Utilitarianism - Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was named the 'father' of Utilitarianism due to his rational and scientific approach to ethics. He tried to improve human life and make it more equal, shown through his invention of the panopticon design in prisons. He lived through the Industrial Revolution which was named the 'Period of Enlightenment', allowing people like Bentham to understand our world better due to science.

He too had a hedonic perspective, by understanding that pleasure is complete goodness. Pleasure and pain were the two main actions of mankind.

Bentham's theory can be divided into 3 parts:

1) Motivation - his view on what drove humans and what goodness and badness was about

2) 'The Principle of Utility' states that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong. This was Bentham's fundamental belief.
A problem with this is that saving the majority is the same mentality as genocide: getting rid of the minority to save the majority. Michael Sandel's example explores this (killing 1 person or 5 people, making yourself responsible or not by controlling the cart).
Duddeley and Stevens' case tests this. 

• Case in 19th century England
• 4 men on a shipwreck
• After days of starvation and dehydration, Duddeley and Stevens kill Parker, the 17 year old boy.
• Brooks was against this murder and so wasn't put on trial.

D + S where morally right: 

• What is moral isn't always legal, but of human necessity
• Parker gave consent
• They weren't in their proper state of mind

D + S where morally wrong:

• There is no situation that humans can take life into their own hands --> Love Your Neighbour
• They persuaded Parker to give consent
• Their lives weren't more valuable than Parker's

3) The Hedonic Calculus 

...or felicific (latin for happy) calculus is a scientific way of approaching morality. It is a way of measuring the pleasure and pain in an action, concerning the consequences, so that Act Utilitarians can make moral choices. The calculus measures seven aspects:

• 1) Intensity - If it is intense then you can distinguish it more
• 2) Duration 
• 3) Certainty/uncertainty -The probability that pleasure/pain will occur
• 4) Propinquity - How near/far the in the future the pleasure/pain is
• 5) Fecundity - The probability of the pleasure leading to other pleasures 
• 6) Purity - The probability of the pleasure leading to other pains
• 7) Extent - How many people are affected by the action? Is it the greatest good for the greatest number?

Strengths

• Intuitively Correct - Common sense shows that not all situations are identical and need different approaches
• Cultural Diversity - Takes into account that each culture operates equally and in parallel to eachother without one being considered more superior than the other
• Humanistic - Seeking to maximise human good is the basis, so it is ground in humanity and doesn't seek authority from another source
• Yard Stick - Bentham created the calculus as a method of social reform. It tests the law for its utility for humanity.
• It has the potential to justify any action

Weaknesses

• Involves subjective thinking therefore can't be applicable to every singe person
• Can be compared to Divine Command Ethics as it tells people what to do without questioning
• Ticking Bomb scenario - It is impractical to suggest that we have time to deliberate and use the calculus to every situation, especially when one does not have all the information
• Doesn't acknowledge the difference between humans and animals, making humans seem animalistic
• Doctrine of Negative Responsibility - We are responsible for the consequences of our actions. Sometimes we choose to act and sometimes we choose not to. Either way, the action will have consequences. Hannah Arendt states that the 'banality of evil', e.g. the Germans who didn't act are bigger culprits for the holocaust, explains how we are just as responsible for the foreseeable consequences that we fail to prevent as for those that we bring out directly.

Act Utilitarianism 

'The Singular Nature of Pleasure' states that all different kinds of pleasure are of equal value when they are equal in quantity. Bentham said that the "quantity of pleasure being equal, pushpin (child's game) is as good as poetry". Here Bentham focuses on everyone. He tried to reform the inequality between the aristocrats and the working class.