5. Consequentialism

 

 

 

Teleological Ethics - Consequentialism -Act and Rule Utilitarianism

 

Introduction

You are the Mayor of a city in the Midwest. It's a humid summer, and crime is on the rise. The people are protesting a recent police killing of a young black woman. A team of government agents and local offices killed a protest while he was leaving his home; they suspected him of being a member of ANTIFA (which is nonviolent and consists of individuals who generally counter-protest fascists). Your political opponents say you are soft on crime. Your police department is categorizing protests, which are rarely violent, as crimes. The economy is picking up, but so are the crimes of robbery, assault, and murder. You see your job as trying to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Or, in this case, maximizing safety and minimizing crime. What do you do? Before you answer that question, let's take a look at Utilitarianism.

 

We will look at the Teleologically Consequentialist theory of Utilitarianism which focuses on the results or consequences of our actions. It has three main features 

1. Maximizing happiness is intrinsically good, 

2. , Utilitarianism weighs all people's pleasures impartially, 

3. Utilitarianism characterizes right acts in terms only of promoting the good and maximizing it. The two forms of utilitarianism we will look at are 

Act Utilitarianism - choose the action that produces the greatest good for the greatest number and 

Rule Utilitarianism - to live by rules that in general, are likely to lead to the greatest good for the greatest number.

 

 

Teleological Ethics and Consequentialism and Utilitarianism

Teleological theories identify what is good in states of affairs and then characterize right acts entirely in terms of that good in said "states of affairs. We term theories that focus on results, or rather systems where the morality of an action is to be judged by the consequences of that action, consequentialist, Egoism, and virtue ethics would fall into this category. We usually think of the consequentialist theory, Utilitarianism, which says that a right act is always the one whose consequences contain the maximum total pleasure possible. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that focuses on the results. Utilitarianism focuses on the results or consequences of our actions.

 

 

Teleological theories identify what is good in states of affairs             and then they characterize right acts entirely in terms of                     that good in those “states of affairs’. 

We term theories that focus on results, or rather systems where         the morality of an action is to be judged by that actions                         consequences, consequentialist, egoism and virtue ethics would         fall into this category. 

We usually think of the consequentialist theory, utilitarianism,             which says that a right act is always the one whose                             consequences contain the maximum total pleasure possible. 

Utilitarianism is a moral theory that focuses on the results. 

Utilitarianism is focuses on the results or consequences of our             actions.

The three main features of hedonistic Utilitarianism

1.    Maximizing happiness is intrinsically good

According to Thomas Hurka (2005), Hedonistic Utilitarianism has three main features:

“Utilitarianism identifies good states of affairs independently of claims about the right, so even pleasure in a wrong act, such as a sadist's pleasure in torturing, is intrinsically good; and these goods are always consequences in the ordinary sense of acts that produce them, that is, separate states that follow after the acts. Utilitarianism is grounded in the basic human need to seek pleasure. Like Kant, Utilitarian’s believed that a moral theory should apply equally to everybody, but they believed that the best way to do this was to ground it in something intuitive, like seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

 

2. Utilitarianism weighs all people's pleasures impartially

Second, in evaluating consequences, Utilitarianism weighs all people's pleasures impartially, so for any person, a stranger's pleasure counts just as much as his child's or even his own. This theory treats intentions as irrelevant. Actions should be measured in terms of the happiness or pleasure they produce. The system is altruistic. This system is not egoist; it promotes any action that promotes the greatest good for the most people; this is the principle of utility. This could mean sacrificing your pleasant to promote the pleasure of those around you. Making moral decisions with this theory means looking at all situations from the perspective of a disinterested observer. Imagine your problem as someone else’s problem. Then address that issue like you are talking to a stranger about what they should do.

 

3. Utilitarianism characterizes right acts in terms only of promoting the good and maximizing it

Finally, Utilitarianism characterizes right acts in terms only of promoting the good and, more specifically, of maximizing it, so the right action is always the one that produces the best possible." The good (value) is equal to the pleasant. The right (duty) is to gain pleasure the most.

 

Act Utilitarianism - choose the action that produces the greatest good for the greatest number.

According to Act Utilitarianism - in any situation, you should choose the action that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. This is problematic - Group Assignment -Example - Imagine if you are a doctor and you have eight individuals who badly need organs; you also have a neighbor who has all of the organs that you need; your neighbor is seen as a gross waste of space that no one would miss. What do you do? Do you murder your neighbor? So as an Act-Utilitarian, you murder your neighbor and save eight lives. Yes, you cause some pain, but your neighbor's pain is a small price to pay to end the pain of those eight people.

 

Rule Utilitarianism - to live by rules that, in general, are likely to lead to the greatest good for the greatest number

According to Rule Utilitarianism – "We ought to live by rules that in general are likely to lead to the greatest good for the greatest number. For this theory maximizing utility in the long run, is much more important than maximizing utility in the short run. Harvesting your neighbor's organs would lead to general unhappiness with people afraid of losing their organs at any time, so a rule utilitarian would not promote that. However, a rule utilitarian might be ok with this example. Only cross at the crosswalk when the walking signal comes on. Would a Rule Utilitarian be ok with the death penalty?

 

Conclusion

Now that we know, Utilitarianism focuses on the results or consequences of our actions mainly by maximizing happiness is intrinsically good as it weighs all people's pleasures impartially then characterizing right acts in terms only of promoting the good and maximizing it. 

Notes on Utilitarianism

 

1. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that focuses on the results or consequences of our actions and treats intentions as irrelevant; actions should be measured in terms of the happiness or pleasure they produce. Like Kant, the Utilitarian believes that a moral theory should apply equally to everybody. Still, they believed that the best way to do this was to ground it in something intuitive, like seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The good (value) is equal to the pleasant. This system is not egoistic. It promotes any action that promotes the greatest good for the most people; this is the principle of utility. This could mean sacrificing your pleasant to promote the pleasure of those around you. Making moral decisions with this theory means looking at all situations from the perspective of a disinterested observer - Imagine your problem as someone else's problem, then address that issue like you are talking to a strange about what they should do. This is called

 

i. "Act Utilitarianism - in any situation, you should choose the    action that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. This is a problematic example - Imagine if you are a doctor and you have eight individuals who badly need organs; you also have a neighbor who has all of the organs you need; your neighbor is seen as a gross waste of space that no one needs would miss. So as an act-utilitarianism, you murder your neighbor and save eight lives. Yes, you cause some pain, but your neighbor's pain is a small price to pay to end the pain of those eight people.

 

Another version of Utilitarianism is

 

ii. Rule Utilitarianism - "We ought to live by rules that, in general, are likely to lead to the greatest good for the greatest number. For this theory maximizing utility in the long run, is much more important than maximizing utility in the short run. Harvesting your neighbor's organs would lead to general unhappiness with people afraid of losing their organs at any time, so a rule utilitarian would not promote that; however, a rule utilitarian might be ok with this example - killing a crime family that promotes suffering and will promote suffering in the long run. a Rule Utilitarian would be totally ok with murdering all the pregnant women and children that have learned the violent ways of the crime family.