Utilitarianism: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

 Identify the principle elements of Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarianism

 Distinguish John Stuart Mill’s modification of utilitarianism from Bentham’s
original formulation of it
 Evaluate the role of utilitarianism in contemporary business

Although the ultimate aim of Aristotelian virtue ethics was eudaimonia, later
philosophers began to question this notion of happiness. If happiness consists of
leading the good life, what is good? More importantly, who decides what is good?
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1842), a progressive British philosopher and jurist of the
Enlightenment period, advocated for the rights of women, freedom of expression, the
abolition of slavery and of the death penalty, and the decriminalization of homosexuality.
He believed that the concept of good could be reduced to one simple instinct: the
search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. All human behavior could be explained
by reference to this basic instinct, which Bentham saw as the key to unlocking the
workings of the human mind. He created an ethical system based on it, called
utilitarianism. Bentham’s protégé, John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), refined Bentham’s
system by expanding it to include human rights. In so doing, Mill reworked Bentham’s
utilitarianism in some significant ways. In this section we look at both systems.

Maximizing Utility
During Bentham’s lifetime, revolutions occurred in the American colonies and in
France, producing the Bill of Rights and the Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme
(Declaration of the Rights of Man), both of which were based on liberty, equality, and
self determination. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto
in 1848. Revolutionary movements broke out that year in France, Italy, Austria, Poland,
and elsewhere.37 In addition, the Industrial Revolution transformed Great Britain and
eventually the rest of Europe from an agrarian (farm-based) society into an industrial
one, in which steam and coal increased manufacturing production dramatically,
changing the nature of work, property ownership, and family. This period also included
advances in chemistry, astronomy, navigation, human anatomy, and immunology,
among other sciences.
Given this historical context, it is understandable that Bentham used reason and
science to explain human behavior. His ethical system was an attempt to quantify
happiness and the good so they would meet the conditions of the scientific method.
Ethics had to be empirical, quantifiable, verifiable, and reproducible across time and
space. Just as science was beginning to understand the workings of cause and effect in
the body, so ethics would explain the causal relationships of the mind. Bentham
rejected religious authority and wrote a rebuttal to the Declaration of Independence in
which he railed against natural rights as “rhetorical nonsense, nonsense upon stilts.”38
Instead, the fundamental unit of human action for him was utility—solid, certain, and
factual. What is utility? Bentham’s fundamental axiom, which underlies utilitarianism,
was that all social morals and government legislation should aim for producing the
greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism, therefore,
emphasizes the consequences or ultimate purpose of an act rather than the character
of the actor, the actor’s motivation, or the particular circumstances surrounding the act.
It has these characteristics: (1) universality, because it applies to all acts of human
behavior, even those that appear to be done from altruistic motives; (2) objectivity,
meaning it operates beyond individual thought, desire, and perspective; (3) rationality,
because it is not based in metaphysics or theology; and (4) quantifiability in its reliance
on utility.39

E T H I C S A C R O S S T I M E A N D C U LT U R E S
The “Auto-Icon”
In the spirit of utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham made a seemingly bizarre request
concerning the disposition of his body after his death. He generously donated half his
estate to London University, a public university open to all and offering a secular
curriculum, unusual for the times. (It later became University College London.) Bentham
also stipulated that his body be preserved for medical instruction (Figure 2.7) and later
placed on display in what he called an “auto-icon,” or self-image. The university agreed,
and Bentham’s body has been on display ever since. Bentham wanted to show the
importance of donating one’s remains to medical science in what was also perhaps his
last act of defiance against convention. Critics insist he was merely eccentric.

