Mill's and Bentham's Utilitarianism concepts

1. WAHID ULLAH
Research-Scholar
Presentation
On
John Stuart Mill
“Utilitarianism”
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2. Presentation Overview
• Basic Utilitarianism
• Jeremy Bentham
• Background
• Utilitarianism
• John Stuart Mill
• Background
• Utilitarianism
• Comparison
• Conclusion
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3. Utilitarianism
• Introduction:
• The literal meaning “ Usefulness”.
• Utilitarianism is philosophy which tells us only those things, which
are useful and which promotes happiness.
• ‘U’ is most practical philosophy
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4. Utilitarianism (continue…)
• Focuses on actions and consequences rather than intentions
• States that we should act in a way that will benefit the largest number
of people
• So, Utilitarianism demands that individuals put aside their own
desires and ambitions and do what will benefit society as a whole
• “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the
measure of right and wrong”.
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5. A Brief Biography of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
• Born in London, England
• A child prodigy: read as a young toddler and studied Latin at age three
• Studied law at Queen’s College, Oxford, England
• Instead of practicing law, he spent his life looking for and writing
about ways in which existing laws could be improved
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6. Bentham’s Principle of Utility
• Pain and pleasure dictate how people think they should behave, and,
more importantly, how they actually do behave
• So, according to Bentham (and behavioral psychologists) people will
act in a manner that increases the likelihood of pleasure and reduces
the likelihood of pain as the result of their action(s)
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7. Jeremy Bentham
• Principle of utility: Maximize good
• “... the greatest happiness of the whole community,
ought to be the end or object of pursuit. . . . The right
and proper end of government in every political
community, is the greatest happiness of all the
individuals of which it is composed, say, in other
words, the greatest happiness of the greatest
number.”
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8. Bentham Says
• A good act increases
the balance of pleasure
over pain in the
community
• A bad act decreases it
• The best acts maximize
the balance of pleasure
over pain
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9. 1. Is Pleasure all that Matters? Hedonism
• What is Good? What is right?
• What is right is to produce as much good as possible.
• Is pleasure the only good?
• Your girl friend cheats on you but you do not find out, so it causes you
no pain. Therefore, no immoral act has been committed?
• Moreover, would you agree that her cheating was morally correct
since it produce more happiness than unhappiness?
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10. How to Measure Pleasure and Pain
What to take into account when measuring pleasure and pain:
• Intensity: strong
• Duration
• Certainty or uncertainty
• Propinquity (nearness/How soon) or remoteness
• Fecundity (productiveness)-the chance of multi pleasure
• Purity-No Pain associated
• Extent. How much people get pleasure from it.
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11. Continue….(hedonistic)
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12. In Summary, Bentham thought that,
• People are motivated by pleasure and pain-avoidance
• The amount of pleasure in the world should be increased
• Laws should increase the amount of pleasure in the community and not increase
the amount of pain
• Punishment should only be used when it was absolutely necessary and should be
proportional to the offense; he did not believe in groundless, needless,
ineffectual, or expensive punishment
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13. A Brief Biography of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• Born in London, England
• Son of James Mill, a philosopher, economist, and East India Company
official
• Educated by his father and Jeremy Bentham
• Suffered a nervous breakdown at twenty and credited his recovery to
Romantic poetry
• Member of Parliament and civil servant
• Notable idea’s: Social liberty, Harm Principal , Feminism, Contribution
in U., A book “on Liberty”.
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14. On Liberty
• The right to be an individual
• Mill was afraid that people were pressured to conform, and so he wrote this
essay that championed originality
• Limits of authorities of society (i.e. the government) over individual rights
• Mill wrote that people should be allowed to do what they pleased as long as they
were not hurting themselves or anyone else
• Mill was criticized both for the ideas in the book and because many people
thought his wife, Harriet, had too much to do with the writing of the book
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15. Mill on Liberty continue…
 Harm principle:
 The only justification for restricting liberty
is harm to others
 Self-regarding actions: sphere of liberty
 We ought to be free to do what we
please so long as we don’t violate
someone else’s rights
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16. Utilitarianism
• John Stuart Mill thought that people were reading Bentham’s theory
of utility but not fully understanding it
• He wrote Utilitarianism to defend and expand on Bentham’s theory
• Mill called Bentham’s theory of utility the “Greatest Happiness
Principle”
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17. The Greatest Happiness Principle
• “The creed(doctrine) which accepts as the foundation of morals,
Utility, or 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.”
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18. Utilitarianism (Continued)
• Mill separates pleasures into two categories: higher (i.e., friendship, knowledge,
etc.) and
lower (i.e., pleasures of the senses)
The higher pleasures were more valuable than the lower
So, an action should be evaluated not only by Bentham’s criteria (Does it produce
pleasure or pain? What is the intensity and duration?), but also by the type of
pleasure or pain an action has the potential to produce
Pleasures:
Intellectual (scientific discoveries, understanding)
Sensual (physical pleasures) Emotional (moral sentiments)
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19. Higher Intellect: Pleasure and suffering
• Mill realizes that there are pleasures that one can receive from the
higher intellect that could never be matched by the lower intellect.
• Many of these pleasures concern the moral sentiments, such as love.
• Consider the joy one can receive from the love between a parent and
their children, or between friends,
• Mill also realizes that these higher faculties can also cause more
acute(severe) suffering.
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20. Utilitarianism Continued
• Mill went on to acknowledge another criticism of Bentham’s
Utilitarianism: people are inherently selfish, so it is practically
impossible to act in an utilitarian manner, which demands that people
be selfless
• Mill wrote that most people do not always need to think about the
happiness of the entire world’s population when they act, but they
should take into consideration how their actions could effect those
around them
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21. Mill: Acts and Rules
 Act utilitarianism is right,
but act as a rule utilitarian
 Act utilitarianism tells us
what makes right acts right
 But rule utilitarianism is a
better practical test
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22. Motives, intentions, etc.
Utilitarian's treat what comes before the act as relevant, but only
because of consequences:
1. An intention(purpose) is good if it tends to lead to good actions.
2. A motive(Reason/cause) is good if it tends to lead to good intentions.
3. A character trait(QL) is good if it tends to lead to good motives.
4. A person is good if he/she tends to have good character traits.
5. A society is good if it tends to have good people.
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23. J.Bentham Vs J.S Mill
J.B
 J.B “Pleasure seeking pain avoiding”.
 U is a quantitative in nature.
 U=Sum of all Pleasure-Sum of all pains.
 U is a property or any object which tends to produced advantages,
benefits and pleasures.
 J.B says Individual Ha = Collective Ha
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24. Continue… Mill
• Claimed or Denies J.B that U can’t be measured arithmetically.
• U is qualitative can’t be M A
• Willingly bears pain (Free fighter/Martyrdom)
• Individual Pleasure < Collective P
• Senses or inferior pleasure. E.g procrastinate
• Satisfy the appetite of intelligence of an individual are superior
pleasure. Exam: reading, writing etc.
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25. Comparison
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26. Conclusion
• Bentham and Mill’s Utilitarianism stated that people should act in a
way that was the most beneficial for their community, country, etc.
• Laws should also benefit most of society
• “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the
measure of right and wrong”
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27. Are you Utilitarian are not?
Satiuation
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28. Any Q ?
THANKS
For
Listening
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