The Prinicple Of Utility Essay Example For Students

The Prinicple Of Utility Essay Word Count: 2337The Principle of Utility A. Jeremy Bentham (1748 1832)There are two main people that talked about the principles of utility and they were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. First off Ill talk to you about Mr. Bentham. It is helpful to see Benthams moral philosophy in the context of his political philosophy, his attempt to find a rational approach to law and legislative action. He argued against natural law theory and thought that the classical theories of Plato and Aristotle as well as notions such as Kants Categorical Imperative were too outdated, confusing and/or controversial to be of much help with societys ills and a program of social reform. He adopted what he took to be a simple and scientific approach to the problems of law and morality and grounded his approach in the Principle of Utility. The Principle of Utility1. Recognizes the fundamental role of Painand Pleasure in human life. 2. Approves or disapproves of an action on thebasis of the amount of pain or pleasure broughtabout (consequences). 3.Equates the good with the pleasurableand evil with pain. 4.Asserts that pleasure and pain are capableof quantification-and hence of measure. As with the emerging theory of capitalism in the 18th and 19th Century England, we could speak of pleasure as pluses and pains as minuses. Thus the utilitarian would calculate which actions bring about more pluses over minuses. In measuring pleasure and pain, Bentham introduces the following criteria:Its intensity, duration, certainty (or uncertainty), and its nearness (or fairness). He also includes its fecundity (more or less of the same will follow) and its purity (its pleasure wont be followed by pain vice versa). In considering actions that affect numbers of people, we must also account for their extent. As a social reformer, Bentham applied this principle to the laws of England for example, those areas of the law concerning crime and punishment. An analysis of theft reveals that it not only causes harm to the victim, but also, if left unpunished, it endangers the very status of private property and the stability of society. In seeing this, the legislator should devise a punishment that is useful in deterring theft. But in matters of private morality such as sexual preference and private behavior, Bentham felt that it was not at all useful to involve the legislature. Bentham also thought that the principle of utility could apply to our treatment of animals. The question is not whether they can talk or reason, but whether they can suffer. As such, that suffering should be taken into account in our treatment of them. Here we can see a moral ground for laws that aim at the prevention of cruelty to animals (and such cruelty was often witnessed in Benthams day.) (Cavalier)John Stuart Mill (1806 1873)It is better to be a human being dissatisfied that a pig satisfied;better Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. For Mill, it is not the quantity of pleasure, but the quality of happiness. Benthams calculus is unreasonable qualities cannot be quantified (there is a distinction between higher and lower pleasures). Mills utilitarianism culminates in The Greatest Happiness Principle.(Cavalier)If I am asked what I mean by difference of quality in pleasures, or what one pleasure more valuable than another, merely as a pleasure, except its being greater in amount, there is but one possible answer. Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure. If one of the two is, by those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though knowing it to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity of the other pleasure which their nature is capable of, w e are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality so far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small account. (Cavalier) The principle of utility tells us to produce the greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness, making sure that we give equal consideration to the happiness and unhappiness of everyone who stands to be affected by our actions. The principle of utility can be applied in two different ways. The first is to apply it to individual acts. How are we to do that? Well, we might ask ourselves every time we act which of the options open to us will maximize happiness, but Mill did not recommend that procedure because it would be much too time consuming. Since we know that lying and staling and cheating will rarely maximize happiness when everyone is taken equally into account, the sensible thing to do is avoid such behavior without worrying about the principle of utility. (Barry pg.8)The learning process of Bentham and Mill was very strange and different. They expressed things in there own words that were different from the rest of us, and the way we might think about pleasure and happiness. Trying to understand where they were coming from was hard to follow and to understand. To understand the meanings of happiness and pleasure are difficult and will very from person to person. So when you think about it you try to see it from there point of view, but you can only see it from your view. You may understand there what there expressing, but your though is what counts. Beowulf - The Ideal Hero EssayMy view pointSeeing things from my point of view, Id have to agree with the argument of the Individualist view. Where each person is responsible for there own actions. They make there own decisions in life and should be responsible for them too. But in making those decisions there are consequences that you may pay for them. In our society there comes a time where we are working half the time for other people. And we have to accept that role in life. When we make money we can only spend about two0thirds of that because the rest of it is taken away for other peoples needs. That can be both good and bad, but I like to think that the money that I never see is going somewhere or to someone for a good reason. We all need help at some point in time, and I hope that after we get that help we can see that weve been helped and maybe now is a good time for me to help out someone else. Another means of money giving is to charity. Just like welfare, charity is anot her good reason for our society to help people or even groups that are in need for help or research. In our society there are many people that count on others for help. The people that need help for medical reasons or what have you deserve the right to benefit from charities or other outside donations. The one thing that our society can not do is take advantage of these actions and right them off on our taxes. We can not take advantage of the taxpayers money. We need to use our society in the best way we can ethically. Cavalier, Robert http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/CAAE/80130/part1/sect4/BenardandMill.html, 2/9/00. Barry, Vincent, Applying Ethics: A Text With Readings, Wadsworth Publishing,Belmount, 1983. Cohen, Warren, Ethics in Thought and Action, Ardsley House Publisher, New York, 1995.