Figure 2.7 At his request, Jeremy Bentham’s corpse was laid out for public dissection,
as depicted here by H.H. Pickersgill in 1832. Today, his body is on display as an “auto-
icon” at University College, London, a university he endowed with about half his estate.
His preserved head is also kept at the college, separate from the rest of the body.)
(credit: “Mortal Remains of Jeremy Bentham, 1832” by Weld Taylor and H. H.
Pickersgill/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Critical Thinking
 What do you think of Bentham’s final request? Is it the act of an eccentric or of
someone deeply committed to the truth and courageous enough to act on his
beliefs?
 Do you believe it makes sense to continue to honor Bentham’s request today?
Why is it honored?
 Do requests have to make sense? Why or why not?
Bentham was interested in reducing utility to a single index so that units of it could
be assigned a numerical and even monetary value, which could then be regulated by
law. This utility function measures in “utils” the value of a good, service, or proposed
action relative to the utilitarian principle of the greater good, that is, increasing
happiness or decreasing pain. Bentham thus created a “hedonic calculus” to measure
the utility of proposed actions according to the conditions of intensity, duration, certainty,
and the probability that a certain consequence would result.40 He intended utilitarianism
to provide a reasoned basis for making judgments of value rather than relying on
subjectivity, intuition, or opinion. The implications of such a system on law and public
policy were profound and had a direct effect on his work with the British House of
Commons, where he was commissioned by the Speaker to decide which bills would
come up for debate and vote. Utilitarianism provided a way of determining the total
amount of utility or value a proposal would produce relative to the harm or pain that
might result for society.
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory. In consequentialism, actions are
judged solely by their consequences, without regard to character, motivation, or any
understanding of good and evil and separate from their capacity to create happiness
and pleasure. Thus, in utilitarianism, it is the consequences of our actions that
determine whether those actions are right or wrong. In this way, consequentialism
differs from Aristotelian and Confucian virtue ethics, which can accommodate a range of
outcomes as long as the character of the actor is ennobled by virtue. For Bentham,
character had nothing to do with the utility of an action. Everyone sought pleasure and
avoided pain regardless of personality or morality. In fact, too much reliance on
character might obscure decision-making. Rather than making moral judgments,
utilitarianism weighed acts based on their potential to produce the most good (pleasure)
for the most people. It judged neither the good nor the people who benefitted. In
Bentham’s mind, no longer would humanity depend on inaccurate and outdated moral
codes. For him, utilitarianism reflected the reality of human relationships and was
enacted in the world through legislative action.
To illustrate the concept of consequentialism, consider the hypothetical story told
by Harvard psychologist Fiery Cushman. When a man offends two volatile brothers with
an insult, Jon wants to kill him; he shoots but misses. Matt, who intends only to scare
the man but kills him by accident, will suffer a more severe penalty than his brother in
most countries (including the United States). Applying utilitarian reasoning, can you say
which brother bears greater guilt for his behavior? Are you satisfied with this
assessment of responsibility? Why or why not?

LINK TO LEARNING
A classic utilitarian dilemma considers an out-of-control streetcar and a switch
operator’s array of bad choices. Watch the video on the streetcar thought experiment
(https://openstax.org/l/53streetcar) and consider these questions.
How would you go about making the decision about what to do? Is there a right or
wrong answer? What values and criteria would you use to make your decision about
whom to save?

