malcolm

Summary of Lectures for Business Ethics

Christian Chamorro-Courtland

Utilitarianism

 Utilitarianism is an ethical theory which argues that the proper course of action is one that maximizes overall "happiness".
 Jeremy Bentham: “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”.
 Bentham is criticized for lacking a principle of fairness embodied in a conception of justice.

Jeremy Bentham

• Utilitarianism therefore contends that something is morally good to the extent that it produces a greater balance of pleasure over pain for the largest number of people involved, or, as it is popularly described, "the greatest good of the greatest number.“ The end is what matters; not the means or method which is used to achieve that end goal.
• For example – paper company cutting down trees in the rainforest. The means destroys the environment; but the end is to provide people with a final product (paper, furniture, etc.) and economic growth (sales, jobs, useful product, etc.).
• Pleasure is Bentham's ultimate standard of morality because "the greatest happiness of all those whose interest is in question . . . [is] the right and proper, and only right and proper and universally desirable, end of human action.”

Discussion: What do you think of this view? Is this a good way to determine what is right and what is wrong?

Strengths of this view - The great advantage of the hedonistic calculus is that it provides a method for talking about ethics that is open, public, objective and fair. The benefits and harms produced by actions can be identified and measured. Furthermore, while everyone's happiness counts, no one's happiness counts for more than another's.
• Utilitarianism is in many ways very democratic.

Weaknesses of this view

Cost and benefit analysis – tries to calculate the pleasure and pain caused in any given situation
• Can be cumbersome and complicated.

Deontology
The ethical doctrine