“Ethics is more fundamental than law. It is more appropriate to use moral principles to test the validity of laws than to invoke laws to test the validity of moral principles” Mulligan (1990). The doctrine of utilitarianism is one such moral doctrine that underpins ethical values.
In understanding the doctrine utilitarianism, one must first understand the concepts of morals and ethics. Morals are principles or rules that people use to decide what is right or wrong; it is concerned with the social practices defining right and wrong. Although the word ‘ethics’ means “relating to one’s character”, in practice it is a narrower concept applied as the moral principles of a particular group/individual. Regent (2020:97)
Ethical theories can be viewed within different frameworks: the doctrine of utilitarianism views the rightness of an individual’s actions based on that which provides the greatest good to the greatest number of people. So, the determination of what is right or wrong action is based on the actual or probable consequences, that the action will have for the greatest number of people affected by that action. By basing the moral worth of actions solely by their consequences, an act is right if it leads to the best possible balance of good consequences over bad consequences for all the parties affected. Regent (2020:106)
Jeremy Bentham is regarded as the founder of this doctrine and he originally held the hedonistic view that the seeking of pleasure is the only good and pain is the only evil. So congruent to this, two concepts were of importance:
• pleasure and pain govern our lives, and
• pleasure makes life happier and pain makes it worse. Regent (2020:107)
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Flowing from this concept of life, actions which result in increased happiness or a decrease in pain, have a “utility”. An act that has the greater utility (net benefits) is right. Thus, utilitarianism defines ‘good’ as that which includes the concepts of pleasure and pain: an act is morally good to the extent that that it results in a greater balance of pleasure over pain (good) for the greatest number of people.
John Stuart Mill refined Bentham’s theory by classifying pleasure in terms of its quality and not merely in terms of quantity – high-order pleasures being those that are artistic or intellectual in nature versus low-order pleasures that are base human pleasures.
There are two versions of the doctrine of utilitarianism:
1. Act utilitarianism judges an action based on its consequences and argues that the morality of an action is based on an act that leads to the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Instead of using the rule to determine the consequences of an action, rules as used as guidelines to help determine ethical behavior. The act utilitarianism allows for the disobeying of a moral rule, if breaking the rule leads to the greatest good for the greatest number.
2. Rule utilitarianism judges an action based of the consequences of following a particular rule and argues that the morality of an action is based on adherence to rules designed to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Rules have a central position of importance and cannot be compromised when judging the morality of an action.