Synthesizing Rights and Utility

As you might expect, utilitarianism was not without its critics. Thomas Hodgskin
(1787 1869) pointed out what he said was the “absurdity” of insisting that “the rights of
man are derived from the legislator” and not nature.42 In a similar vein, the poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) accused Bentham of mixing up morality with law.43
Others objected that utilitarianism placed human beings on the same level as animals
and turned people into utility functions. There were also complaints that it was
mechanistic, antireligious, and too impractical for most people to follow. John Stuart Mill
sought to answer these objections on behalf of his mentor but then offered a synthesis
of his own that brought natural rights together with utility, creating a new kind of
utilitarianism, one that would eventually serve to underpin neoclassical economic
principles.44 Mill’s father, James, was a contemporary and associate of Bentham’s who
made sure his son was tutored in a rigorous curriculum. According to Mill, at an early
age he learned enough Greek and Latin to read the historians Herodotus and Tacitus in
their original languages.45 His studies also included algebra, Euclidean geometry,
economics, logic, and calculus.46 His father wanted him to assume a leadership
position in Bentham’s political movement, known as the Philosophical Radicals.47
Unfortunately, the intensity and duration of Mill’s schooling—utilitarian conditions
of education—were so extreme that he suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of
twenty years. The experience left him dissatisfied with Bentham’s philosophy of utility
and social reform. As an alternative, Mill turned to Romanticism and poets like
Coleridge and Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832).48 What he ended up with,
however, was not a rejection of utilitarianism but a synthesis of utility and human rights.
Why rights? No doubt, Mill’s early life and formation had a great deal to do with his
championing of individual freedom. He believed the effort to achieve utility was
unjustified if it coerced people into doing things they did not want to do. Likewise, the
appeal to science as the arbiter of truth would prove just as futile, he believed, if it did
not temper facts with compassion. “Human nature is not a machine to be built after a
model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to
grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces
which make it a living thing,” he wrote.49 Mill was interested in humanizing Bentham’s
system by ensuring that everyone’s rights were protected, particularly the minority’s, not
because rights were God given but because that was the most direct path to truth.
Therefore, he introduced the harm principle, which states that the “only purpose
for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community,
against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is
not a sufficient warrant.” 50 To be sure, there are limitations to Mill’s version of
utilitarianism, just as there were with the original. For one, there has never been a
satisfactory definition of “harm,” and what one person finds harmful another may find
beneficial. For Mill, harm was defined as the set back of one’s interests. Thus, harm
was defined relative to an individual’s interests. But what role, if any, should society play
in defining what is harmful or in determining who is harmed by someone’s actions? For
instance, is society culpable for not intervening in cases of suicide, euthanasia, and
other self-destructive activities such as drug addiction? These issues have become part
of the public debate in recent years and most likely will continue to be as such actions
are considered in a larger social context. We may also define intervention and coercion
differently depending on where we fall on the political spectrum.
Considering the social implications of an individual action highlights another
limitation of utilitarianism, and one that perhaps makes more sense to us than it would
to Bentham and Mill, namely, that it makes no provision for emotional or cognitive harm.
If the harm is not measurable in physical terms, then it lacks significance. For example,
if a reckless driver today irresponsibly exceeds the speed limit, crashes into a concrete
abutment, and kills himself while totaling his vehicle (which he owns), utilitarianism
would hold that in the absence of physical harm to others, no one suffers except the
driver. We may not arrive at the same conclusion. Instead, we might hold that the
driver’s survivors and friends, along with society as a whole, have suffered a loss.
Arguably, all of us are diminished by the recklessness of his act.

The Role of Utilitarianism in Contemporary Business

Utilitarianism is used frequently when business leaders make critical decisions
about things like expansion, store closings, hiring, and layoffs. They do not necessarily
refer to a “utilitarian calculus,” but whenever they take stock of what is to be gained and
what might be lost in any significant decision (e.g., in a cost-benefit analysis), they make
a utilitarian determination. At the same time, one might argue that a simple cost-benefits
analysis is not a utilitarian calculus unless it includes consideration of all stakeholders
and a full accounting of externalities, worker preferences, potentially coercive actions
related to customers, or community and environmental effects.
As a practical way of measuring value, Bentham’s system also plays a role in risk
management. The utility function, or the potential for benefit or loss, can be translated
into decision-making, risk assessment, and strategic planning. Together with data
analytics, market evaluations, and financial projections, the utility function can provide
managers with a tool for measuring the viability of prospective projects. It may even give
them an opportunity to explore objections about the mechanistic and impractical nature
of utilitarianism, especially from a customer perspective.
Utilitarianism could motivate individuals within the organization to take initiative,
become more responsible, and act in ways that enhance the organization’s reputation
rather than tarnish it. Mill’s On Liberty (Figure 2.8), a short treatment of political
freedoms in tension with the power of the state, underscored the importance of
expression and free speech, which Mill saw not as one right among many but as the
foundational right, reflective of human nature, from which all others rights derive their
meaning. And therein lay the greatest utility for society and business. For Mill, the path
to utility led through truth, and the main way of arriving at truth was through a
deliberative process that encouraged individual expression and the clash of ideas.

