Bentham's Utilitarianism

Question 1

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Hedonistic Act utilitarianism

Answer 1

1) Act consequentialism= Actions are morally right/wrong depending upon their CONSEQUENCES and nothing else. An act is RIGHT if it maximises what is GOOD
2) Hedonism= The only thing that is good is happiness, understood as pleasure + the absence of pain
3) Commitment to equality= no ones happiness counts more than anyone else’s
- By putting 1 and 2 together show the theory claims an action is right if it maximises happiness, lead to the greatest happiness of all those it effects or the ACTION IS WRONG

Question 2

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Hedonistic Act utilitarianism

Answer 2

• Our actions are not judged ‘in themselves’, not by the type of action it is but in terms of the consequences they have
• Actions morally right if they bring about the greatest happiness. ‘Greatest happiness’= comparative (great, greater, greatest). It is the action leading to the greatest happiness for all those it effects and no other action at that time could have been taken that could’ve lead to greater happiness
• If the action only causes ‘some happiness’ or ‘more happiness than unhappiness’ this is not enough to be morally right

Question 3

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Bentham’s View

Answer 3

• Considered the first act utilitarianism, defends the ‘principle of utility’- greatest happiness principle
• Greatest happiness principle =which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever; according to the tendency which it appears to increase or diminish the happiness of those in question
• Claims that in judging actions to be morally right/ wrong, should take into account only the total amount of happiness an action may produce
• In our action actions should aim to produce the greatest happiness we can

Question 4

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Utility

Answer 4

• Something that contributes to your happiness, property in an object tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness.
• Or prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, unhappiness
• Happens in the interest of the individual
• Adds to sum total of his pleasures/diminishes the sum total of his pains
• Happiness= pleasure
• Absence of pain= Hedonism

Question 5

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Measure of pain and pleasure

Answer 5

• Bentham argues we can measure pleasure and pains, and adds them up onto a single scale process of ‘utility calculus’
• Pleasure= more intense, will last longer, more certain to occur, will happen sooner rather than later, or will produce in turn many other pleasures and few pains- counts for more
• Also need to take into account how many people will be affected= more you affect positively/ less negatively affected= better)
• Total amount of happiness produced= (sum total of everyone’s pleasures produced)- (sum total of everyone’s pains)

Question 6

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Bentham’s main claims and supporting reasons

Answer 6

-We are all governors by the dual masters of pleasure and pain
=supported by empirical evidence
=an inductive argument
-The principle of utility should be the main guiding moral principle for each of our actions
=supported by
If anyone denies the principle then they are either using no principle at all or using one without any reasoning behind it (pure sentiment and ‘caprice’)
If it is based upon his sentiment alone then it is ‘despotic’ but if everyone can pick their own principle it is ‘anarchic’ and leads to contradictions
If it is based upon reflection then that reflection will have to be upon some principle which would be utility (or the questions start again)
=Deductive argument

Question 7

Bentham’s Utilitarianism

Hedonistic calculus

Answer 7

The moral value of any act is calculated by considering its consequences (consequentialist moral theory), to calculate all the moral worth, add up all the pleasure the act brings and subtract all the pain and suffering.
Action= good if it brings about more pleasure than pain

The hedonic calculus values pain and pleasure using categories- rank how high or low a certain action is in it (higher-most,lower-least), the sum of these numbers shows us the value of the action
Categories include: intensity,duration,certainty(or uncertainty),nearness(or remoteness),purity,fecundity,extent
To measure net utility=
rate each factor on a scale from 1-7 in terms of pleasure/pain
Apply for each person that will be most affected an add up values for pleasure/pain respectively
Then use equator (total/net pleasure- net pain=net utility)
Apply this for every possible cause of action and go ahead with the course of action that produces the most net utility= utilitarianism looks at maximising utility for a community not themselves
Criticisms=
-Calculates the interpersonal utility comparison using cardinal (1,2,3,4) utility rather than ordinal (first,second,third)
-Pain is subjective; two people may receive the same amount of electric shocks but rate them differently= Bentham tries to quantify the unquantifiable