Group Éclair

Del Mundo, Gwyneth

Flores, Cecile
Lineses, John Lloyd
Yebra, Ronny
THE PRINCIPLE OF
UTILITARIANISM
 THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism – Is a school of thought which sets the general
thesis that pleasure and happiness are what
everyone desires.

Upheld the idea that the morally best act is the

one that produces the greatest amount of
happiness with everyone considered.

According to the utilitarians, good deeds consists in the

achievement of the principle of happiness, which is understood as
“the greatest good of the greatest number.”
3
4
THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarian/s – a group of writers, politicians and administrators of
whom Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were the
leading figures.

They held the idea that the human person should

perform an action that will bring happiness to the
greatest number of people.

Their ethical doctrine states that the rightness and

wrongness of an action is determined by the goodness
and badness of their consequences.
5
KANTIANISM VS. UTILITARIANISM
Kantian Morality = good comes from the dictates of reason,
or from following the human nature, or from the duty to
obey the categorical imperative.

Utilitarianism = focused its ethical doctrine on the

measurement of the principle of utility by considering the
amount of pleasure and the amount of pain in a particular
action.

6
 Utilitarianism merely followed the beliefs of the British
empiricists:

The principle of Thomas Hobbes, who put an emphasis on the people’s selfish
concern for their own pleasure.

The idea of David Hume, who believed that people would never be able to
know universal moral law.

John Locke said that the aptness in everyone to produce pleasure is what man
should consider as a good deed; and consequently, the desire to produce pain is
to be considered evil.

From these ideas, the utilitarians developed a system of thought which would
focus on the happiness of other as the basis of human goodness.
7
Jeremy bentham

JOHN STUART MILL

 JEREMY BENTHAM
Born: 15 February 1748, Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, City
of London, United Kingdom

Died: 6 June 1832, Westminster, London, United Kingdom

was an English philosopher, jurist, and

social reformer regarded as the founder of
modern utilitarianism.
Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his
philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of
the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."

9
Bentham’s principle
of utility
He defines the principle of utility as:

“That property in any object whereby it

tends to produce pleasure, good or
happiness, or to prevent the happening of
mischiefs, pain, evil or unhappiness to the
party whose interest is considered.”

11
 Principle of utility: 2 main motives for all human action
PAIN & PLEASURE

According to him, everyone should follow the principle of the

greatest happiness; choose the action that leads to the greatest
happiness for the greatest number of people.

The Utilitarianism of Bentham is designed to free people

from oppressive laws and to make governing bodies moral. It
is also designed to provide a foundation to many democratic
societies.

Bentham believed that we have to prevent the possibility of

the existence of the greater evil.
12
13
 JOHN STUART MILL
Born: 20 May 1806, Pentonville, London, United Kingdom

Died: 8 May 1873, Avignon, France

Oldest child of James and Harriet Mill.

A devoted follower of the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy

Bentham
was a British philosopher, political
economist, and civil servant.

14
THE UTILITARIAN
PRINCIPLE

John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism - is the principle that claims that there is one and
only one moral principle (the principle of utility).

This principle states that actions are good insofar

as they tend to promote happiness, bad as they tend
to produce unhappiness (Timbreza, 28).

It is basically an approach to morality , which treats

pleasure as the sole element in human good.

It also regards the morality of actions as entirely

dependent on consequences or results for human well
being of the whole society.
16
The main concern of utilitarianism is the consequences, the effects, the
results, and the outcomes of an action.

Utilitarianism may be called “teological” (from the Greek word telos which
means “end” or “purpose”).

Utilitarianism considers the consequences of an act as the basis for

determining the goodness of such act.

The Utilitarians believed that people should consider the possible effects of
each action or moral decision.

What is important is that each person should do the action that has the
greatest possible balance of happiness over unhappiness for all individuals
affected.
17
 An alternative formulation of the principle of utility:

The principle of the greatest number - states that an action is good if it

provides equal benefits or happiness for the greatest number of people,
and bad if it produces more harm than benefit for the greatest number of
individual.

