Utilitarianism and Bentham Flashcards
Bentham Quote
‘The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation’
history of utilitarianism
-Jeremy Bentham is father of utilitarianism
-Bentham and John Stuart Mill to thank for many modern changes
-Bentham advocated the abolishment of slavery
-Mill was first person in Parliament to call for women to have the vote.
-both called for prison reform
-idea of good being achieved for the many, which is core to utilitarianism, can be seen as the foundations of modern day democracy.
Jeremy Bentham
-not to create a new ethical theory, but to create a hands on principle that could be used to remodel the British legal system
-bentham was appalled by social conditions of his time and decided to set up a simple moral rule that everyone could relate to
what did Bentham believe?
-believe people were motivated by pleasure and pain.
-he believed that in life all people would try to get as much pleasure as possible and avoid pain.
-this was an empirical observation- people desire pleasure and seek to avoid pain
-utilitarian ethical theories are consequentionalist.
what is act utilitarianism?
we should act as so to maximise pleasure and minimise pain in each specific instance
a focus on actions, not rules
Bentham body
-preseved because in his day medical students performed experiments on dead bodies
-money to be made selling dead bodies to science so people started to grave rob and murder people for their bodies
Bentham quote 2:
‘nature has placed mankind under governance of 2 sovereign masters, pain and pleasure’
-identifies pain and pleasure not only as determine what in fact motivates and directs our lives, but also what we ought to do.
Bentham viewpoint
-UT teleological and relative.
-doesnt believe in moral absolutes.
-what max pleasure and min pain changes in diff situations and so what people do can change
-two ‘intrinsics’ -pleasure and pain
Benthams rule
-pain and pleasure rule us - we observe their relationship with action as matter of cause and effect, but we also recognise that they lie behind all claims about what we ‘ought’ to do.
-moralist linked to observation and experience - very essence of ethical naturalism
why follow Bentham?
-Bentham would point to the reality of pain and pleasure in our lives, if we observe that pain and pleasure rule humankind and that we seek to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, straightforward step.
calculating happiness
-in terms of its intensity, duration, certainty, proximity, productiveness, purity and extent.
-we know that a pleasure that’s is here now seems to motivate us more strongly than one that’s no more than a future possibility.
-pleasure and pain aren’t just encountered in extreme situations, but pervade our lives, so that at any time they are balanced in various ways, each offering something to which we are attracted or warning of something to be avoided.
-for Bentham it doesn’t matter where pleasure comes from
hedonic calculus
based on pleasure
way to measure and calculate pleasure and pain
Problems with Bentham Utilitarianism
-cant predict future, calculations cant always be accurate
-pain can be good and pleasure can be bad, UT contradicted
-should animals be considered?
-some say we have particular obligation to our family not “greater good”
-majority may sometimes be corrupt
strengths
-factual basis for morality
-UT have guidance and rules, pleasure calculus pleasure measured by intensity, duration , certainty, etc
-way of measuring moral worth of people
-practical system UK politics broadly UT
-if you ask what people want most will say happiness
weaknesses
-happiness varies between people
-requires us to second guess the future, never be sure
-principle of ‘greatest good for greatest number’ assumed to be right but often minorities are right. ignores the minorities.
-naturalistic fallacy
