Utilitarianism

Philosophy 1

Spring, 2002

G. J. Mattey

John Stuart Mill

• Born 1806• Son of philosopher

James Mill• Learned Greek and

Latin as a child• Administrator in East

India Company• Member of Parliament• Died 1873

Mill’s Contributions

• Defended phenomenalism, the view that physical objects are “permanent possibilities of sensation”

• Developed “Mill’s methods” for inductive reasoning

• Applied scientific method to social sciences• Refined and defended the principle of utility• Defended a strong libertarian principle• Argued for the equality of women• Promoted environment, population control

The Method of Ethics

• No progress has resulted from all the work in philosophy directed toward finding the nature of the good

• A problem is that we ought to know what right and wrong are before we can tell whether an action is right or wrong

• But this is the reverse of scientific procedure, which begins with the particular and works toward general principles

Moral Sense

• Some recent philosophers have postulated the existence of a moral sense or intuition

• But a moral sense is not supposed to detect particular cases of right and wrong action, only general principles

• So if there is a moral sense, ethics still proceeds differently from the sciences

• Moreover, the intuitive school of ethics has never produced an adequate set of moral principles

A Priori Ethics

• Some recent philosophers have held that the general principles of morality are discovered a priori

• Most do not provide a single moral principle• Kant did produce one: the categorical imperative• But he could not successfully deduce actual duties

from that principle• There is no logical contradiction in thinking a bad

maxim as universal, only consequences no one would choose to incur

The Greatest Happiness Principle

• Actions are right in proportion to their tendency to produce happiness

• We cannot prove that happiness is the ultimate end of human action

• But we can provide rational grounds for accepting that happiness is such an end

• Mill begins with examples designed to clear up misconceptions

Utility

• Utility is pleasure and absence of pain– It is not what is merely useful

• Pleasure and the absence of pain is happiness• Human pleasure is not that of a swine, so the end

of human action is not the pleasure of a swine• Human pleasure includes pleasures of

– The intellect– Feelings and imagination– Moral sentiments

A Hierarchy of Pleasures

• Some of these pleasures are higher than others• The difference is in quality• It is measured in terms of preferences of all or

nearly all people• Some pleasures are so preferred that a

considerable amount of discomfort is tolerated for their sake

• Those of the higher faculties are preferred in this way by the competent, from their sense of dignity

The Base Life

• “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”

• People do sink into a base life, but this is because they have lost their higher capacities

• These are difficult to establish and easily wither away

• Many distractions can drag us down• The preference for higher pleasures by at least the

majority is good reason to think they are better

The Possibility of Happiness

• The greatest happiness principle makes the ultimate end happiness, extended as much as possible to all humans or sentient creatures

• Is happiness possible in human beings?– Mitigation of pain at least is possible

– Happiness is not a life of rapture, but a varied life of pleasures mixed with few pains

– If not for “the present wretched education and wretched social institutions,” this would be attainable by all

Two Chief Forms of Happiness

• Most people have been satisfied by less than “a moderate share” of happiness

• This is due to the fact that happiness has two forms– Tranquility – Excitement

• Those with plenty of one can tolerate a large deficiency in the other

• The two are complementary to each other

Conditions for Happiness

• The greatest impediment to happiness is selfishness

• The greatest aid to happiness is cultivation• Mental culture ought to be available to everyone

living in a civilized country• Most of the great evils in the world can be

eliminated– Poverty, by society and charity– Disease, by education and sanitation

Nobility

• It is argued that it is moral to give up happiness and behave nobly

• But noble action concerns the happiness or requirements for the happiness of others

• The “noble” person who has some other ends “may be an inspiring proof of what men can do, but assuredly not an example of what they should.”

The Golden Rule

• The rule, “to do as you would be done by” is a utilitarian rule

• It expresses that the happiness of the whole of humanity is paramount

• Utility would influence social institutions to promote happiness

• And it would influence education to do so as well

Too High a Standard?

• It has been objection that maximizing happiness is too high a standard for action

• But ethics does not require that acting according to its standard should be one’s sole motivation

• Utilitarians have always held that the motive of an action is not the basis of its morality, though it reveals the moral worth of the agent

• Private utility, not universal utility, motivates most actions

Applying Standards

• Utilitarianism seems to deem the coldly calculating person most estimable

• But there is no necessary connection between virtues of character and goodness of action

• All systems of morality have the problem that they seem to promote extreme behavior

• It is better to err on the side of utility than the side of disutility

Godless?

• Utilitarianism is charged with being a godless ethics

• But it promotes happiness, which presumably is God’s end for humans as well

• Strict versions of divine law are a matter of interpretation of God’s will

• The utilitarian can interpret it as favoring happiness

Calculation

• There is not enough time to calculate the effects on happiness of all our actions

• But the whole history of humanity has made the calculations for us

• When one considers murder or theft, this is not the first time it has occurred to someone

• The beliefs which have come down through history are the rules of morality for the masses, subject to refinement by philosophers

Conflicting Considerations

• A final charge is that utilitarians can do what they please in the name of utility

• But every system of morality allows for exceptions due to conflicting obligations

• These are the real difficulties in ethics

• Utility can be invoked to resolve conflict

• There is no way to do so in other systems

The Sources of Obligation

• The question, “What is the source of obligation?” is common to all moral theories

• Only conventional morality escapes it, due to its familiarity

• For utilitarianism, it is a question as to why happiness should be promoted

• The question would not arise if people became accustomed to promoting happiness

Sanctions

• Utilitarianism has the same external sanctions as do other theories– Hope of favor and fear of displasure

• Of fellow humans• Of God

• Internal sanctions are those of conscience, which are very complex

• Conscience is a subjective feeling in our minds• For utilitarians, this is a feeling for humanity• Even for Kant, there is only a feeling of duty

Society

• Moral feelings may be innate or acquired• There is no objection to a feeling for humanity

being innate• Mill believes the feeling for humanity is acquired,

through development of our natural feelings• This is based on society among equals, which

promotes the utilitarian principle• Social people pay regard to others “of course”• The moral feeling is strengthened with the advance

of political improvement

Proof of the Principle of Utility

• The only way to prove that happiness is the ultimate end of human actions is to note that it is what people actually do desire

• This is compatible with the desire for virtue, which is part of happiness

• The same holds for money, power, fame• Each contributes to happiness, which is “not an

abstract idea but a concrete whole”• Virtue is higher, since it is never obnoxious

Justice

• People think our feeling of justice indicates that it is objectively real

• We get a conception of what we feel to be just by considering its many applications to– Liberty– Moral right of possession– Desert– Good faith– Impartiality– Equality

• What do they have in common?

Justice Defined

• Justice is commonly confused with ordinary morality

• Its distinctive feature is that it involves a claim from someone as a moral right

• We can only make this claim on someone who has a perfect duty to perform or not to perform an act

• So, it is not unjust not to be beneficent

Rule and Sanction

• The rule of justice is intended for the good of humanity

• It is more vital to human well-being than any other principle of action

• The feeling of justice is the sentiment that sanctions the rule: a desire for punishment of those who violate it

• It arises from the impulse of self-defense and the feeling of sympathy