Transcript Utilitarianism and Justice

Utilitarianism and Justice
J. J. C. Smart
Morality and Justice
Morality is generally regarded
as “doing the right thing”
Justice is regarded as “doing
the fair or just thing”
• Since the criteria for rightness and the criteria for fairness amy be
different, sometimes the moral thing to do and the just thing to do
will not be the same thing.
• Plato has an example: Imagine someone borrows a knife from a
neighbor and sometime later that friend, in an obvious murderous
rage demands that you return their knife to them. If it is fair and
just to keep promises and to give people what you owe them, then
it is just to return the knife. However if it is right or moral top
prevent great harms to others, it is moral to not return the knife.
• In cases like these it is important to determine whether morality or
justice is more important.
The Sheriff (see reading for full
description of the example)
Do Nothing
• If the sheriff does nothing, a
riot will ensue and many
people will be seriously
harmed and/or killed.
• Also, the community may
lose respect for law and
order, leading to further bad
consequences.
Hang the innocent
• If the sheriff makes a
scapegoat of the innocent
person, the crowd disperses
without further disruption.
• Also, in the community’s
eyes, the sheriff has done a
great service, and
confidence in law and order
is increased, leading to
further positive
consequences.
The problem:
• McCloskey (who provides the example in the first
place) says that this example demonstrates why
Utilitarianism doesn’t go along with justice.
• McCloskey thinks that Utilitarians would clearly
choose to hang the innocent, and that that is the
wrong decision, owing to its being so unjust.
• McCloskey adds that only J.J.C. Smart is happy
with the Utilitarian position on the Sheriff case.
Smart’s response (1)
• Smart replies that of course he isn’t happy
with deciding to hang the innocent in such
cases, but he’s even less happy with the
sheriff sitting on his/her hands and doing
nothing, to the great cost of many people.
Smart’s response (2)
• Additionally, Smart points out that when our
feelings about some particular case conflict with
a generally plausible moral theory, so much the
worse for our feelings about that particular case.
• We ought to find the best moral principles (and
he thinks Utility is it) and when some particular
feeling in some case conflicts with that, we
should do away with that feeling rather than a
whole theory which has great appeal and
evidence.
Study questions
• How would Smart respond to the critiques of
utilitarianism advanced by Williams?
• Provide a novel example of a case in which the
moral thing to do is not the same as the just
thing to do.
• Would justice ever be more important than
morality in Smart’s view? Why or why not?