This document discusses utilitarianism and its importance and relationship to individuals. Utilitarianism is an ethical philosophy that considers the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It was developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and holds that an action is morally right if its consequences lead to happiness. The document outlines several reasons for the importance of utilitarianism, including that it aims to create happier lives, yields common sense results, does not require prior religious beliefs, and relates to observable real world actions and consequences. While utilitarianism considers the happiness of all people, in everyday life individuals need only consider the good of those involved, but thinking as a utilitarian can help develop society and countries socially and economically.

1. UTILITARIANISM: IMPORTANCE AND
RELATIONSHIP WITH US
Prepared for
Mohammad Saif Noman Khan
Assistant Professor
Course Instructor: Financial Markets and Institutions (F 602)
Prepared by
Sadman Prodhan
Batch: 48D
Roll: ZR 47
September 1, 2013
Institute of Business Administration
University of Dhaka

2. Utilitarianism
Greatest amount of goodness for the greatest number of people.
An ethical philosophy in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the society is considered the
greatest good. According to this philosophy, an action is morally right if its consequences lead to happiness
(absence of pain), and wrong if it ends in unhappiness (pain).
This approach was developed by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Its main premise
suggests that the morality of an act is determined by its consequences: people should do that which will bring the
greatest utility (which is generally understood to mean whatever the group sees as good) to the greatest number
affected by a given situation. Utilitarianism has been considered by some to be the natural ethic of a democracy
operating by simple majority without protection of individual rights, even though protecting individual rights
would maximize happiness, thus it falls under the scope of Utilitarianism to protect those rights. Utilitarians, in
coming to a conclusion about the rightness of an action, rule or principle, are forced to answer two fundamental
moral questions. These are “what is good?” and “what is right?”
Importance of Utilitarianism
 It is straightforward and based on the single principle of minimising pain and maximising pleasure and
happiness. A system which aims to create a happier life for individuals and groups is attractive.
 Given a common desire to benefit the majority of people, and a common sense of what is to their benefit,
it yields results that are in line with common sense.
 It is easy to demonstrate that Utilitarianism is fair, since its basic principles are widely accepted.
 It does not appear to require the acceptance of any prior beliefs about the nature of the world or religion,
and its moral discussions can therefore be appreciated across different religions and cultures.
 Utilitarianism is the moral side of democracy. For example it is the basis for the health care system (NHS):
care is provided to improve the health of the population and if more money is spent on the health service,
people are healthier and therefore happier.
 It relates to actions which can be observed in the real world (e.g. giving to charity promotes happiness for
poor people and is seen to be good, whereas an act of cruelty is condemned as bad).
 Its consequentialism is also a strength as when we act it is only natural to weigh up the consequences.
 Utilitarianism’s acceptance of the universal principle is essential for any ethical system. It is important to
go beyond your own personal point of view.
 Preference Utilitarianism also gives us the valuable principle of ‘standing in someone else’s shoes’ as Hare
puts it. It is important to think about others’ interests or preferences as long as one also includes behaving
justly.
Relationship with Us:
We observed that the utilitarian's standard for judging an act is the happiness of all people, not of a person alone.
Thus, a person must not value his own happiness over the happiness of others; and law and education help to
instill this generosity in us. However, this does not mean that people's motives must only be to serve the greatest
good; indeed, utilitarianism is not concerned with the motives behind an action; the morality of an action depends
on the goodness of its result only. Moreover, in most aspects of our everyday life, we will not be affecting large
numbers of other people, and thus need not consider our actions in relation to the good of all, but only to the
good of those involved. It is only the people who work in the public sphere and affect many other people who
must think about public utility on a regular basis. But being an utilitarian will help us make our society, as well as
our country, more developed both socially and economically.