Figure 2.8 In On Liberty (1859) (a), John Stuart Mill (b) combined utility with human
rights. He emphasized the importance of free speech for correcting error and creating
value for the individual and society. (credit a: modification of “On Liberty (first edition title
page via facsimile)” by “Yodin”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain; credit b:
modification of “John Stuart Mill by London Stereoscopic Company, c1870” by
“Scewing”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
As for Mill’s harm principle, the first question in trying to arrive at a business
decision might be, does this action harm others? If the answer is yes, we must make a
utilitarian calculation to decide whether there is still a greater good for the greatest
number. Then we must ask, who are the others we must consider? All stakeholders?
Only shareholders? What does harm entail, and who decides whether a proposed
action might be harmful? This was the reason science and debate were so important to
Mill, because the determination could not be left to public opinion or intuition. That was
how tyranny started. By introducing deliberation, Mill was able to balance utility with
freedom, which was a necessary condition for utility. Where Bentham looked to
numerical formulas for determining value, relying on the objectivity of numbers, Mill
sought value in reason and in the power of language to clarify where truth lies. The
lesson for contemporary business, especially with the rise of big data, is that we need
both numbers and reasoned principles. If we apply the Aristotelian and Confucian rule
of the mean, we see that balance of responsibility and profitability makes the difference
between sound business practices and poor ones.

script:
Good morning, everyone. Today, I'm going to introduce you to a significant philosophical
concept known as utilitarianism. This theory has played a crucial role in shaping modern
ethics, public policy, and legal frameworks.

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on

outcomes. It is a form of consequentialism. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical
choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number.

**Utilitarianism Defined**
At its core, utilitarianism is an ethical theory that proposes the best action is the one that
maximizes happiness or pleasure across the greatest number of people. It's a form of
consequentialism, meaning it focuses on the outcome or consequences of actions
rather than intentions or innate qualities of the actions themselves.

The primary objective of utilitarianism is to foster the greatest good for the greatest
number. It's a practical approach that seeks to balance benefits and harms by assessing
the overall utility of any action.

**Key Philosophers: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill**

- **Jeremy Bentham:** Often considered the founder of modern utilitarianism, Bentham
introduced a systematic way to quantify pleasure and pain. His approach, known as the
hedonic calculus, was groundbreaking. He believed that we could assign values to the
pleasure and pain resulting from our actions and thus make moral decisions based on
these calculations. His famous dictum, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number,"
encapsulates the essence of utilitarianism.

- **John Stuart Mill:** A student of Bentham, Mill further developed and refined
utilitarianism. He introduced a qualitative dimension, arguing that not all pleasures are
equal and that intellectual and moral pleasures should be valued more highly than mere
physical pleasure. Mill's utilitarianism also incorporated a strong emphasis on individual
rights, balancing personal freedoms with the general welfare of society.

