John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873)

Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
 

 Teleological Approach

All action is for the sake of some end and the rules of action (i.e., the standard of evaluation) must take their character and color from the end to which they are subservient

a ===>E

 

End = pleasure
Hedonism - pleasure is the highest good

Hedonism

Mill is a proponent of:
Psychological hedonism: the view that human nature is such that we in fact act for the sake of our own pleasure
- Utilitarianism is founded upon this "theory of life"
Ethical hedonism: the view that we ought to act for the sake of pleasure
- For Mill the pleasure we ought to act for is social (public) pleasure, not the individual's own (private) pleasure
Note tension between these views

"A test of right and wrong must be the means of ascertaining what is right or wrong . . . ."

"Questions of ultimate ends are not amenable to direct proof. Whatever can be proved to be good, must be so by being shown to be a means to something admitted to be good without proof."

Utilitarianism is the doctrine which states that the morality of actions is determined by their consequences and uses the principle of utility as the standard of evaluation
-  a specific form of consequentialism

The principle of utility (= Bentham’s "greatest happiness principle") is that actions are right in proportion as they promote happiness and wrong as they produce the reverse of happiness. Happiness is equated with pleasure.

Quality - the difference in kind, e.g., pleasures of the intellect, feelings, imagination, moral sentiment, sensation

Quantity - the difference in amount
 

Mill - in assessing consequences must consider BOTH quality and quantity since some kinds are of "higher value"

Bentham - all pleasures are on a par, i.e., quantitative difference alone are considered; "pushpin is as good as poetry"

 

"A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering . . . ."

". . . the being whose capacity of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied . . . ."

". . . better to be Socrates dissatisfied . . . ."

 

Judging Pleasures

It is not the agent’s own greatest happiness but the greatest amount of happiness altogether that is the standard of evaluation.

"In the golden rule . . . we read the complete spirit of the ethic of utility."

 

Implementation of Ideal

Laws and social institutions should place the interests of every individual in harmony with the interests of the whole

Moral education should establish in the mind of the individual an indissoluble association between his/her own happiness and the good of the whole

 

re: Criticism that Standard is too High

The motive has nothing to do with the morality of the action, though much to do with the worth of the agent
- Note: false argument with Kant
- Q: morality of actor vs. action

Only on those occasions when a person has the opportunity to multiply happiness on an extended scale need they consider public utility; otherwise, private utility, the interest or happiness of some few persons, is all the agent need attend to.

Act: the particular consequences of each individual action is evaluated by reference to the principle of utility

Rule: rules are established by reference to the principle of utility and then individual acts are evaluated by reference to the rules