Utilitarianism
Group 4
Alilay Dante Johnson
Mangacoy Maravilas
Polangcos Saballa Zhang
It is an ethical theory that determines
What is
right from wrong by focusing on
outcomes. It is a form of
Utilitarianism? consequentialism.
Utilitarianism holds that the most
ethical choice is the one that will
produce the greatest good for the
greatest number.
Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality
is to make life better by increasing the amount
of good things and decreasing the amount of
bad things in the world.
Origin and Nature
Origin
Origin of Utilitarianism can be traced back to
Epicureanism, which was founded by followers
of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. David Hume
and Edmund Burke could be considered proto-
Utilitarians. However, it is typically attributed to
the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham as a
specific school of thought.
Origin and Nature
Origin
Jeremy Bentham was an English
philosopher. Discovered that the only
intrinsic values in the world are suffering
and pleasures, from which he formed the
utilitarian principle: the good is that
whatever brings the greatest happiness
to the largest amount of people.
Origin and Nature
Origin
Joseph Priestley (1733 - 1804), an
English scientist, theologian, and the
founder of Unitarianism in England, is
credited with the theory's roots,
according to Bentham.
NATURE OF
UTILITARIANISM
Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical
question “What ought a man to do?” Its answer is that he ought
to act so as to produce the best consequences possible.
The utilitarian concept of consequences covers all of
the good and evil that an act produces, whether they
occur after the act has been performed or during its
performance. Some utilitarians do not consider the
choice between different acts to be a moral problem if
the difference in effects is not significant.
NATURE OF
UTILITARIANISM
Hedonists, Bentham and Mill saw happiness as a balance of
pleasure and suffering, and they felt that these feelings alone
have moral value and disvalue.
Acts should only be characterized as morally right or
evil, according to Mill, if the consequences are so
significant that a person would prefer to see the agent
compelled, rather than just convinced and encouraged,
to behave in the preferred manner.
Bentham's
Principle of
Utility
Benthams's utility
Bentham's Utilitarianism is a universal hendonism - The
highest good is the greatest happiness for the greatest
number Actions are judge as a means to an end.
What is right is that which is calculated to bring about
the greatest balance of goo over evil, where good is
defined as pleasure or happiness.
Bentham's view is described as act utilitarianism
Bentham argued that we should be guided by the
principle of utility and not by rules.
The Three Generally Accepted Axioms of Utilitarianism State
That
-Pleasure, or happiness, is the only thing that has intrinsic value.
-Actions are right if they promote happiness, and wrong if they
promote unhappiness.
-Everyone's happiness counts equally.
Business' Fascination of
Utilinarianism
According to utilitarianism, the most ethical choice is
the one that will result in the greatest good for the
largest number of people.
As such, it is the only moral framework that can justify
military force or war.
Furthermore, because of the way it accounts for
costs and benefits, utilitarianism is the most frequent
approach to corporate ethics.
Kinds of Utilitarian
Ethics in Business
Rule Act
Utilitarianism Utilitarianism
Helps the largest Makes the most
number of people ethical actions
using the fairest possible for the
methods possible. benefit of the people.
Rule
Utilitarianism
Example :
Tiered pricing for a
product or service for
distinct sorts of clients ,
where many flights are
being offered by airline
companies.
Act
Utilitarianism
Example:
When pharmaceutical
companies release drugs
that have been
governmentally approved,
but with known minor
side effects because the
drug is able to help more
people than are bothered
by the side effects.
Limitations of
Utilitarianism in Workplace
It tends to create a black-and-white
construct of morality.
Utilitarianism also cannot predict with
certainty whether the consequences of
our actions will be good or bad.
Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting
for values like justice and individual rights.
The Greatest
Happiness Principle
Mill said, "The Greatest Happiness Principle holds that
actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce
the reverse of happiness.
Some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more
valuable than others, it would be absurd that while, in
John Stuart Mill
estimating all other things, quality is not also
considered as well as quantity.
1806-1873
QUALITY OF PLEASURE
The quality of
Quality of
pleasure that A person will
pleasure
satisfies a human always choose
employs the use
is different from higher quality
of the higher
that which satisfies human pleasure.
faculties.
an animal.
Utilitarianism is a theory of morality,
which advocates actions that foster
happiness or pleasure and opposes
actions that cause unhappiness or
harm. When directed toward making
social, economic, or political
decisions, a utilitarian philosophy
would aim for the betterment of
society as a whole.
References:
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/utilitarianism
https://www.slideshare.net/MutSomoeun/utiliteriansim-
chapter-5-lecture
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/utilitarianism.asp
https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_utilitarianism.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrZl22_79Q
https://www.slideshare.net/t0nywilliams/utilitarianism-good
http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part1/sect4/Benand
Mill.html
