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Ethics and Values for Professionals
Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Learning Objectives:
o To explain the ethical theory of utilitarianism;
o To distinguish between the two approaches to
utilitarian ethics;
o Explain how utilitarian ethics provides support
for market economics and business policy;
o Clarify major challenges to utilitarian ethics.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Ethical Theories
(Philosophical Traditions)
Relativist Theories
Ethical Subjectivism
Cultural Relativism
Universal Theories
Utilitarian
Deontology
Virtue
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Relativist Ethical Theories:
o Maintain that truth is subjective;
o Maintain that all truth, including that about
morality, is merely a matter of opinion:
o Ethical Subjectivism: truth is a matter of
personal opinion;
o Cultural Relativism: truth is a matter of my
culture’s opinion.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Relativist Ethical Theories:
o Maintain that people create morality and that
there are no universal moral principles (no
moral truths) that apply equally to all people of
all cultures all the time.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Universalist Theories:
o Maintain that truth is objective;
o Maintain that morality is not created but rather
discovered; and
o Maintain that there are universal moral
principles (moral truths) that do apply equally
to all people of all cultures all the time.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Universalist Theories:
Different perspectives on ethical situations
Virtue Ethics
• Personal
character
• Intention
Deontology
• Duty
• Action
Utilitarianism
• Consequences
• Results
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Utility = useful. Only one thing is useful:
o Pleasure or Happiness (absence of pain)
o Happiness is good and pain is bad.
o Objective truth – true for all people of all
cultures, everywhere, all the time.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Large impact in shaping politics, economics,
and public policy.
o Traces its roots back to:
o Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
o David Hume (1711-1776)
o Adam Smith (1723-1790)
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Classic Formulations
Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832)
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Classic Re-formulation
John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873)
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Each, social philosophers, writing following the
European Enlightenment and against a
backdrop of the great democratic revolutions
o American Revolution (1765-1783)
o French Revolution (1789-1799)
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Goal is to “maximize happiness and minimize
pain for the greatest number”
o Actions are neither good nor bad, it depends on
the result – did the action maximize happiness
and minimize pain for the greatest number?
o If it did, then in that situation, that time, that
action was good.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o The emphasis on overall good directly opposed
the authoritarian policies that aimed to benefit
the political elite.
o UE supports democratic institutions and
policies.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o The underlying belief is that government and all
social institutions exist for the well-being of
all, not to further the interests of the monarch,
the nobility, or some small minority.
o Likewise, the economy is to provide the highest
standard of living for the greatest number, not
to create wealth for the privileged few.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o To achieve the greatest good for the greatest
number, J Bentham invoked his principles of
equality and impartiality.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Equality: all pleasures and all pains are equal.
o Since all pain is bad, all beings that can feel pain
(sentient beings) must be considered equally.
o Vertebrates: animals that have a back-bone /
spinal column (mammals, birds, reptiles,
amphibians, and fishes) are sentient beings.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o UE demands that when making public policy
decisions, their impact needs to put equal
emphasis on humans and other sentient beings.
o A fish is as important as a person!
o See Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarian Calculus (p.
223) for more details.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Equality: all pleasures and all pains are equal.
o The pain of animals is equal to that of a person;
o And where an action creates pleasure for some,
but pain to others, they are of the same
magnitude (i.e. +1 if pleasure, -1 if pain).
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o Impartiality: no one person’s happiness is
more important than the others’.
o Bentham’s principles (equality and
impartiality) drives the greatest good for the
greatest number, but it permits the exploitation
of minorities when the majority calls for it.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Calculus:
1. Intensity: Strength of the pleasure and pain. The
greater the pleasure, the higher the positive
values; the greater the pain, the more negative
the value.
2. Duration: Length of time the pain and pleasure
will last.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Calculus:
3. Certainty: Level of probability that the pleasure
or pain will occur.
4. Propinquity: How soon in time the pleasure or
pain will occur.
5. Fecundity: Extent to which the pleasure will
produce more pleasure.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Calculus:
6. Purity: The pleasure does not cause pain at the
same time.
