Understanding Utilitarianism (Understanding Movements in Modern Thought)

201 Pages·2007·1 MB·English

by  Tim Mulgan

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understanding utilitarianism
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Understanding Movements in Modern Thought
Series Editor: Jack Reynolds
This series provides short, accessible and lively introductions to the
major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the his-
tory of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment. All books in
the series are written for undergraduates meeting the subject for the
first time.
Published
Understanding Empiricism Understanding Phenomenology
Robert G. Meyers David R. Cerbone
Understanding Existentialism Understanding Poststructuralism
Jack Reynolds James Williams
Understanding Hegelianism Understanding Utilitarianism
Robert Sinnerbrink Tim Mulgan
Understanding Hermeneutics Understanding Virtue Ethics
Lawrence K. Schmidt Stan van Hooft
Forthcoming titles include
Understanding Ethics Understanding Pragmatism
Tim Chappell Axel Mueller
Understanding Feminism Understanding Psychoanalysis
Peta Bowden and Jane Mummery Joanne Faulkner
and Matthew Sharpe
Understanding German Idealism
Will Dudley Understanding Rationalism
Charlie Heunemann
Understanding Naturalism
Jack Ritchie
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understanding utilitarianism
Tim Mulgan
ACUMEN
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© Tim Mulgan, 2007
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2007 by Acumen
Acumen Publishing Limited
Stocksfield Hall
Stocksfield
NE43 7TN
www.acumenpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-84465-089-7 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-84465-090-3 (paperback)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong.
Printed and bound by Cromwell Press, Trowbridge.
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Classical utilitarianism 7
3 Proofs of utilitarianism 45
4 Well-being 61
5 Injustice and demands 93
6 Acts, rules and institutions 115
7 Consequentialism 131
8 Practicality 149
9 The future of utilitarianism 167
Questions for discussion and revision 179
Further reading 187
Index 193
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one
Introduction
What is utilitarianism?
In his brief essay Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill provides a very
succinct account of the Utility Principle.
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote hap-
piness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by
unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.
(Mill, Utilitarianism, 55)
However, this deceptively simple principle is not the whole story.
Utilitarianism is a broad tradition of philosophical and social thought,
not a single principle. The central utilitarian idea is that morality and
politics are (and should be) centrally concerned with the promotion of
happiness. While Mill’s principle is one expression of this basic idea,
there are many others. In particular, Mill’s principle focuses our atten-
tion on particular actions. As we shall see, utilitarians have often been
more interested in evaluating codes of moral rules or systems of polit-
ical institutions.
Why study utilitarianism?
If you are taking an introductory ethics course, then you will probably
be asked questions about utilitarianism. If you want to pass the course,
introduction 1
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this gives you a reason to study utilitarianism. Fortunately, there are
other – nobler – reasons to study utilitarianism. Throughout the past
two centuries, the utilitarian tradition has been very influential – not
just within philosophy, but in the more obviously practical disciplines
of politics and economics. As a result of this influence, utilitarian
assumptions and arguments abound in modern economic and polit-
ical life, especially in public policy. If we want to understand the
social world we inhabit, an understanding of the utilitarian tradition is
essential.
In introductory ethics courses, utilitarianism is often presented as a
deeply counter-intuitive theory – one which some philosophers accept
despite its lack of intuitive appeal. As we shall see in Chapter 5, there
are good reasons for this. Utilitarianism can face very severe intuitive
problems. However, the central utilitarian idea also has considerable
intuitive appeal. What could be more obvious than the thought that,
in both our daily lives and our political deliberations, we should strive
to make people’s lives go better? What else should we want – to make
people miserable?
Negative reactions to utilitarianism are often based on misunder-
standings. Jeremy Bentham gave utilitarianism a bad name. And he
knew it. Although Bentham sometimes used the name “principle of
utility”, he preferred the longer but more accurate “greatest happiness
principle”. The focus on “utility” suggests a dour, serious view, opposed
to frivolity or fun. In everyday English, to describe a building as “util-
itarian” is to say that it is merely functional. It gets the job done, but
gives no one any pleasure or enjoyment. Sometimes utilitarians have
encouraged this misunderstanding. But, properly understood, the
utilitarian tradition points in the opposite direction. Pleasure, enjoy-
ment and fun are all components of happiness. So they are all things
that utilitarians want to promote. (Indeed, as we shall see in Chapter 4,
utilitarian philosophers are often accused of being too interested in
pleasure.)
Plan of the book
Introductions to utilitarianism typically take one of two forms. Some
discuss the classical utilitarians from a purely historical perspective,
without attempting to connect their work with subsequent develop-
ments in moral philosophy. At the other extreme, problem-based
ethics courses are often entirely ahistorical, so that utilitarianism is
2 understanding utilitarianism
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presented as an abstract moral principle that miraculously emerged
from the philosophical ether. My approach lies between these two
extremes. I aim to present utilitarianism as a living tradition, as
opposed to either an outdated view of merely historical interest or an
ahistorical set of abstract principles.
Chapter 2 offers a brief history of the utilitarian tradition, show-
ing how shifts in historical context have changed the priorities of util-
itarian thinkers. We begin with a brief account of the precursors
of classical utilitarianism, contrasting the conservative theological
utilitarianism of William Paley with the radical atheism of William
Godwin. The bulk of the chapter explores the evolution of classical util-
itarianism from Bentham through J. S. Mill to Henry Sidgwick. The
aim of the chapter is to illustrate both the current relevance of the
classical utilitarians, and the extent to which their concerns differ from
our own.
Over the past two hundred years, utilitarian thinkers have offered
many justifications for their views. These are explored in Chapter 3.
One central theme is that the style of these “proofs” has often been
driven more by the prevailing philosophical orthodoxy of the time than
by any internal debate within the utilitarian tradition. As a result, the
chapter proceeds chronologically. It also includes potted summaries of
broader developments in English language philosophy over the past
two hundred years, from the early work of Bentham, through Mill’s
empiricism, the philosophical intuitionism of Sidgwick, and the mid-
twentieth-century obsession with the analysis of moral language; to
recent attempts to vindicate utilitarianism using the various methods
of contemporary philosophy. (The broader philosophical history here
deserves several books of its own. So my aim is merely to give a taste
of the relationship between moral philosophy and broader philosoph-
ical trends. Other books in the Acumen Understanding Movements in
Modern Thoughtseries provide more detail on specific movements in
modern philosophy.) We close by asking how these changes in underly-
ing philosophical emphasis have affected the content of utilitarian
morality. I argue that the shift away from attempts to construct deduc-
tive proofs of the utilitarian principle has increased the importance of
the alleged counterintuitive consequences of the utilitarian principle.
This paves the way for subsequent chapters.
Perhaps the most important question dividing utilitarians is the
definition of happiness or “well-being” or “utility” or “whatever makes
life worth living”. (The fact the utilitarians use all these different terms
– and more besides – is an indication of the complexities involved.)
introduction 3