Principle of Equity – states that an action is good if it provides equal

benefits or happiness for the greatest number of individuals concerned.

18
THE HEDONISTIC
CALCULUS
Bentham became known for his An introduction to the principles of
morals and legislations, in which he discussed utility as the greatest
happiness principle, which is the means in order to achieve the greatest
happiness of the greatest number.

He rejected the Kantian concept of duty and the concept of conscience as

the criterion of moral value and of good and evil.

For Bentham, only pleasure can be accepted as a proper measure or

criterion of right conduct and only pleasures and pains give us the real
value of action. Just as pleasure and pain give the real values to acts, so
do they also constitute the causes of our behavior.

20
 PLEASURE-PAIN CALCULUS or
HEDONISTIC CALCULUS
A method of determining which of alternative actions would be
preferable because of the amount of pleasure to be anticipated.

It consists of the intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity

fecundity, purity and extent of an action.

The goal of a good action must be the individual’s egoistic pleasure.

Bentham held that the proper ethical attitude is to calculate

carefully the amount of pleasure and the amount of pain that any
action will bring.
21
 PLEASURE-PAIN CALCULUS or
HEDONISTIC CALCULUS

PAIN – PLEASURE = in order to determine the balance (the

higher the difference will be, the action must be considered more
moral)

IF:
PAIN – PLEASURE = Positive (action is considered morally
acceptable)
PAIN – PLEASURE = Negative (action is considered evil)

22
THE BENEVOLENT
SPECTATOR
PRINCIPLE
Mill argued that it is impossible to calculate the amount of pleasure and
the amount of pain in a certain action. He believed that there are no
means by which a human person will be able to determine which is more
intense between two pleasurable sensations of the more acute between two
pains.

Mill placed greater importance on the happiness of all rather than on one’s
own happiness. He held that the happiness of all should always be taken
into consideration before making a moral decision.

Mill suggested that people should rather consider the Qualitative

Hedonism rather than following Bentham’s Quantitative Hedonism.

Mill argued “It is better to be a human being dissatisfies than a pig

satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”
(Sahakian, 220)
24
Mill believed that there is a qualitative value in just being a human person
that surpasses any of the pleasures experienced by other creatures.

Mill held that Bentham must have assumed that there is a need for a
person to choose those acts that produce for him the greater quantity of
pleasure and that one should naturally help other people achieve
happiness because in that way, one would be able to secure his own.

Mill accepted this principle but he added the quality of altruism or the
“otherness” by saying that the happiness which forms the utilitarian
standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent’s won happiness, but
that of all concerned.

Mill modified Bentham’s egoistic principle by indicating that as between

his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires us to be as
strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator.
25
ACT UTILITARIANISM
Vs.
RULE
UTILITARIANISM
 HOW CAN A HUMAN
PERSON APPLY THIS
PRINCIPLE IN HIS OWN
MORAL ACTIONS?

27
 ACT UTILITARIANISM
OF BENTHAM

- Held that the rightness of an act is determined by its effect on the general
happiness.

- Holds the utilitarian doctrine should be applied to particular acts in

particular situations or circumstances on a case to case basis.

- It takes into account the possible results of each particular act in order to
determine the morality of an action. And the result must, therefore, be the
happiness of the greatest number in all circumstances.

28
 RULE UTILITARIANISM
OF MILL

- People should evaluate the moral correctness of an action not with the
reference to its impact on the general happiness, but rather, with respect to the
impact on the general happiness of the rule that the action embodies.

- It maintains that the principle at issue should be used to test moral rules,
and then the rules can be utilized in order to decide on which moral
judgement is right or wrong under the circumstances

- Considers the possible results in the light of a rule.

29
 ACT UTILITARIANISM VS.
RULE UTILITARIANISM

Act utilitarianism beliefs that an action becomes morally right when it

produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Rule utilitarianism beliefs that the moral correctness of an action depends on

the correctness of the rules that allows it to achieve the greatest good.

30
 Examples:

31
thanks for listening.

32