Utilitarianism Module 2

Utilitarianism
Module 2
MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Franklin Drilon
and Sen. Francis Escudero disputed yesterday the playing
in a Senate public hearing of the audio recording of an
alleged conversation between a government official and a Introduction
lawmaker about attempts to cover up the massacre of the
police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos during the
encounter with Muslim rebels in Mamasapano,
Maguindanao last year.
As Drilon attempted to block the playing of the audio
recordings during the resumption today of the joint Senate
committees investigating the Mamasapano inquiry,
Escudero maintained that a third party who will play the
recording may not be held liable under the Anti-
Wiretapping Law.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/
He contradicted Drilon’s stance that the playing of an 2016/01/26/1546749/senators-clash-over-
playing-mamasapano-tapes
unauthorized recording is punishable by law.
• When considering the moral permissibility of wiretapping, we calculate the costs and
benefits of wiretapping.
• If we calculate the costs and benefits of our actions, then we are considering an ethical
theory that gives premium to the consequences of actions as the basis of morality and as
such is utilitarianism.
• UTILITARIANISM is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the
determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the action’s consequences.
• This means that pleasure is good and that goodness of an action is determined by its
usefulness.
• Putting these ideas together, utilitarianism claims that one’s actions and behavior are
good inasmuch as they are directed toward the experience of the greatest pleasure over
pain for the greatest number of persons.
“utility”
• Refers to the usefulness of the consequences of one’s action and behavior.
• When we argue that wiretapping is permissible because doing so results in
better public safety, then we are arguing in a utilitarian way.
• It is utilitarian because we argue that some individual rights can be sacrificed
for the sake of the greater happiness of the many.
Two foremost
Utilitarian
Thinkers
Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill

(1748 – 1832) (1806 – 1873 )
• Their system of ethics emphasizes the consequences of actions.
• This means that the goodness or the badness of an action is based on whether it is
useful in contributing to a specific purpose for the greatest number of people.
• Utilitarianism is consequentialist.
• This means that the moral value of actions and decisions is based solely or greatly
on the usefulness of their consequences; it is usefulness of results that determines
whether the action or behavior is good or bad.
• Not all consequentialist theories are utilitarian.
• For Bentham and Mill, utility refers to a way of understanding the results of
people’s actions.
• They are interested on whether these actions contribute or not to the total
amount of resulting happiness in the world.
• The utilitarian value pleasure and happiness; this means that the usefulness of
actions is based on its promotion of happiness.
• Bentham and Mill understand happiness as the experience of pleasure for the
greatest number of persons, even at the expense of some individual’s rights.
Principle of Utility
Two “Sovereign Maters” according to Jeremy
Bentham
Pleasure and Pain are given to us by nature to help
us determine what is good or bad and what ought to
be done and not; they fasten our choices to their
throne.
The Principle of Utility (PUI) is about our

subjection to these sovereign masters: Pleasure and
Pain.
The PUI refers to the
motivation of our actions as
guide by our avoidance of
pain and our desire for
pleasure.
It is like saying that in our
everyday actions, we do
what is pleasurable and we
don’t do what is painful.
It also refers to pleasure as good if and only if, they

produce more happiness than unhappiness. This
means that it is not enough to experience pleasure,
but to also inquire whether the things we do make us
happier.
Bentham equates happiness with pleasure.
Mill supports Bentham’s PUI
He reiterates He reiterates moral good as

happiness and consequently,
moral good as
happiness as pleasure.
happiness and
consequently, He clarifies that what makes
happiness as people happy is intended pleasure
pleasure. and what makes us unhappy is the
privation of pleasure. The things
that produce happiness and
pleasure are good, those that
produce unhappiness and pain are
bad.
Mill argues that we act and do things because we find
them pleasurable and we avoid doing things because
they are painful.
If we find our actions pleasurable, Mill explains, it

is because they are inherently pleasurable in
themselves or they eventually lead to the
promotion of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
What Bentham identified as the natural most preferability of pleasure, Mill
refers to as a theory of life.
For B and M, the pursuit for pleasure and the avoidance of pain are not only
important principles – they are the only principle of assessing an action’s
morality.
Felicific Calculus
Bentham provides a framework for evaluating pleasure and pain called Felicific Calculus.
It is a common currency framework that calculates the pleasure that some actions can produce.
In this framework, an action can be evaluated on the basis of intensity or strength of pleasure;
duration or length of the experience of pleasure; certainty, uncertainty, or the likelihood that
pleasure will occur; and propinquity, remoteness or how soon there will be pleasure.
This indicators allow us to measure pleasure and pain in an action.
When we are to evaluate our tendency to choose these actions, we need to consider 2
more dimensions:
1. Fecundity or the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the opposite kind.
2. Extent are actions being evaluated on this single scale regardless of preferences and
values.
Principle of the Greatest Number
Equating happiness with pleasure does not aim to describe the utilitarian moral
agent alone and independently from others.
This is not only about our individual pleasures, regardless of how high,
intellectual, or in other ways noble it is, but it is also about the pleasure of the
greatest number affected by the consequences of our actions.
JUSTICE AND MORAL RIGHTS
Justice
As a respect for rights directed toward society’s pursuit for the greatest
happiness of the greatest number.
Rights
Are a valid claim on society and are justified by utility.
Legal Rights
Neither inviolable nor natural, but rights are subject to some exceptions.
Moral Rights
It take precedence over legal rights. It is only justifiable by considerations of
greater overall happiness.

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Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill

The Principle of Utility (PUI) is about our

It also refers to pleasure as good if and only if, they

He reiterates He reiterates moral good as

If we find our actions pleasurable, Mill explains, it

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