrificed, no matter how much society as a whole gains from the sacrifice.

21. Two Types of Utilitarianism
Rule: An action is right if and only if it conforms to a set of rules the general acceptance of which would produce the greatest balance of pleasure over pain for the greatest number (John Stuart Mill)
Act: An Action is right if and only if it produces the greatest balance of pleasure over pain for the greatest number. (Jeremy Bentham)

22. Application of Utilitarian Theory
A) You attempt to help an elderly man across the street. He gets across safely.
Conclusion: the Act was a good act.
B) You attempt to help an elderly man across the street. You stumble as you go, he is knocked into the path of a car, and is hurt.
Conclusion: The Act was a bad act.

23. Application of Utilitarian Theory
If you can use eighty soldiers as a decoy in war, and thereby attack an enemy force and kill several hundred enemy soldiers, that is a morally good choice even though the eighty might be lost.
If lying or stealing will actually bring about more happiness and/or reduce pain, Act Utilitarianism says we should lie and steal in those cases.

24. Application of Utilitarian Theory Actual Cases
The decision at Coventry during WWII.
The decision was made not to inform the town that they would be bombed.
The Ford Pinto case: A defective vehicle would sometimes explode when hit.
The model was not recalled and repaired by Ford because they felt it was cheaper to pay the liability suits than to recall and repair all the defective cars.