Transcript Bentham`s Utility Calculus

Bentham’s
Utility Calculus
Presented by Seth L. Blumberg
ENG 3060 §003
Spring/Summer 2009
A universal ethical recipe
 The utility calculus (a.k.a. felicific calculus)
claims to be a universal recipe for determining
the right thing to do in any situation.
 It takes the form of a quasi-mathematical
algorithm, with variables to which no actual
numbers can be assigned.
 Utility = f (Intensity, Duration, Certainty,
Nearness, Fecundity, Purity, Extent)
Jeremy Bentham
 Late 18th/early 19th Century
English philosopher
 Wrote about philosophy of
law and government
 One of the founders of
Utilitarianism
 Invented the utility calculus
Source: Wikimedia Commons,
painting by William Henry
Pickersgill (National Portrait
Gallery, London UK)
Utilitarianism
 Ethical system based solely on
consequences of actions
 “Greatest good for the greatest number”
 Utility = total good or evil tendency of an
action
 Bentham identified good with pleasure,
evil with pain
The utility equation
U = ∑i ∑j (Iij + Dij + Cij + Nij + Fij + Pij)
 Sum over all people (the i’s) — extent
 Sum over all kinds of pleasure/pain (the j’s)
 Six variables for each kind of pleasure or pain:
Intensity
Nearness (propinquity)
Duration
Fecundity
Certainty
Purity
 Positive for pleasure, negative for pain
Using the calculus
 No guidance on assigning exact numbers
 Must anticipate every result of every act
 “It is not to be expected that this process
should be strictly pursued previously to
every moral judgment…. It may, however,
be always kept in view”
(Bentham 1823, p. 31)
Incommensurability
 “[T]he basic human goods are all equally and
irreducibly basic; none of them is subordinated
as mere means to any of the others….
 “[T]he basic human goods are not abstract
entities but aspects of the being of persons
each of whom is distinct from and no mere
means to the well-being of any other person.”
(Finnis 1984, p. 89)
Questions?
References
Bentham, J. (1823). An introduction to the
principles of morals and legislation. 2nd ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Finnis, J. (1984). Fundamentals of ethics.
Washington, DC: Georgetown University
Press.
Pickersgill, H. W. (n. d.) Jeremy Bentham,
painting. Retrieved June 9, 2009 from
Wikimedia Commons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremy_Bentha
m_by_Henry_William_Pickersgill_detail.jpg