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Utilitarian Ethics: Definition and Key Concepts
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This lecture notes discusses the meaning and key concepts of Utilitarian Ethics.
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Utilitarian Ethics: Definition and Key ConceptsUtilitarianism is an ethical theory founded by Jeremy Bentham and developed and
popularized by John Stuart Mill. As the term suggests, utilitarianism is founded on the
principle of utility, which adheres to the belief that an act is good or morally right if it
promotes happiness and bad or immoral if it tends to produce pain.
The key, therefore, in utilitarianism is the principle of happiness. Hence, again, in
utilitarianism, an act is good or morally right if it produces greatest happiness to the
greatest number of people; and bad or immoral if it produces more harm or pain than
benefits or happiness to the greatest number of people. This explains why the utilitarian
would not care whether the action is done out of deception, lie or manipulation as long
as it produces maximum benefits to many people.
For example, the act of condemning a terrorist to death is morally right (that is, good)
for the utilitarian because this action produces equal benefits or greatest happiness to
the greatest number of people concerned.
Let us take the famous case of Robinhood as another example.
As is well known, Robinhood steals properties from wealthy people and give them to
the poor. From the vantage point of Christian ethics, Robinhood’s act is immoral
because it deprived the wealthy people of the right that is due them. However, from the
vantage point of utilitarianism, Robinhood’s act is morally good because it produces
maximum benefits, that is, greatest happiness, to the majority of the people.
Jeremy Bentham’s Model of Utilitarianism
How does Bentham view happiness?
For Bentham, happiness is simply the absence of pain. Bentham introduced the
“felicific” calculus to measure the degree of happiness or pleasure that a specific action
may produce. The felicific calculus is also called the utility calculus or hedonistic
calculus. It includes intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and
extent.
For Bentham, the intense (intensity) the pleasure, the better; the longer (duration) it
lasts, the better; the more certain (certainty) that it will happen, the better; the closer
(propinquity) that it will occur, the better; the greater the possibility (fecundity) that it
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