For those that may be interested, here is a past paper question and answer that i just wrote on Utilitarianism, as many of you plan to do that question. My B answer is slightly longer than my A answer, so i would cut out a paragraph in my actual essay, but i left it here to be a good revision source; please point out possibilities for improvement:
Outline the important concepts of either Situation Ethics or Utilitarianism.(21)
Utilitarianism is a teleological (goal based), consequentialist ( the ‘end justifies the means’) and relativist theory that centres on the principle of utility: An action is “right if it produce as much or more of an increase in happiness of all affected by it than any other alternative action, and wrong if it does not” (Peter Singer). Being relative, the theory is not based on absolute or prescribed ethics, as in deontological ethics; this makes the theory autonomous as it provides freedom and flexibility in a situation. It is based on the idea that pleasure and happiness are intrinsically valuable and pain and suffering are intrinsically disvaluable. Jeremy Bentham conveys pain and pleasure as “The two sovereign masters, and in this system each counts for one, and none for more than one, thus promoting equality.
Jeremy Bentham through his ‘Principles of Morals and Legislation’, argued that pleasure could be calculated in a mathematical way which he calls the hedonic or felicific calculus. His theory is one of “Universal Ethical Hedonism” and seven elements are taken in to consideration – Intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent. This was developed into ‘Act Utilitarianism’ – a person’s act is morally right if an only if it produces at least as much happiness as any other act that the person could perform at that time.
John Stuart Mill developed the principle further in ‘Utilitarianism’ by talking about qualitative rather than quantitative pleasure. He argued that not all pleasures were equal and that pleasures of the mind should take precedence over physical pleasures. He famously stated that “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied: better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”. He put forward his harm principle, that citizens have within their right the privacy to do whatever they wish as long as it does no harm, which in this case shows that he values freedom and the liberty of the individual as the highest priority in his Utilitarianism. Instead of a hedonic calculus, Mill proposed that general rules should be used as guides in decision-making concerning moral actions. This developed into rule utilitarianism – the morally right action is the one that is in accordance with a moral rule whose general observance would create the most happiness. This further broke in to strong rule utilitarianism which maintains that certain rules have universal value and should always be kept, and weak rule utilitarianism which argues that there will sometimes be circumstances in which it would be better to allow exceptions.
There are other more modern variants of Utilitarianism. Karl Popper put forward Negative Utilitarianism, which argues that maximising pleasure is not as important as minimising pain; the priority is to reduce suffering in the world.
R.M Hare and Peter Singer have been proponents and developers of Preference Utilitarianism, which promotes actions that fulfil the interests (preference) of those being involved. Since what is good and right depends solely on individual preferences, there can be nothing intrinsically good or bad: for preference utilitarian’s, the source of both morality and ethics in general is subjective preference.
To what extent are these important concepts undermined by relevant criticisms? (9)
Utilitarianism has many strengths, but like all ethical theories it is subject to a plethora of weaknesses, some much more damaging than others.
The theory, being consequentialist and revolving around ‘goals’, depends on accurately predicting the long-term consequences of an action, and probable consequences do not always equal actual consequences. This is an important criticism; for one action there are usually many more than one consequence, and even if we could predict one accurately, we could not always predict the effects of our actions outside a certain propinquity, and thus Bentham’s felicific calculus is a very unreliable and usually unrewarding means of calculating pleasure.
The fact that not every action done out of good will is going to result in good consequences in my opinion is not as valid a criticism. If everyone does actions out of good will, what is intrinsically right irrelevant of the consequences, then larger pleasure will likely be brought around in the long term. Truth telling may result in more pain and grievance than a lie for example, although I think applying negative utilitarianism in this case may show that the longer that lie is kept in captivity, the more painful it will be when the truth is realised.
The theory cannot be used to decide what is universally and inherently good, and that it is too simplistic; every dilemma cannot be solved by reference to a single ethical problem, are relevant criticisms which I don’t regard as particularly effective. They are not problems with Utilitarianism, but more so ethical theories in general, but that should not mean that we should stop trying to promote the welfare and equality of people though Utilitarianism and other theories as that would be against trying to positively reinforce human well-being.
There should be consideration of both the majority and minority views, and Utilitarianism obviously stresses the majority through ‘The greatest good for the greatest number’. The rights of an individual or group can be ignored if it is not in the interests of the majority, even if their claim is fair and just, and I think this is a strong weakness of Utilitarianism that should be resolved in further updates, if not already in Rule Utilitarianism. A general rule should be that ‘The minority shows not be persecuted, frowned upon or treated badly for their beliefs if they genuinely want to bring about the creation of a more egalitarian society, and instead their beliefs should be considered and allowed to be spread’.
It is true that the theory makes no allowance for personal relationships or prima facie duties, nor does it recognise that religious believers amongst others may be willing to endure pain, humiliation or self-sacrifice for a cause they believe to be true and consider happiness not to be evidence of moral value. However, these criticisms while fair simply show the subjectivity of human nature, that not all humans can fit into one more ethical code or theory, and I think preference Utilitarianism can fit into this nicely.
Overall, Utilitarianism is growing still today and only getting stronger and more credible; no relevant criticism has yet been able to prove it redundant.