**Influence and Application**

Utilitarianism has profoundly influenced various aspects of modern life. It's a
cornerstone in moral philosophy and a guiding principle in public policy and law.
Governments and organizations often use utilitarian principles to make decisions that
aim to produce the greatest benefit for the most people, especially in resource
allocation, healthcare, and ethical dilemmas.
INTRO Should Batman kill the Joker? If you were to ask the Dark Knight himself, with
his hard and fast no -killing rule, he'd say absolutely not. Actually, in fact, he would say
absolutely not. When you think about it, dude is pretty Kantian in his ethics.
Regardless of what Joker does, there are some lines that good people do not cross.
And for Batman, killing definitely falls on the wrong side of that line. But let's be real
here. Joker is never gonna stop killing.
Sure, Batman will have him thrown back in Arkham, but we all know that he's gonna get
out. He always gets out, and once he's free, he will kill again, and maim, and terrorize.
And when he does, won't a little bit of that be Batman's fault?
Batman has been in a position to kill the Joker hundreds of times. He has had the power
to save anyone from ever being a victim of the Joker again. If you have the ability to
stop a killer and you don't, are you morally pure because you didn't kill?
Or are you morally dirty because you refused to do what needs to be done? So why do I
describe Batman as Kantian? Well, the school of thought laid out by 18th century
German philosopher Emanuel Kant, now known as Kantianism, is pretty straightforward.
More precisely, it's absolute. Kantianism is all about sticking to the moral rule book.
There are never any exceptions or any excuses for violating moral rules. And our man
Batman tries his hardest to stick to his code, no matter what.
But there are other ways of looking at ethics. Like instead of focusing on the intent
behind our behavior, what if we paid more attention to the consequences? One moral
theory that does this is utilitarianism.
It focuses on the results, or consequences, of our actions, and treats intentions as
irrelevant. Good consequences equal good actions in this field. So what's a good
consequence? Modern utilitarianism was founded in the 18th century by British
philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, but the theory has philosophical
ancestors in ancient Greek thinkers such as Epicurus.
All of these guys agreed that actions should be measured in terms of the happiness or
pleasure that they produce. After all, they argued happiness is our final end. It's what we
do everything else for.
Think about it like this. Many things that you do, you do for the sake of something else.
You study to get a good grade, you work to get money. But why do you want good
grades or money? There are different answers we could give, like maybe we're seeking
affirmation for our intelligence or the approval of our parents or a degree that will give us
a career that we want, but why do we want that particular career?
Why do we want approval? We can keep asking these questions, but ultimately our
answer will bottom out in, I want what I want because I think it will make me happy.
That's what we all want. It's one of the few things everyone has in common.
And utilitarians believe that's what should drive our morality. Like Kant, utilitarians agree
that a moral theory should apply equally to everyone, but they thought the way to do
that was to ground it in something that's really intuitive, and there's really nothing more
basic than the primal desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
So it's often said that utilitarianism is a hedonistic moral theory. This means the good is
equal to the pleasant, and we ought morally to pursue pleasure and happiness and
work to avoid pain. But utilitarianism is not what you'd call an egoistic theory.
Egoism says that everyone ought morally to pursue their own good. In contrast to that,
utilitarianism is other regarding. It says that we should pursue pleasure or happiness,
not just for ourselves, but for as many sentient beings as possible.
To put it formally, we should act always so as to produce the greatest good for the
greatest number. This is known as the principle of utility. Okay, so no one's gonna argue
with a philosophy that tells them to seek pleasure.
But sometimes doing what provides the most pleasure to the most people can mean
that you have to take one for the team. It can mean sacrificing your pleasure in order to
produce more good overall. Like when it's your birthday and your family says you can
choose any restaurant you want.
The thing that would make you happiest is Thai food, but you know that that would
make the rest of your family miserable. So when you choose Chinese, which is
nobody's favorite, but everybody can make do, then you've thought like a utilitarian.
You've chosen the action that would produce the most overall happiness for the group,
even though it produced less happiness for you than other alternatives would have. The
problem is, for the most part, we're all our own biggest fans.
We each come preloaded with a bias in favor of our own interests. This isn't necessarily
a bad thing. Caring about yourself is a good way to promote survival. But where morality
is concerned, utilitarians argue, as special as you are, you are no more special than
anybody else.
So your interests count, but no more than anyone else's. Now, you might say you agree
with that. I mean, we all like to think of ourselves as being generous and selfless. But
even though I'm sure you are a totally nice person, you have to admit that things seem
way more important.
wade -ear, higher stakes, when they apply to you rather than to some stranger. So
utilitarian

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that suggests that the best action is the one that
maximizes overall happiness or well-being. In the context of business ethics, utilitarian
principles can be applied to guide decision-making and behavior. Here are some
examples of how utilitarianism might be applied in business:

1. **Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR):**

- *Example:* A company decides to invest in environmentally friendly practices, even
though it may increase production costs. The decision is based on the belief that the
overall well-being of society will be maximized by reducing the company's
environmental impact.

2. **Employee Welfare:**
- *Example:* A company provides comprehensive health and wellness programs for its
employees, even though it might lead to higher expenses. This decision is justified by
the potential increase in employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall well-being,
contributing to a happier and more motivated workforce.

3. **Product Safety and Quality:**

 - *Example:* A pharmaceutical company recalls a batch of medication voluntarily after
discovering a minor flaw that poses minimal risk. The decision is made to prevent any
potential harm to consumers, aligning with the utilitarian principle of minimizing overall
harm and maximizing well-being.

