Bentham's quantitative hedonistic utilitarianism

Question 1

what is it?

Answer 1

a teleological ethical theory that maintains that a right action is a useful action is an action that produces the greatest number of good for the greatest number of people.

Question 2

what is right?

Answer 2

Actions are morally right or wrong depending on their consequences and nothing else. An act is right if it maximises what is good. This is ‘act consequentialism’.

Question 3

what is good?

Answer 3

The only thing that is good is happiness, understood as pleasure and the absence of pain. This is ‘hedonism’.

Question 4

who counts?

Answer 4

No one’s happiness counts more than anyone else’s. This is a commitment to equality.

Question 5

basic ideas

Answer 5

Hedonism- idea that pleasure is the only intrinsic (in of itself) good

No other values are intrinsically good ie friendship, justice, wisdom unless they lead to pleasure

No other values are intrinsically bad ie selfishness, laziness, cruelty unless they lead to pain.

Quantity of pleasure not quality.

Question 6

Bentham hedonistic utilitarianism theory is split into 3 linked stages

Answer 6

3 stages-

Theory of motivation
Principle of utility
hedonic calculus

Question 7

Theory of motivation (psychological hedonism)

Answer 7

we are controlled by two basic emotions- pleasure and pain
our minds are naturally constructed to persuade pleasure and avoid pain
pleasure and pain govern thoughts, speech and actions.

Question 8

Utility definition

Answer 8

actions or behaviours are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness or pain. something has ‘utility’ if it contributes to your happiness, which is the same as what is in your interest.

Question 9

what does the theory claim?

Answer 9

theory claims that an action is right if it maximises happiness

Otherwise, the action is wrong. Our actions are judged not ‘in themselves’, e.g. by what type of action they are (a lie, helping someone.), but in terms of what consequences they have. Our actions are morally right if they bring about the greatest happiness.

we should aim for everyone’s pleasure and avoidance of each other’s pain.

Greatest number of good for the greatest number of people.

If an action leads to the greatest happiness of those it affects, no other action taken at that time could have led to greater happiness. So action is right only if, out of all the actions you could have done, this action leads to more happiness than any other. Just causing some happiness, or more happiness than unhappiness isn’t enough for an act to be morally right.

Question 10

hedonic calculus

pleasure isn’t something abstract but measurable
- method for adding up pleasure that is likely to be produced from different actions.

Answer 10

o	Purity (how free of pain is it?) 
o	Remoteness (how close in time and distance is the pleasure?) 
o	Richness (how likely is it to lead to more pleasure?)
o	Intensity (how powerful is the pleasure?) 
o	Certainty (how likely it would happen?) 
o	Extent (how many are affected?)  
o	Duration (how long does it last?) 				(PRRICED)

Question 11

is all pleasure equal?

Answer 11

All that matters is the quantity of pleasure produced by the action.
All pleasures are of equal value.
“push pin is as good as poetry”

The total amount of happiness produced is the sum total of everyone’s pleasures produced minus the sum total of everyone’s pains.

Question 12

act utilitartiainism

Answer 12

provides a clear way of making decisions:
consider the consequences of the different actions you could perform and choose that action that brings about, or is likely to bring about, the greatest happiness. It makes complicated decisions easy and avoids appeals to controversial moral intuitions. The only thing that matters is happiness, and surely everyone wants to be happy. We can figure out empirically how much happiness actions cause, and so we can solve moral issues by empirical investigation.

Question 13

criticisms- list form

Answer 13

Takes too long to put into practice
Contradicts itself in stage 1 to stage 2 “you” -> “others”
Impractical- life is too complicated
Same actions don’t result in the same amount of pleasure
Unlike maths the answer is not fixed
Demands sacrificing your pleasure for someone else’s
demands too much from us
Doesn’t acknowledge our relationships with people close to us.
Demands us to over think
Bernard Williams “the one thought too many”

Question 14

similarities between bentham and mill

Answer 14

• Both support principle of utilitarianism (idea that in any situation ‘greatest good for the greatest number’
• Both hedonism/ hedonistic in nature (hedonism pleasure is the only intrinsic good and pain is the only intrinsic bad)
• Both are teleological theories (focus on consequences)
• Opposed to deontological theory.

Question 15

differences between

Answer 15

-Not all the pleasures are weighted the same
some are superior- higher/ lower pleasures.
-More focus on the quality and not just the quantity
of intellectual pleasures/ pleasures of the mind: art, poetry, maths
Bodily pleasures/ pleasures of the body: eating, drinking, sex drugs.
-Link- we need to satisfy the lower pleasures to persuade the higher pleasures

Question 16

criticism: Sadistic guards’ example

Answer 16

5 sadistic guards torturing an innocent prisoner.
-The hedonic calculus- supports the actions of the sadistic guards -> quantity over quality

• Bentham is too narrow in his ideas of pleasure
• Mill condemn- quality is low doesn’t outweigh the pain of the prisoner.
• Because the pleasure felt by the guards is a bodily pleasure therefore regarded as a lower pleasure and of not high quality.