7. Extent: The number of sentient beings affected
by the action.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
o John Stuart Mill agreed with much of the
foundation that JB created for UE, but disagreed
on two significant points:
a. He identified “The Tyranny of the Majority”
and placed the protection of human dignity
ahead of the pursuit of pleasure ;
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
John Stuart Mill:
b. He added a qualitative dimension to
pleasure (where JB held equality).
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
John Stuart Mill:
o To prevent the majority from victimizing the
minority, JSM invoked the principle of
non-malfeasance: no harm principle.
o Happiness is good, but the group is prohibited
creating pain to get it.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Pain:
o JB “Pain is bad, sometimes (when it does not
produce even more happiness)”; whereas
o JSM “Pain is bad, all the time.”
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Equality of Pleasure:
o JB: “All pleasures are equal”
o Quantity of pleasure; whereas
o JSM: “Some pleasures are more desirable than
others.”
o Quality of pleasure.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Quality of Pleasure:
o JSM: “It is better to be a human being
dissatisfied, than a pig satisfied; better to be
Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
o To know this is true, we must refer to those
that have experienced both physical and
intellectual pleasures.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Quality of Pleasure:
o The experienced, competent judge would
agree that social and intellectual pleasures are
better than physical.
o JSM acknowledges that not all opinions are
equal – some people are more competent than
others.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Liberal Democracy & Liberal Education:
o People need good, well-rounded education
and experience to become competent judges
and participate in social issues – making
decisions through a majority-rule democracy.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Liberal Democracy & Liberal Education:
o An educated society is best achieved by
allowing individuals (men & women)the
freedom of choice to pursue their own ends.
o Unwise decisions creates experience needed
to distinguish between good and bad, higher
and lower, pleasures.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Classical free market economics (“Laissezfaire capitalism”) – consumer demand is
sovereign.
o Transactions occur when individuals seek
their own happiness, understood as getting
what they demand.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o If they make mistakes, buying something that
does not satisfy, people will learn and stop
buying and accordingly supply & demand
adjust, eliminating unsatisfactory products.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Current day neoclassical economics
(globalization, WTO, free-trade) are rooted in
Adam Smith’s philosophies which are
described as being utilitarian.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Economies produce (supply) those goods &
services that consumers want (demand).
o Since scarcity and competition prevent
everyone from getting all they want – objective
is to optimally satisfy wants.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Allows individuals to decide for themselves
what they most want, bargain for these goods
in a free and competitive marketplace.
o End goal, is maximum satisfaction of
consumer demand.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o The most good for the greatest number when
we get as many people as possible as much of
what they want as possible.
o “Good” is defined in terms of satisfying one’s
wants.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Therefore: we should allow individuals the
freedom to bargain for themselves in an open,
free and competitive marketplace.
o Self-interested individuals will seek ways to
improve their position.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Business and Economics:
o Agreements will occur only when both parties
believe a transaction will improve their own
position.
o Competition among rational and selfinterested individuals will continuously work
to promote the greatest overall good!
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Challenges to Utilitarianism:
o Need a defensible way to measure happiness:
o JB “Utilitarian (hedonistic) Calculus”
o JSM “Expert panel”
o Economists: GDP growth
o Some speak of Gross Happiness Index
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Challenges to Utilitarianism:
o Tension between individual freedom and
overall good:
o People do not always choose to do what is
good for themselves (i.e. smoking) – JSM
o The more we define what is good, we limit
individual freedom.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Challenges to Utilitarianism:
o JB’s version “The ends justify the means” which
is not always acceptable:
o Permits the victimization of the few to
satisfy the many.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Utilitarian Ethics:
Challenges to Utilitarianism:
o JSM offers the resolve – duty to do no harm,
then to maximize happiness;
o some say this abandons UE, others note,
universal theories are not mutually
exclusive.
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Chapter Review Questions:
1. Distinguish between the approaches taken by JB
and JSM within the utilitarian tradition.
2. How are utilitarian ethics relevant to business?
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Chapter 3: Utilitarian Ethics
Chapter Review Questions:
3. What effect does expanding the range of “valued
beings” to include all sentient beings have on
business decisions?
4. Identify at least 3 major challenges to utilitarian
ethics.
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