Utilitarianism

Question 1

What did Bentham claim that humans truly value?

Answer 1

Bentham claimed that it is human nature to find pleasure good – there’s nothing else we are capable of valuing.

Question 2

What is the ‘principle of utility’?

Answer 2

An action is good if it maximises pleasure.

Question 3

What do we mean by ‘utility’, when we speak of the ‘principle of utility’?

Answer 3

Utility means usefulness – how useful an action is in ethics refers to how useful it is in bringing about certain consequences – making Utilitarianism a consequentialist theory.

Question 4

What was the hedonic calculus?

Answer 4

A list of 7 criteria like intensity and duration (Act Utilitarianism).

Question 5

How did Bentham and Mill differ in their concepts of pleasure?

Answer 5

Bentham thought all pleasures were equal, but Mill thought higher pleasures were superior.

Question 6

What was the greater form of pleasure for Mill?

Answer 6

Higher pleasures (of the mind), which have less risk of addiction and last longer.

Question 7

Bentham was act utilitarianism - Mill was rule; what does rule utilitarianism mean?

Answer 7

Mill thought it was too difficult to calculate every single action that we do.
Utilitarianism can only work if instead society tries to figure out the rules that will maximise happiness if followed.

Question 8

What do people need to do to follow rule utilitarianism?

Answer 8

People then simply need to know those rules and follow them.

Question 9

Give an example of one of Mill’s favourite rules:

Answer 9

The ‘harm principle’ – that people should be free to do what they want so long as they are not harming others.

Question 10

What key point do both Bentham and Mill argue for?

Answer 10

They both essentially argue that pleasure/happiness is good because it is human nature to find it good

Question 11

How does Mill seek to prove the Utilitarian ‘greatest good’ principle?

Answer 11

Mill says the only proof possible that happiness is desirable is that it is desired.

Question 12

How does Bentham seek to prove the Utilitarian ‘greatest good’ principle?

Answer 12

Bentham says that humans are determined by their nature to find pleasure good and pain bad.

Question 13

What is Nozick’s experience machine?

Answer 13

Nozick’s experience machine is a thought experiment which supposes that people have a choice to plug themselves into a machine which would then generate fake experiences that were entirely pleasurable. The person would forget about their real life and not know that they were in the machine once they were in it.

Question 14

How does Nozick’s experience machine challenge Bentham and Mill?

Answer 14

Nozick thinks that not everyone would choose to enter the machine. He thinks this shows that people value things other than pleasure.
This shows most people don’t just want happiness, people want authenticity and a connection to reality.
So, Utilitarianism’s central thesis, that the goodness of an action depends on its maximisation of happiness, is false.

Question 15

How might a Utilitarian respond to Nozick’s experience machine?

Answer 15

It misunderstands the claim of utilitarianism, especially Mill’s Utilitarianism, which claims that what we ultimately value is happiness and that valuing the happiness of other people is part of that.
So, some people wouldn’t enter the machine, but that could be for reasons that reduce to a desire for happiness.

Question 16

What is the problem raised by the ‘issue of calculation’?

Answer 16

Subjective mental states like pleasure and pain are very difficult to measure scientifically.

Question 17

What does the issue of calculation ultimately do to utilitarianism?

Answer 17

This means it fails in its required feature as a normative ethical theory, to successfully guide action.

Question 18

How would an Utilitarian respond to the issue of calculation?

Answer 18

Rule Utilitarianism is in a stronger position to deal with this issue than Act.
We don’t have to judge every single action – we just have to follow rules that will maximise happiness if followed.
In fact, rule utilitarianism came about as Mill Thought the hedonic calculus too impractical.

Question 19

How will ‘rules’ progress as far as Mills is concerned?

Answer 19

Mill realised we didn’t know which rules would perfectly maximise happiness as our understanding of human psychology was incomplete. So, he said we should update the rules as our knowledge of what makes people happy increases.

Question 20

How does Mill’s solution to the ‘calculation problem’ (supposedly) work?

Answer 20

This solves the problem of calculation because individuals need only know the current set of their society’s rules and follow them, they don’t need to do any complex calculations.

Question 21

How does the ‘tyranny of the majority’ challenge Utilitarianism?

Answer 21

Human rights are deontological – it claims that people have an intrinsic right to life, etc.
Consequentialist ethics, like Utilitarianism, cannot accept human rights as valid, therefore.

Question 22

Give an example of how the tyranny of the majority could affect utilitarianism.

Answer 22

A consequentialist would always argue that killing someone could be justified if the consequences make it good.
This means Utilitarianism could justify things like slavery, if we enslaved 10% of the population for the happiness of the other 90%, it looks like that would be maximising happiness. So, Utilitarianism seems to justify bad actions.

Question 23

What does the tyranny of the majority objection work upon?

Answer 23

No one would want to live in a utilitarian society if that’s where its logic leads.