4. **Fair Labor Practices:**

- *Example:* A company chooses to pay its employees fair wages and provide
reasonable working hours, even though it might be legally acceptable to pay lower
wages or demand longer hours. The decision is made to enhance the overall happiness
and satisfaction of the workforce, contributing to a more positive work environment.

5. **Community Engagement:**
- *Example:* A corporation invests in community development projects in areas where
it operates. Although these investments may not directly contribute to short-term profits,
the company believes that fostering positive relationships with local communities will
lead to long-term benefits, including increased customer loyalty and enhanced public
image.

6. **Ethical Marketing Practices:**

- *Example:* A company decides to be transparent in its marketing and advertising,
avoiding deceptive practices. While this may result in lower short-term sales compared
to competitors using deceptive tactics, the company believes that honesty and
trustworthiness will contribute to long-term customer loyalty and overall well-being.

7. **Supply Chain Ethics:**

- *Example:* A company takes steps to ensure that its supply chain is free from
exploitative labor practices and environmental harm. The decision is motivated by the
belief that the well-being of those involved in the supply chain, as well as the
environment, contributes to overall happiness and societal welfare.

It's important to note that applying utilitarian principles in business ethics requires
careful consideration of the potential consequences of actions on all stakeholders and
an ongoing commitment to maximizing overall well-being. Additionally, critics argue that
utilitarianism can sometimes lead to ethical challenges, such as overlooking the rights of
individuals or minority groups in pursuit of the greatest overall happiness.

Explanation:
Critical thinking
Jeremy Bentham's final request for his body to be laid out for public dissection and
preserved as an "auto-icon" can be analyzed from the perspective of business ethics,
particularly focusing on the principles of autonomy, respect for individual choices, and
cultural sensitivity.

1. **Bentham’s Final Request: Eccentricity or Commitment to Truth?**

From a business ethics standpoint, Bentham's request can be viewed as a reflection
of his personal beliefs and values, which align with the principle of autonomy. Autonomy
in business ethics emphasizes respecting and supporting the right of individuals to
make their own choices. Bentham, a philosopher and a social reformer, was known for
his unconventional thinking and his dedication to utilitarian principles. His request can
be seen as an extension of these beliefs, demonstrating a deep commitment to the truth
and education. The act of donating his body to science and education aligns with
utilitarian ethics, which is about maximizing the greater good. In this light, his decision
could be seen as less about eccentricity and more about a courageous and tangible
expression of his life-long beliefs.

2. **Continuing to Honor Bentham’s Request Today**

The decision to continue honoring Bentham's request today can be supported by the
principles of honoring contractual agreements and respecting historical legacies within
an ethical business framework. Bentham's bequest to University College London (UCL)
included conditions regarding the preservation and display of his body. In a business
context, honoring such an agreement aligns with ethical practices, provided it does not
conflict with contemporary ethical standards. Additionally, the display serves
educational and historical purposes, contributing to the academic environment of UCL.
It can be seen as a form of honoring Bentham's legacy and his contributions to the
university and society at large. However, ongoing ethical evaluation is essential,
considering evolving societal norms and ethical standards regarding human remains
and their display.

3. **Do Requests Have to Make Sense?**

In business ethics, the sense or rationality of a request is not always the primary
consideration; rather, the focus is often on whether honoring the request respects the
individual's autonomy and aligns with ethical standards. Requests, especially those
related to personal beliefs or final wishes, do not always have to conform to a general
sense of rationality or normalcy. They should be respected as long as they do not
infringe upon the rights of others, violate ethical norms, or cause harm. In Bentham's
case, his request does not harm others and aligns with his personal beliefs and legacy,
making it ethically justifiable to honor it, despite it potentially being seen as
unconventional.

In summary, from a business ethics perspective, Bentham's request and its continued
observance can be justified based on respect for individual autonomy, honoring
agreements, and recognizing the educational and historical significance of such a
legacy. However, it is important to continually reassess such practices in light of
evolving ethical standards and societal norms.